Bubba wrote:

> However, stick-shift may, in time, become an annoying burden if you do a
> lot of in-town driving. Stick-shift will also make the car very difficult
> to sell (for you or a dealer) come trade-in time. In a recent survey
> barely 10% of the driving public claimed to know how to drive a stick. Of
> the 90% who didn't, only 3% expressed they "might be interested in
> learning someday".

Certainly the pleasures of driving a manual transmission vehicle are
lost on the majority of the US population, but so what? It is true that
the conventional market resale value of manual transmission cars is low,
but whether or not that matters depends upon the intentions of the new
car buyer. If you are a buy-it-new, the run it forever person this is
not a consideration at all. Also, ebay is a great way to sell a manual
transmission car as it is a way to reach the passionate minority which
likes to shift for itself.


>
> To & from school and to & from work or the supermarket is one thing.
> Earning your living behind the wheel (sales calls, service calls,
> deliveries, investigative work, etc.,) or an unusually active lifestyle
> and you may someday start to dread driving the thing.

I have put hundreds of thousands of miles on manual and automatic
transmission cars, and personally prefer to shift for myself anytime.

There is also the fact that modern Honda automatic transmissions are
trouble prone. The odds of getting 200,000 or more miles out of a
stick shift are much higher than are the odds of doing so with an automatic.

Fuel economy and performance are also superior with manual transmission.


>
> Good choice of cars.
> Bad choice of transmission.

I disagree.


> I'd strongly recommend the automatic.
>

I guess that makes you one of the crowd.

John