What Cars Still Offer Manual Transmissions?

[ScotsSkier]

James, the RS Cosworth was a great car tat the time. The purity of the Mk2 was it was the last of the "real" RWD escorts and a bit more compact compared to the FWD ones.

 

[wooglin]

Missed it by a mere 4 years. Bummer.

https://utah.buysellsearch.com/view/vehicles/cars/120677951/r%2Fvehicles%2Fcars%2Fmk-volkswagen%2Fml-thing

 

[Ogg]

1989 Ford Escort GT
View attachment 136544
Cheap, fun, pretty classic at this point. Sold in the US. Sadly the Euro Escorts would be a project to obtain unless your really into it. (Afaik, feds don’t care about cars greater than 25yrs old.)

Wouldn’t surprise me if you got a good one for say $4k and had it for 3-4 years that you could sell it for more. Not including maintenance, but maybe. (But I haven’t looked into current prices)

The US spec escorts were pretty much complete crap, even the GT. I knew a couple of people with them and my father had one for a delivery vehicle. It was even worse than the Dodge Omni it replaced.
ETA: I just remembered I learned to drive a manual in my friend's '82.

 

[Philpug]

Just don't let Oscar near it.

 

[scott43]

The US spec escorts were pretty much complete crap, even the GT. I knew a couple of people with them and my father had one for a delivery vehicle. It was even worse than the Dodge Omni it replaced.
ETA: I just remembered I learned to drive a manual in my friend's '82.

I beat a 93 Escort GT for four or five years. It weren't a complete pile. The drivetrain and suspension were Mazda parts and the engine and gearbox were gems. The suspension was well sorted if somewhat cheap. The interior bits were Ford and not terrible, if not spectacular. It was also among the cheapest cars you could buy in those days. No complaints here.

 

[Ogg]

I beat a 93 Escort GT for four or five years. It weren't a complete pile. The drivetrain and suspension were Mazda parts and the engine and gearbox were gems. The suspension was well sorted if somewhat cheap. The interior bits were Ford and not terrible, if not spectacular. It was also among the cheapest cars you could buy in those days. No complaints here.

Yeah I think it was based on 323 mechanicals but the 323 was better put together and you could get an awd turbo 323.

 

[scott43]

Yeah I think it was based on 323 mechanicals but the 323 was better put together and you could get an awd turbo 323.

Ford definitely got the better deal with that partnership!

 

[Ogg]

Ford definitely got the better deal with that partnership!

I think that may be the case with every partnership between a US and Japanese brand. My wife almost bought a 92-93 MX6. We were both quite impressed on the test drive. We went to check out the Probe that it shared a platform and drivetrain with and there was no comparison. We ended up just keeping our Subaru Loyale AWD turbo because the Mazda wasn’t nice enough to justify the price without AWD.

 

[Bill Talbot]

I've never owned a car that was not a manual trans. And unlike many of you 'car daters', I'm only interested in long term relationships!
I've only owned seven cars since I was 15. Three of them were lost to the iron oxide god and returned to earth. The other four I still own. Three driven regularly, one resting.
I have had them 46, 31, 30 and 12 years respectively.

 

[Philpug]

I've never owned a car that was not a manual trans. And unlike many of you 'car daters', I'm only interested in long term relationships!
I've only owned seven cars since I was 15. Three of them were lost to the iron oxide god and returned to earth. The other four I still own. Three driven regularly, one resting.
I have had them 46, 31, 30 and 12 years respectively.

Bill, you have to admit, you are not the prototype for any marketing demographic.

 

[AmyPJ]

Just don't let Oscar near it.

Gah, that's horrible! The noise would scare Oscar anyway.

 

[cantunamunch]

I think that may be the case with every partnership between a US and Japanese brand.

One of the interesting points that has been made relative to the current supply crisis is that no JP company, not even Toyota, can afford to make cars the way US companies do. They simply don't make enough units and don't have enough economies of scale. So they have to create production processes that don't semi-automate human work but rather separate human and robotic work altogether.

 

[Bill Talbot]

I'll bump this thread with this!

 

[mdf]

I'll check in with a note that I got a Subaru Crosstrek with 6-speed manual a couple of months ago and I really like it. It drives a lot better than the 5-speed Subaru Impreza it replaced.

It gets great gas mileage too ... though not during the first week before I remembered to put it in 6th!

 

[Bill Miles]

I'll check in with a note that I got a Subaru Crosstrek with 6-speed manual a couple of months ago and I really like it. It drives a lot better than the 5-speed Subaru Impreza it replaced.

It gets great gas mileage too ... though not during the first week before I remembered to put it in 6th!

I drove my stepson's diesel truck once. It didn't have a shift pattern on the knob and I drove it a hundred miles or so thinking the revs were pretty high for a diesel before I figured out it had a fifth gear.

 

[newfydog]

 

[Ogg]

View attachment 153994

Better to know up front. I watched the valet at a wedding stalled my old Impreza as soon as he got into it.

 

[Ken_R]

View attachment 153994

In a few decades people will not know how to park or even drive. Computers get smarter people get dumber. At some point in the curve computers will be crap as well since there wont be enough smart people to keep them running.

 

[James]

I had my roommate once burn out my clutch in one day when I let him borrow the car.

 

[applecart]

I did that in the 80s; we were told by an old grizzled tow-truck driver that we "dropped the tranny"
Being silly college students, we thought that was hilarious.