Stick!

Previous Vehicles: '91 Suzuki Sidekick 4x4 5-Spd. (I learned to drivewith this.) '80 Civic 1300DXHatch 5-Spd. (Sadly, sitting in garage collecting dust with blown head gasket.)
Current Car: '97 Civic DX Coupe 5-Spd. Lovin' the new car! 1st car with (just) over 100hp, and no rust!

Not only are sticks way more fun and better on gas than mostautos, but they're also cheaper, easier to maintain and fix, and way more durable.

The best example of a sweet car being ruined by an auto I can think of right now is my grandpa's Toyota Matrix XRS. Its got the 180hp Celica GT-S motor in it, but its bolted to a useless 4 speed auto. Mash on the gas, and the car plods slowly up through 1st gear until it hits the VVTL-i at around 6500 or so, at which point it screams up to the 9000rpm redline, hits the shift point, and dropsit wayback down to a crawl at around 5000 or so. At least Toyota realised how crappy it was and now they only make the XRS with a 6 speed manual.

 

own auto, but I really would prefer stick. i know how to drive stick, but I just don't have it.[:@]

 

In the Civic, you WANT a 5 speed gearbox. The 4AT may only need one upshift to get ot 60 MPH, but in doing that you sacrifice the powerband.

This is what it's like to have the Auto. You wind it up through gear 1 at 35 it shifts into gear 2 and drops out of the powerband, bogs, then it hits the powerband and stretches the gear from 55 to 60 until you hit gear 3 which is fortunately in the powerband, and you need it because it takes a while to wind it up and through the afterpart where it stretches the gear again into gear 4 at which you are bookin', but the engine can't put the power down through the auto tranny and you slowly make it on your way to 100 MPH.

In the 5 speed gearbox, it is better. You wind it up quick through gear 1 at 30 pop into gear 2 wind it up to 45 pop into gear 3 wind it up to 65 pop into gear 4 and keep the gas down, now that you are running out of power but not really because into gear 5 to use every last ounce of power into 100 MPH!

The 5 speed is faster, obviously, because it has a shorter paragraph.

 

For the record, my auto tops out at about 45 in first gear.

 

Yeah my manual does too and I HAVE A 5th GEAR!!

Learned how to drive on auto, two weeks later learned manual, got license with auto, drive manual will I drive auto again? In a 2 hour long traffic jam yes

 

stick all the cars i own are a stick.
97 honda civic ex

 

I wish I had a stick...but im all auto[>:]...i learned to drive a stick a year after I had my car but that doesn't help

 

In places like Italy automatic are for people who are disabled hahah .. Nah i think people who are more about looks then performance should have a stick automatic and people who are performance over appearance should have a Stick Shift

 

i bought my car not knowing how to drive a stick. Practiced in my yard every day until i can work a stick better than peter north. I'll only have an auto if I'm driving a truck

 

i got a stick. dont think i can ever go back to driving auto, manuals are so much more fun.