Are MT really that rare 1/40?

 

Thanks for all of the replies! I'm leaning more towards a manual though from what I've heard. I found a nice 2005 TL 6-speed with 37k miles on it for $15,900. Does this seem reasonable? Thanks!

 

I just bought my 06 with 25k on it for 23,500 and full warranty
Make sure you get a carfax if you are getting it from the dealer, if its a personal seller, id request the carfax again and see if they'll pay for it, as well as check to see if they have all the service receipts that they had done on the car.

 

Sounds low...? Run it through KBB and also get a Carfax on it (if/when you get serious about it)...

 

Manual............

 

i love my manual,i got an 04 plus its rare

 

My Manual keeps me awake, especially after a long night of heavy drinking

J/K!

 

Like the Nav/No-nav thread, this is another endless debate but it's Monday so here's my $0.02

I have a 2005 6MT TL and love it, the clutch feel is semi-vague but in 39K miles I've gotten the hang of it. I always love driving a manual (doen't even bother me even in stop and go traffic) for being part of the driving experience, the 6Mt is also a great gearbox. So if you like manuals get the 6MT.

 

Oh and for the % of manual builds, orignially Acura estimated that 15% of the production 3G TL's built would be 6MT (this was from the hondanews.com website from 2003). Not sure if it ever reached that number, but it sounds similar to the BMW's 5-series MT % manual production numbers. I see alot of 3G TL's in MD, but only every so often do I see a 6MT so maybe in the Baltimore/DC area the vast majority are 5AT.

 

def. wish i'd gotten the 6!

 

Agreed thats really cheap. My dad just got an 05 tsx for that and the tsx had 70,000. Make sure the carfax is clean and have someone do an inspection if you're really serious. I got my 99 tl super cheap and found out they had an unreported accident when my front bumper had no vin and the headlights were only a year old

 

I have a 04 MT6. Todays I tied a Automatic TL and it feeled real good. I must agree that the luxury side of the TL is not making the automatic version bad at all. I have been suprised by the way the transmission shifter gear and how sporty it feeled for an automatic transmission.

But, im a manual transmission lover and the 6MT is simply control and feeling... In final its all about taste and I think Acura did a awesome car in both flavor !!

 

auto.......the mpg thing is a not a big deal.......The 08 TL i have now as a loaner is averaging 29mpg mixed driving...........

 

If you are young and think you are speed racer get the mt. Like the Navi you will sell it faster and for a higher price if it is an auto. You limit the people to those who like mt and if you look at what Acura is selling there are only 1 mt buyer out of 40.

 

Cant agree more
1 - from what Ive seen only those who cant drive stick complain.
2 - you havent seen traffic till you seen it in NY. LA traffic is more of slowing down to 40mph. NY comes to a complete stop.

ROCK THE STICK!

 

I guarantee you that if you go looking at used TL's, with all things being equal besides transmission, the MT will be cheaper than the auto. There's a reason why MT's are rare, very few people want them and the residual value is lower.

 

Depends on the car, back when I was looking at used 2G Legend's, the 5MT owners in the Baltimore/DC area were typically asking higher prices than comparible 4AT. The owners of the 2G Legend GS's with the 6MT were asking even more than the GS 4AT's!

I suspect that there are plenty of 6MT 3G TL's to go around so there will not be as high a demand, but I doubt I'll suffer any price when selling. For a sporty sedan, there's always a buyer who wants a manual even though most want the automatics.

 

That sounds unreasonably cheap and I would be suspicious. I received my car tax bill from Fairfax County last week. They always assess the cars at less than what you would normally expect to get if you sell them or trade them in, and they assessed my 2004 TL at just over $19,000. (The assessment does not reflect mileage—I have about 49,300—or transmission—I have 6MT, which might mildly hurt resale value in the DC area.)

I agree with the people who say it's all a matter of personal taste what you get. Every car I've ever owned has been a manual-shift car and I drive in DC traffic every day, so I don't much understand gripes about driving a 6MT in traffic. But I feel that since a car purchase is a big expenditure, you should get whatever makes you happy.

 

Driven manual in every car:
- 2001 BMW 330
- 2002 VW GTI
- 2006 VW Jetta GLI

My TL I just got is auto.. Maybe I'm getting older, but I love being able to sit back and relax on a drive. The stupid boy racer crap doesn't appeal to me anymore.

One thing I do miss is the ability to control the car with MT, especially in winter. All in all, however, no regrets with the AT

 

^ I bought this car to cruise comfortably in...and seldom drive it hard aside from some offramps on occasion. The 6MT is a turn off to me in a car like this. If Im gonna shift a car its going to be something that I intend to drive hard from the getgo, not likely to be a luxury car.....But then again, after shifting a 13 speed Peterbilt in Boston traffic all day the LAST thing I want to do is shift my car when I get in it.

If you want to shift your car, buy a stick, if you dont....dont. to each his own

 

WOW, so much animosity over a personal preference thing! You guys need to be a tad less emotional over this, it's something you either like or don't and that's where it ends.

That being said, and at the risk of sounding 'stupid', 'juvenile', 'crazy'....
I've been driving for nearly 40 years. In all that time I owned probably 50 cars. Of those, only 2 have had auto trans (one was a Jaguar, the other a Caddy STS). I have to say that I too thought I was ready to sit back, relax and enjoy the ride. And for a few weeks I did just that. Then I got bored, sold those cars and opted for brand new vehicles with MT to replace them. It felt like I had retired while driving them, so I guess I just haven't gotten wise yet or grown up...but I still love MT driving. I have no issue with it in even the worst traffic, have had far lower repair bills (never blew or even wore out a clutch), and I don't get bored with my cars as quickly. AND I don't stomp my break pedal searching for the missing clutch!

One other thing...I have never taken a bad trade-in or private sale price on any of my MT cars. I keep them in near show-room condition and always get the same or higher as AT trades on the same lots. I get nothing but complements, and the salesmen always say they welcome an MT car of this caliber to sell because they have a lot of requests for them.

 

6MT FTW.

 

You noticed that, too? It is a personal choice and I am like you. I have owned one automatic for my own personal driving machine and knew as long as I had full use of my lower limbs, I was not about to own another. But that's me.. and apparently you as well.

Some people on this thread have equated owning and driving a manual with being a boy racer which from a few tends to imply that those of us who prefer a manual are somehow immature or childish. Kinda silly, don't you think?

And then there are others who seem to believe that if you own a manual that you are just itching to play stop light drag racer every chance you get. Like the transmission somehow has a hold on you and dictates your driving habits (there are some who think the same about guns, but that's off topic). This reminds me of the countless number of people who have asked the question, "why do you need all of that power?" when I get into discussions about performance machinery. Well if you have to explain something like this to someone, frankly they're just not going to buy your explanation anyway and certainly are not going to understand your proclivity towards cars that are more than washing machines.

To win an argument or to advance one's cause, people sometimes resort to emotional diatribe and even drivel in an effort to sell their position. The OP was merely trying to get input from people.. their opinions and perhaps some facts. I doubt if emotional blather was part of his desired response.

 

I was thinking about this and how to word it. There are more AT cars and more requests for AT cars, therefore there are a bunch and lots of demand, so the prices are all that high I would imagine. There are less MT cars and less demand, but I would guess they demand a premium on the price seeing it may be a long time before you come across another, so resale may be tougher, but you'll get more $.

No regrets on my part. After 6 days with an 5AT, it was so nice go get into my MT.

 

OK, can we return to the thread?

What made you purchase Auto or Manual?

The question is not asking, why your choice is better than the rest... Ok.

I'm personally mixed, I went w/Auto, my dealer told me to wait a few weeks for MT in WDP, I couldn't, and I travel long traffic infested distances, so I went with Auto.. When I'm upstate, or even in NYC when the roads are open, I fume inside for not having a stick, but that fume passes on fast when I hit a sea of red lights. So I do enjoy Auto, but sometimes I feel like kicking myself.

 

For me, the answer is pretty simple. Boredom. For a strictly utilitarian vehicle, such as my truck, it wouldn't matter. Even though my Ranger is a manual, if it was an automatic, I wouldn't care. But for my own personal driving machine (by this, I mean a car that gives me pleasure and with which, getting from point A to point B is far removed from the joy of driving), I must continue to be entertained. An automatic just will not do this for me, regardless of how good the suspension is or how much horsepower and torque the engine can deliver. An automatic transmission just does not entertain me.

A manual, a good one, for me is pure joy to operate. With it, I become more closely attached and aligned with the car. Even the best automatics cannot match this precision and pleasure. And finally, operating a manual transmission for me is as natural as breathing. It's what I do and what I expect to do when driving my car.

 

SB! I kept thinking the same thing reading those posts. "He enjoys driving manual ergo he must be a boy racer..."

 

I bought a 6MT and love it. This is clearly a personal choice, but the 6MT does come with some tangible benefits, such as the stiffer suspension, bigger front brakes, and LSD. I think most would agree that if you can drive a stick and driving one doesn't annoy you...probably choose the manual.

 

Auto here:
-I live in a heavily congested area
-manuals, no matter how slight, are still another distraction to deal with, especially when juggling things in your hand.
-In the rare event that somebody else needs to drive my car I want them to be able to drive it if its an emergency, or not fuck it up because they dont drive manuals frequently.
-resale value
-Situations where I may injure a foot or a hand, which would only allow me to drive an auto (i've been in 2 of these situations)
-when i first bought the car, I was worried I would not be able to hear the engine to determine when to shift lol.

 

My answer is as simple as "I never considered getting the 5AT." I did test-drive one, but I told the salesman that I would not consider buying from them if I couldn't also test-drive a 6MT. I just don't enjoy driving automatic-shift cars.

 

Godi,

Took a long time for some one to mention this.

I am a 51 year old kid who hasn't owned a car fo nearly 20 years. I only purchased one because driving my trucks was getting too expensive for commuting. Gas milage was my justification for buying a car but I didn't want some boring uninspired vehicle. The TL was the best compromise I could find. The six speed was the only way for me.

 

^ My TL-S is far from boring, but thank you

 

Tek,

I didn't mean to imply that any TL was boring. Although now that you mention it, an auto is boring by comparison. My point was that I didn't want to compromise too much. Beemers were too much money and not enough MPG. Also, Beemers were hard to find with MT. The smaller stuff with MPG's in the 30+ range didn't do it for me. The TL was the best combo of Luxury, performance and style for my money. The MT was the icing on the cake.

 

TL-S AT:

Traffic time - "D" mode
Fun time - "M" mode, controling with the stick.

It is not the same as Manual, but I get the most options to choose from. TL is the car where you can drive "relaxed" or "spirited" way. Sometimes it is pleasure to drive just to "drive" and sometimes it is fun to have better "momentum" on the road. That is my opinion, but everybody has choices. Each of us is a unique collection of thoughts, by which we create a particular choice. We have a market of different products, that allows us to judge them our own way.

Enjoy driving with whatever you chose !!!

 

auto for one reason above all others........

I can put my right hand on my wife's leg..........lol

 

When I had an integra and early in a relationip, I was able to coordinate steering, stepping on the clutch shifting and grabbing a breast.

After a while, the car matters a little bit more and the breast can wait.

 

Cute reply...hate to tell you this, but even at my age (must come with years of experience) I have never passed an opportunity for thigh-groping or skirt-hiking in all my years of driving MT either. Once in a while ya gotta let go for a second, but that's so brief she hardly misses my touch...

So gotta say that shoots your answer in the foot.

 

ha! blasphmy.......

commandment #11 Thou shall never let go of thy wife's leg to shift your car.....lol.....

 

As I'm sure you know the only 08 that was offered with the 6MT was the Type-S. I test drove the TL-S 6 MT and the base + navigation. I bought the TL to be a luxury car first, sports car second, and the base auto had a definitively smoother and quieter ride, so I went with that. Further, auto is smoother for passengers to ride in as well, and in my line of work when I drive executives around that is definitely more appropriate.

My opinion is that manual is for sports cars (speed, control of the vehicle), auto is for luxury (ride quality and class). A Corvette, a Porsche, an Elise... those are meant to be a manual (that they even offer them in auto is crime). A 7 series, a high end Lexus, a Bentley, those are meant to be auto's. The TL is definitely on the edge of sports and luxury so I can see why people go the manual route. But for me auto is the way to go.

And for what it's worth, 4 of the 7 cars I've owned have been manual.

 

I think that with the TL, you can drive smoothly with stick if you try just a little. I've driven many people in my car and they have all been surprised after the ride that the car was not auto. I'm not trying to toot my own horn...I just think the TL was designed that way.

Of course Auto is smother than stick, but its not uncomfortably head jerking unless you try very hard.