Originally Posted by mappel70
I continue to maintain that a vast majority (if not all) of late model vehicles, when designed with no clutch, will bring more money, AND sell quicker, than their counterparts with a manual shift. I believe
this is a given, excluding a few folks who refuse to see the light, regardless of fact.
here's a quote from cars.com:
"While automatic transmissions improve resale value for all other kinds of vehicles, they're neutral overall for sports cars; manual transmissions do better in some sports cars, automatics in others. This depends, in part, on the original cost of the transmission option."
my opinion for the crossfire is that the autostick will have a slightly higher resale value in the future, but not nearly as high as the $1K difference when buying new. kbb does list the price of the auto and manual as being the same. however, other guides, such as edmunds and nada have the autostick selling for $400-700 more. who knows how accurate any of them are. consider that the ratio of autosticks/manuals is right around 60/40. it is unlikely that supply and demand will make one significantly more valuable than the other because both are plentiful.
i've given this possible explanation before, but i'll summarize it again. in the new car sports car market many are bought by middle aged people because they have more disposable income. they also tend to buy automatics for the driving ease and convenience. in the used car market younger enthusiasts can now afford the vehicle and many of them want the manual. a while back i owned a used corvette with a manual. only around 30% of corvettes were produced with the manual for that year. even though the auto was priced as an option in that car, it was the manual that was in short supply in the secondary market. it had a resale value several hundred dollars higher than the auto.
if someone prefers the manual and it meets their driving needs they should get it and hopefully spend a few $ less. if another person likes the auto and it suits their needs, they should spend a few $ more and get it and maybe even make up the difference some day in fuel savings.