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I won't buy a car, no matter how good, unless it has a manual shift, manual clutch transmission. My heart sank when I heard the 2010 Insight would only be available with a CVT. Driving a stick keeps me thinking about what's going on under the hood, and that mindset keeps me focused on efficient driving.
Even so, I voted CVT in the poll. No, I can't name a car that gets better mileage with a CVT than with a manual, but it *ought* to be possible to build a CVT to accomplish this. The CVT would just have to be tuned for maximum FE, that's all.
The 1993 Subaru Justy gets 28/33 with the 5sp, 28/32 with the CVT. Surely lower resistance CVTs have been made since then.
Interestingly, 2009 Toyotas with the 5AT do just as well as with the 5MT, and 2009 Hondas with the automatic actually deliver +1mpg vs the manual. Of course, the $1000 premium you pay for a 5AT would buy a lot of fuel.
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