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Old 08-12-2012, 11:55 PM   #13 (permalink)
War_Wagon
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Spunky - '90 Honda Civic CX
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The 95% automatics for the "general" population seems a bit high, if only because there are a lot of people out there driving older cars, and older cars have a higher chance of being standard. I remember reading an article years ago (sorry, I can't source it) that said the military in the USA was switching to automatics for the simple reason that the majority of the new recruits couldn't drive standard! So, let me get this straight, you can teach someone how to use an automatic firearm, or to survive in the wilderness with no supplies, but teaching them how to use the 3rd pedal is too hard?

In the 1990s when I used to buy and sell a lot of muscle cars, a 4 speed car always brought a premium. After all, if there were 3 '71 Demons for sale, and 2 were automatics, you'd go look at the 4 speed car first. Then when stick cars got too hard to find, people started converting autos to sticks. I think that ecomodding friendly cars will end up in a similar situation. The majority of people today won't want to buy a used car with a manual transmission, so they will end up getting scrapped as they get too old to be worth anything. I like my Civic station wagons, but up here they are hard to find in general, and even harder to find with a 5 speed. A few weeks ago I spent 6 hours on a return trip to go pick up a beat up wagon with an automatic and a lot of miles on it, simply because I can see the pattern repeating itself. It was cheap, wasn't rusted out, and while at the moment it wouldn't be worth converting to a standard, 5 years from now when gasoline is at $$$ who knows a gallon, I might need a reliable vehicle with a lot of room in it that gets great mileage. A rusted out Civic CX hatchback parts car with a 5 speed will be dirt cheap, and a 5 speed swap will actually make sense in terms of operating costs.

Just my 2 cents, but as someone that owns 2 first gen Insights, and a first gen Prius, the whole comparison to the death of the muscle car in the '70s due to the gas crunch makes perfect sense, only in reverse. High gas prices killed the hemi 'Cuda and the SS 396 Nova, and high gas prices will also create a demand for cheap cars that no one paid attention to 5 years ago that get decent mileage.
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