Ah ok, yes I can understand these practices implemented by mods to reduce clutter of forums from new members like myself, I would have posted something about a manual transmission preference in the other thread but thought it was such a tangent that I’d rather make a new topic. As in I was also, and am also thinking about leasing cars with automatic transmissions via 3rd party banks; the whole manual question was, in my mind, a sufficiently separate consideration.
Is there a way to see the previous responses to the other thread ? The one about the 3rd party banks and lease transfer options
All the responses were merged too and are here in this thread.
Manuals are fun… but they can get old very quickly especially if you drive through daily heavy/stop-go traffic, or when/if there are health issues (bad knees, arms). Friend of mine had his arm in a cast and it was torturous for a couple of months.
It’s also much smaller target audience when you’re looking to sell the car.
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OTOH: Those same people also have fewer choices to buy.
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Someone was suggestion a Kia Forte manual lease in another thread. I can’t remember which one. Check if the numbers are attractive.
I would rent a manual first if you can. The beater idea is good as you will wear out the transmission I am told if you are a heavy shifter. I tried driving a manual a few times years ago. I was able to do it but there is a learning curve, especially if you live anyplace hilly. Could not imagine driving it in LA or NY traffic. Might be good on a spare car. My impression is VWs will sometimes come that way or try TrueCar and configure the car the way you want and see what comes up
As for transferring it, to be guaranteed that right you would have to have it written into the lease contract, the same as the residual buyout is written in. In my experience, especially with Honda, the end of lease return is amazing and I would have to have an incentive to go with another financer. Mostly people go to non captives because they can get a better price. Up until now, before the whole selling the equity in your lease happened, no one went to a finance company because they thought they could get a better deal on the non money aspects of leasing!
why you should never buy a used civic type r with 3000miles
Similar thoughts here. Having a m/t BMW was fun however the novelty when living in Atlanta at the time quickly wore off. Also had a broken wrist / cast for a little while which only made it more annoying.
Beaters still exist in this crazy used car market. I’m seeing sub $2,500 manual cars on my local CL.
Leasing is a big financial and time commitment. Whatever exit strategies you think you might have… could be gone tomorrow.
I really appreciate everyone’s input. Here’s what I’ve thought and where I am with the car search.
I took a good amount of time looking into the manual beater / cheap used manual option, I can’t say I would be willing to drive a real beater under 3.5k or so but there are two options I found that I could consider. The first is priced still above what would be financially safe ‘beater’ territory, at $7.5k OTD - a 2006 Ford Mustang, Deluxe, with 96k miles. Red exterior. I might be able to negotiate it down $300-700. I’m willing to pay double ‘beater’ price for it because I’ve never had a true muscle or even full sports car and Mustang does qualify for that; moreso, being a Mustang, finding parts for repair/maintenance shouldn’t be an issue as much or as expensive. From what I gather they tend to be fairly reliable. As a second option, I found a local individual selling their white 2012 Volkswagen CC manual with just over 100k miles on it for $3.5k. Looks like he’s having a hard time selling it with several weeks on the market so I might be able to knock it down a bit in price too; The interior of the car is quite nice and exterior is not ugly, so that all pleases me but what really has me far from this option is maintenance cost, and reliability of these VWs I hear is not fun, especially around the and after the 100k mark. Both vehicles seem to be 1 owner and I haven’t been able to get the VW carfax yet but the Mustang autocheck scores very well at like 76, above average.
Putting that ‘beater manual’ option aside, I really can’t seem to find a good deal to lease a manual - I went to a kia dealership, the quotes, monthly, were not good. So, if I were to lease, I’ve been developing two options, one is a Mazda CX-30 for 24 months/12k with effective monthly abt $290, which is pretty good, another is Lexus NX250h for 36 months /10k with effective monthly abt $360, but I think it could go down even more - will update quote on Lexus vehicle soon. Note that, as I’m holding out for, both options allow lease transfers and also lease-end buyout options and I think even early lease buyout. Mazda does most of its leasing/financial through toyota /lexus financial and as such follows same terms from what a broker from LH marketplace told me.
Thoughts on these options?
Edit: further reasoning of mine for the ford mustang option is, as mentioned in previous replies, selling a used manual transmission car esp. beater can be quite a hassle, but in my reasoning less so with this car being as that it is a sports car with even some collector’s clout about it, the 5th generation (which the 2006 model is) does fairly well for value retention from what I gather once it reaches this point / value of depreciation under abt $7K. So in other words, another car enthusiast in a couple years on a budget may be still interested in a high mileage red 2006 ford mustang deluxe manual to buy from me.
I hear ya, must not be fun to drive manuals in traffic, and I do get quite a lot living in Miami. I also live in a household with 2 other cars, automatic, which I have some regular access to / are shared. If its for a short period, like till this market returns to normal in a year or two, do you think that would make it less of a concern?
I tend not to spend my time driving in the car distracted with phone, calls or otherwise, I genuinely like to spend the time blasting music and driving enthusiastically even as much as I can in traffic haha. & when I’m time-organized, which I wanna say is most weeks, I schedule my commutes to avoid rush hour traffic.
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2004 350z $20,000
a 17yr old fast car? No one will want that. Repairs are $$$$
Never drove stick before and got a 3 series manual 6 years ago, leased one again 3 years ago and probably going to buy this one in im in now in a few weeks.
Never driven one? Suggest you do, you may have this glorious idea and could be super disappointed. Driven manuals all my life (license on manual etc). but here in the us you pay a premium for that (exact opposite from Europe).
You cannot drive fast here, nor is it comfortable in traffic, nor when you use cruise a lot.
If you have enough HP/torque it can be fun since you can leave it 5/6th and still drive in traffic and use cruise decently, but getting any of the new cars you mentioned…why?
In addition you may want to factor in that if youre not good and let your clutch slip a lot etc that could be another $$$ even during the lease or something to fix to get rid of it…
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You can lease a manual if it comes under the 1% rule but I would not pay 1.5% or more just because it is a manual.
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Translation. Do not overpay just because manual. If anything should be cheaper.
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I drive one right now & there definitely some days where i wish I had an automatic. But still love my 6MT Taco
Drive a cheap beater (3.5k) CC, see if you like it & then if you do, may be when market improves you can get a good deal may be CT5 V black wing