Quote Originally Posted by AlliRae View Post
the major factor in this is what are you wanting to do with the car?

race it? daily drive it? what?

In general :

Automatics are much more costly to fix that manuals. If one thing goes wrong with it - it will usually take out many more parts in the transmission. IE torque converter locks up in a tahoe trans (4L60) takes out sunshell, electronics, seals, etc. Cost of parts 500+clutches and steels (add another 150 at least) for a minor rebuild + labor...

manuals - clutch goes out/slipping. Okay so between 150-500 for a clutch and then labor to put it in. Not saying that other parts might not be messed up - but this is just with normal wear.

These are all just in general. Yes if you want to go racing with the car, you should know that things are just gonna break more often. You start pushing you car to more limits you are going to start finding them - and that usually involves breaking more parts, no matter what part of the car. High HP neon without motor mounts = axles. High HP camaro = transmission/ torque arm/ you name it.
Alli wins.

Everything in this conversations comes down to how you drive, where you drive and why you drive.

If you are peeling out, racing around town, in traffic all the time. Your manual is going to make you hate life. See it doesn't just boil down to the transmissions. You got to think what that manual makes you do. It's like a woman that won't give it up. it makes you do things y ou wouldn't normally do...such as, but not limited too. Spinning tires, revving high, speed shifting and whatever else you do to impress yourself and others. So with a Manual you will also have the added expense of clutches, tires, axles, syncros and whatnot. Plus, do a daily grind over and over up and down the connector to work and back and your manual will become the devil quickly.

Automatics on the other hand, usually keep you from boiling tires because let's face it, underpowered cars with automatics are not exciting to watch chug up the road trying to lay drag. Most folks would rather watch 2 men hump than be subjected that that. So that keeps your other bits of maintenance down.

But, set an Auto on a bench, and a manual on a bench and go through them to replace everything, you will spend more money on an Automatic. Depending on how you drive, you may spend more in the log run on the Manual.