Gyroscopic Investing

Fun fact: The 5-year-old kid in Utah who recently jumped in his parents’ car and started driving interstate to buy a Lamborghini before being pulled over by a cop wouldn’t have been able to do that if his parents’ car had a manual tranny.

All of my cars, except one I inherited, have been manuals. I'm not really a car guy; I'm hoping my current car (which is on the list) lasts for many years to come. I'm a big econo-box guy, and it's good to see my kind of vehicle is well represented on the list the list had a big slice of the vehicles I was considering when I bought my car a couple years ago:

• Chevy Spark
• Honda Civic
• Honda Fit
• Hyundai Accent
• Mazda 3
• Mitsubishi Mirage
• Nissan Versa
• Toyota Corolla
• Toyota Yaris

Good to see that there will be plenty of used manuals to choose from if electric vehicles don't pan out.

I prefer manual transmission. My first MT was a 1991 Toyota MR2, bought new. When I married my wife she had a 1993 (I think) Nissan Altima that was also MT and a pretty nice car, overall. Quite some time later I bought a 2008 (I think) Mazda RX-8, brand new. That was so much fun to drive, but horrible on gas. I only had that for a couple of years, if that. Since selling that, I've had the same car (a 2002 Lexus SC430 automatic trans) but have missed having a MT.

I've thought about buying a Scion FR-S/Toyota 86/Subaru BRZ. One problem, though, is that I live in a small well-to-do town where the cops have nothing else to do other than to hide out looking for speeders. I actually don't have a desire to drive super-fast and I don't care if a car has a really fast 0-60 time. I care more about the handling. Still, the cops in my town (and, I suspect, many others) make it more difficult to enjoy a sports car these days.

Kriegsspiel wrote: ↑Wed May 06, 2020 6:04 pm I'm a big econo-box guy,

I pictured you on a motorcycle.

I'm keeping my eye on craigslist's motorcycle section.

dualstow wrote: ↑Wed May 06, 2020 6:57 pm

Kriegsspiel wrote: ↑Wed May 06, 2020 6:04 pm I'm a big econo-box guy,

I pictured you on a motorcycle.

The visibility is probably lacking, but the armor and pike make up for it.

Kriegsspiel wrote: ↑Wed May 06, 2020 6:04 pm All of my cars, except one I inherited, have been manuals. I'm not really a car guy; I'm hoping my current car (which is on the list) lasts for many years to come. I'm a big econo-box guy, and it's good to see my kind of vehicle is well represented on the list the list had a big slice of the vehicles I was considering when I bought my car a couple years ago:

• Chevy Spark
• Honda Civic
• Honda Fit
• Hyundai Accent
• Mazda 3
• Mitsubishi Mirage
• Nissan Versa
• Toyota Corolla
• Toyota Yaris

Good to see that there will be plenty of used manuals to choose from if electric vehicles don't pan out.

Just saw that the Fit and Yaris being discontinued. The updated list looks like this as far as current econoboxes goes:

• Chevy Spark
• Honda Civic
• Mazda 3
• Mitsubishi Mirage
• Toyota Corolla

I am even suspect about leaving the Mazda 3 on there at $24,000. The Spark is a real hero at $14,000, but I don't know much about the quality.

Mazda Miata isn't too expensive and it certainly still comes with a stick. In fact it would be a crying shame to see one with an automatic transmission.