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Can an 2001 Auto EX Coupe beat an coupe Manual LX?...or is it a drivers race?

 
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stick all the way...i will never go back to auto. i had one for a year and all it did was put me to sleep

 
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Well, finally getting the hang of heel-toe, left-footing is still a lil jerky. I love that it'll be cheaper to service my tranny and the control I have over my gears. Only regret is sitting in traffic - manual tranny is a pain in the a$$ when it's stop-and-go.

 
Rep Power: 380

It took me 3 months of pratice on the street to get Left foot braing to the point where it was helping me on track rather then scaring the crap outta me. Now, when I autocross I pretty much left foot brake exclusivly (As long as I dont have to down shift in the turn).

 
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People say that your not a "real man" until u drive a stick. I guess thats quite hipocritcal of me since I drive an auto
, but in the city traffic I'd take an auto over a stick anyday.

 
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auto is great in LA traffic. stick is funner though. =(

 
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got a stick and love driving it. it gives u something do do.

 
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dear lord, this is the longest thread ive ever seen on this subject....

Stick is fun, ill give it that, but all this BS about REAL MEN drive stick is just retarded. The next time you see someone driving an E55 AMG with the hotest woman EVER riding shotgun, you can think to yourself how much more of a MAN you are driving a stickshift Civic. See, when you put it in that light, it just doesnt seem all that factual does it?

I bought an auto cause traffic sucks here in austin, I can drive a stick just fine, but its rediculous to try and get that "extra little bit of speed" out of a civic; auto or manual they are still slow, so if thats some of you guys basis for buying a stick, just know your still driving a slow car!

Also, to whomever commented about automatics being the most unreliable part of a car, think about this: at some point you will replace your clutch, and youll probably do it 3 times while you own the car if you drive it hard. Also, synchros get chewed up over time and you start to grind. The reality of the situation is, neither really costs more to take care of in the lon, long run. Fluid and filer changes every 30K miles are peanuts compared to the labor (either paying someone else or doing it yourself) of changing a clutch, plus the clutch is $200, whereas the fluid and filter are about $60. When you look at it as your replacing your clutch every 100K miles on a stick, OR, your replacing the fluid every 30K miles on an auto, in 200K miles: 2 clutch jobs = $400, and 6 fluid changes = $360, so really neither is more expensive than the other.

 
Rep Power: 274

Show me an auto tranny that has lasted 200K miles and will perform the same as a stick tranny at that point. ESPECIALLY if the driver drives hard, the clutch plates et al inside an auto will be worn to the bone at 200k, so in addition to the fluid changes, you will probably have to either rebuild the torque converter at some point or replace the tranny. The point is that in a stick, the "wearing" part is the clutch and possibly the synchros (But if they get notchy its still driveable). with an auto, everything is wearing down inside that one expensive complex unit.

Not to mention that you can push start a stick if your battery dies, and the fact that engine electrical problems will kill even the best auto tranny (Witness all the ppl here who have done ground blocks and found that their auto shifts faster). I still say stick.

With that said, I live in LA / san diego / orange county. stick is a cast iron bitch in traffic, so I don't fault people with autos. I just have had a bad experience with my driving style and autos, so I'm going stick.

 
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When I got my civic, I got it with a standard. I am so used to driving them now that I honestly dont think about the shifting anymore, even in terrible traffic. Its just not an issue. It might be a slow car in the 1/4 but it can rock some "fast cars" in the corners. Thats where the ability to shift comes in real handy. Left foot isnt that hard. Took me a while to get going fast enough that it mattered but once it became important I had it down in about an hour. Heel toe took about two days of practice to get right. The civic is so much easier to heel toe than so many other cars I have looked at. The pedals seem to be in just the right place. If I get really crazy with this littel car and decide to get something four door and "responsible" I might get an auto. Honda autos are pretty good and for just farting around in an accord or something it could be ok. Any trucks or jeeps or pretty much anything else, I'll be driving standard. no manumatic crap either, three pedals and a shifter.

 
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ive seen many chrysler 727 tourqeflights that have lasted well into the 200K mile range on just fluid an filter changes, and Ive seen quite a few honda trannys do it as well, as long as your good with maintenence, auto trannys will last a good long time. Our family bought a corrola automatic in 1983, and besides one recal for a shifter linkage item or something, we put 235K miles on that car before we sold it, and all we ever did was routine maintenence, and that car still drove great when we sold it.

 
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How heavy on the gas was the driver? I'm curious, as it's been a while since I've heard an auto tranny go that long, although I grant that routine maintenance on trannys is something a lot of people overlook.

The two V6 camry trans I had (A540E's) were victims of MY right foot. One of them died when the overdrive crapped out after runs from SD to OC at about 90 mph, and it took the rest of the trans with it. The other one was the result of the tranny fluid cooler hose bursting at highway speeds, and the tranny running dry before I could figure out what the hell happened. :-( Keep in mind also that I got the car used with 110K on it, and from what I understand the previous owner ddn't do very much if any maintenance on it.

 
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ah I see, we were really nice to that corolla, and the one or two guys I know that have honda autos are light on them too. Im sure at the rate im going,my tranny will be on its way out at the 150K mark, Im not incredibly hard on my car by driving fast, but I do drive alot of curvy roads with it shifting alot, but I plan on maintaining it as best as I can.

 
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<----stick much more faster, hate uphills and traffic, but manual makes me more organized and safer, no answering phone calls on celly, and also i can read when there is gonna be traffic and where.

 
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manual. my last 2 cars were autos and both needed to have the trannys rebuilt around 120k even tho i did routine fluid/filter changes. i put alot of miles on a car in a year and didn't want to have to deal with that again. buying an auto coupe is just wrong, anyway. i don't want a computer telling me what gear i should be in.

i had an ex auto sedan as a loaner car. it was such a tease...if you gave it some gas, you could hear the vtec kick in but then it would shift right away.

 
Rep Power: 319

Buahahahah.... I got both (kinda). My daily car I drive is an '03 EX manual and I got my g/f an '04 EX auto. I drive them both often, and believe me the auto sucks big time. When I would normally just give it some gas and get it going, I have to floor the auto, make it down shift, and then wait for the torque converter to lock, then go. Auto's belong in old cars that make enough torque they have to have an auto just to stay on the road.

Be a real friend, don't let friends drive auto's

 
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^^you must drive like a maniac to make a comment like that
Ive never seen a situation on a public road where you NEED to floor a civic...
trust me, there are FAR slower cars to drive than an auto EX, try an automatic Hyundai accent, or a toyota echo. My first car took 13 seconds to get to 60 mph, no joke, and that car was easily gotten up to any speed you needed it too, so I really dont see the point of needing to floor a civic to get going.

 
Rep Power: 319

lol.... well, there are a lot of slow people that seem to think 45 means 35. So I pass these slow people when the chance arises, and when the chance comes I don't like to be sitting in on coming traffic lane for to long. I have no problem if people want to go the speed limit or even a little under, but 10 even 20 under the speed limit at time is at tad annoying

 
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well, I certainly agree with you there! thats got to be the most annoying thing to deal with, especially when you are trying to get somewhere in a hurry.

 
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I have a auto, didnt know how to drive stick when I purchased the car... punk friends didnt want to teach me. I regreted it when I learned how to drive stick. The only time that I was happy I had a auto was when I was lost in San Francisco and was sitting at a stop sign on Hyde Street looking up hill at about a 45degree angle. I still rolled back 3 or 4 feet before I started going forward.

I also Have a ZC powered 90 Civic Hatchback 5-Speed... So now I dont regret the the new car at all, any time I want to just cruise and have some power steering I just jump in the 02 coupe.

Dammm this thread was started almost a year ago!!!

 
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^yup!..same here.Both manual and auto civs are slow so I really don't care now.

 
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I have and enjoy manual. One of my main reasons for getting a manual was the thought that manual transmissions & clutch would be cheaper to replace than an automatic transmission. Am I right?

*just noticed the previous page...

 
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On the subject of maintance and repair...

My dad has an accord with 220K miles and has changed the fluid 2 times now (he bought it with 23K), not a problem with it, shifts nice for that many miles. On the other hand, that's a F22 tranny, not a D17 tranny. The civic trannies, particuarlly the 7thgen ones are far weaker then the accord ones. Drive an auto accord and stick, there isn't alot of difference like there is with the civic's, my point is you really can't compare other cars models much less brands when it comes to trannies.

 
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depends... you driving for fun or to be fast?

the auto is all about your converter torque multiplication > *

you won't find someone who can shift a stick as quick as an auto can .... for a true racer, an auto is the way to go...

<- sad i got the 6spd

 
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Manual's in my opinion have so many more plus's to them.

Cheaper in the begining and in the long run. there about 800 dollars less new. Cheaper to fix if they ever need to be repaired.

Better gas milage.

More fun. More control. People give more respect to you if you can drive one. Some jobs in this world require that you can drive stick. Some of the fastest and nicest cars are manual.

The only down side would be rush hour. But anyone who buys a manual taht has rush hour traffic on a weekly or daily basis is a dumbass. Hills are only bad for beginners. After a couple months you dont even notice hills and you only roll back about an inch or two.

I will prob always own at least one stick.

 
Rep Power: 319

Please do show me a stock auto that will out shift me (well at least a Honda any way). Sure an auto is best for quarter mile and drag racing, but those are BUILT auto's. They have shortened gearing, modified LSD, shift kits, and converters set for that particualar engine's power curve. Sure if you have an auto with all this stuff you will out shift me, but chances are if you've done all that, you have a full out race car. And at that point, it what ever the driver wants. My grandmother's X always liked manuals, and his name is Don Garletts. If you don't know who he is, then you know little about true drag racing.

 
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i'm sorry.. all i heard was 'blah blah blah'...

any stock auto WILL auto shift any stock stick... period

oh and i know a *little* about racing

 
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only thing i don't like is the fact my auto is a 4 speed and the manual is a 5 speed... I wish my auto had 5 speeds... i would be happier... ratio's aren't very tight especially when you take 2nd all the way up then when it shifts to third you feel a real drop off in power and acceleration... sort of a lag till it hits a more Peak RPM range...

 
Rep Power: 319

I have both an auto and a manual Civic. And I can tell you for sure the manual will kill the auto in any performance test. A better contest would be the 5 speed manual Accord agianst the 5 speed auto Accord. First of all accord autos have a tighter torque convter than civics. Second the Five gears means they have a simialar gearing ratios. When I was buying my car, I test drove both accords with a 4 banger. They where close in acceleration, but since the dealer wouldn't let me take them to the track, I really couldn't make a for sure decision.

And I was all about drag racing untill I twisted the frame, broke the drive shaft and crakced the windshield on my Camaro (it ran a 10.8 in the 1320 with street tires). Then I found lateral G's are just as fun as forward G's, but to each person our own likes and dislikes.

 
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i dont get why auto's are better than manuals in the shifting....its all about the gearing ratio's unless u have developed some sort of gear system in which u have like 20 gears, an 4speed auto will not beat a 4 speed manual...
i have an auto sedan and its pretty good, since i'm in traffic, but i dont ever want 2 go up against an accord....auto or not, accord always wins!!!




*can some of u post ur mpg on the sivic sedans yall own...i want to compare my 04 sedan to them!!!
*lol, sry im taking 2 long, but does neone out there know if the custom CAI's or short ram or v2's are better than the stock intake/filter