More Popular, Manual or Auto?

[beatboy77]

What do you feel is more desirable to the DMC-12 crowd, a Manual or Auto? Why?

Josh

[Andrew]

From a macro perspective, manual DeLoreans tend to be more desirable for a number of reasons including:

More responsive performance;
More of a sports car feel;
A more interactive driving experience between the car and the driver.

I know of a few owners who have sold their automatics to purchase a 5 speed. In contrast, I've seen very few examples of the opposite.

The automatics also had a troublesome computer control system; however, I hear far less complaints about those in more recent years.

Obviously automatics do have some advantages. If you do a lot of stop-and-go driving in heavy traffic, an automatic can be nice. Also for those who don't know how to drive a stick shift car and have no desire to learn, an automatic is the obvious choice.

[eight8toy]

^ Agreed. Inevitably every time I'm accelerating hard to merge on the freeway and I throw it into 5th gear I usually say "Let's see if those bastards can do 90!" Except I'm usually only going 60 and no one is chasing me lol.

Manual all the way!

[David T]

^ Agreed. Inevitably every time I'm accelerating hard to merge on the freeway and I throw it into 5th gear I usually say "Let's see if those bastards can do 90!" Except I'm usually only going 60 and no one is chasing me lol.

Manual all the way!

While the 5-speed is the more common and desirable choice, it doesn't seem to affect the value. They each have their pluses and minuses. All of the problems for each have their own fixes, the automatic often being more expensive to fix than the 5-speed.

[Michael]

The most important is get what YOU want and don't worry about other's preferences.

[Jonathan]

The most important is get what YOU want and don't worry about other's preferences.

Yes, this ^

Mods, please close this thread as we've reached a conclusion.

[AugustneverEnds]

When I would dream about getting a D I always assumed I would only be interested in a manual. When I began seriously considering buying one I was still not even considering an automatic. Then I test drove 10287 and did a complete turn around; I was not disappointed at all, much more pleasantly surprised that the car was still very entertaining and relaxed to drive. It's been nearly 5 years with an auto and I am still very happy. I have had the governor rebuilt and replaced the filter and pan gasket and that has been it.

[Lwanmtr]

While I havent driven a manual..the 4 miles I drove in my automatic was quite nice (aside of all the creaking and wheel falling off)...hehe.

[Iznodmad]

"Historically" a manual has been more "popular". There was a point in time where it was being reported that build cars from DMCH were being ordered almost exclusively as autos. Different strokes for different folks. I've got one of each with an extra side of manual. My best advice for anyone is get the best overall car you can afford no matter trans or interior color or year or whatever. That is, unless price is no object of course. I'm pretty sure there are multiple threads similar to this one if you dig deep enough.

[Delorean Industries]

We only build manual gearbox cars for what it's worth. Also stopped producing stainless frame sections for auto cars. They leak in ways that require massive work to fix, can't take serious power without massive modifications and take away more than they give in general.