"TheTruthAboutCars" - 3rd owner volvos and selling manual transmission cars

Post by **smacknab** » 04 Aug 2020, 08:24

https://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/2020/ ... nsmission/

https://www.autoweek.com/car-life/diy/a ... bably-not/

I'm just curious about others take on some of the points made. The first is the blog post I was reading, the second is a link he included about how hard it is to sell a manual car.

From my experience buying a 200k mile 99 s70 with way too much deferred maintenance to list, I can agree with the fact that depressed resale values can get these cars into hands without the money, time or stubborn hubris to properly maintain the car. It seems to be an accepted truth in the Volvo community that the second or third owner of most of our cars drive them into the ground until an expensive enough problem pops up where they junk them.

The part I might disagree with is about difficulty selling manuals. There's alot of writing about how a manual might have a lower resale value because of the smaller pool of buyers. But from my experience looking for my own car, and helping a cousin who also wanted a stick, is that alot of manual cars are the same price or higher than their automatic counterpart. The Autoweek article is 4-5 years old so I'm not sure things have changed.

But yeah anyway, if anyone finds this interesting I'd be curious to hear others experience buying/selling manuals.

Post by **abscate** » 04 Aug 2020, 09:21

Perfect summary at the bottom

Only sell cars like this to people with Ph.D.s

I tried to sell Elizabeth in 2013 for $2500. I had one call from a guy who came to see it. He then took my start price and started to deduct needed repairs. I picked up the ball and we got to that I owed him $1500 to take my car.

So what do you really want for it?

$2500

A week later he calls and offers the 2500.

During that week I had found this website that taught me my T5 HPT M56 wagon in Nautic Blue was coveted, and now.....you know,,,,,,

The rest of the story.

Post by **kallekula** » 04 Aug 2020, 10:52

No experience with selling or buying manuals in the US. But, I think most young people look for a manual. More "race" feeling? I myself was like that as young. I never understood why my parents always bought automatic cars. Now I'm the same. I could never go back to driving a stick. It would kill my leg in california gridlock traffic. Also I'm way too comfortable nowadays.
I also think a lot of people can't drive a stick shift. When I was young and got my DL in Europe, it was mandatory that the driver's test was done with a manual shift car. These days I heard u can take the test driving an automatic but it will say so on your license and you are not allowed to drive a stick shifted car by law.

Post by **volvolugnut** » 04 Aug 2020, 18:27

After reading both articles, I see why some people claim a manual transmission is a great anti theft device. Personally, I learned to drive a manual transmission on a tractor before I was legal to drive a vehicle on the road. On old tractors, you generally came to a full stop to shift. They did not have synchronizers. Most shifts required some grinding of gears to fit.
volvolugnut

Post by **kallekula** » 08 Aug 2020, 11:36

volvolugnut wrote: ↑04 Aug 2020, 18:27 After reading both articles, I see why some people claim a manual transmission is a great anti theft device. Personally, I learned to drive a manual transmission on a tractor before I was legal to drive a vehicle on the road. On old tractors, you generally came to a full stop to shift. They did not have synchronizers. Most shifts required some grinding of gears to fit.
volvolugnut

My dad taught me in his 164. I thought it was terribly hard in the beginning and second gear always came with spinning rear wheels

We always kept to small dirt roads by our summerhouse with very limited traffic. An occasional tractor, milk truck or something was the only traffic to worry about. Good times.

Post by **smacknab** » 08 Aug 2020, 11:52

I had learned a few times but I had a friend give me a thorough lesson before I left to visit my wife's family in Greece, figuring if anyone had a car we could borrow it would likely be a manual. We ended up renting a car and they only had a manual available so it worked out. We went over alot of old mountain passes near her village and it made me really enjoy driving for probably the first time. When I got home I bought my 99 s70 because it had a stick (and I has also got put through the wringer by a Ford dealership for some repairs and wanted to learn how to fix my own car).

Anyway so I'd pay a little bit more for a used car with a manual transmission, and it seems to me any car with a enthusiast community seems to value a manual in similar ways. That said these cars financial value doesn't match the emotional value put on them so idk what resale would be like, if I ever had to sell it

Post by **abscate** » 30 Aug 2020, 04:31

Mrs Dr Abscate took six aunts/nieces to Italy for two weeks Girls Gone Wild-Derci and the had rented two mid size at 1.2mthe price of a minivan. Turned up at the rental place and no cars except for manuals. She haggled and got them to rent her the minivan , which no one else would rent because it was a diesel stick

Her first manual was my 65 VW which had no clutch return spring , you had to pull it back with string. She came back from a drive in hilly Ithaca and said “ I ran out of feet”

33 years this year!