The List: 5 Masterful Manual Transmissions

I have driven several new cars with pretty good manuals. The Chevy Cruze has a surprisingly good manual, one I could easily live with.

At the bottom of the manual heap is the six speed manual in the Subaru Legacy and Outback. Sure, it's nice that Subaru even offers sticks in their larger cars, and that those models can be optioned with power seat, sunroof, etc. But the manual transimission is beyond poorly done. So it makes no sense that Subaru would develop a new transmission that is crappy. And, with EPA numbers of 19/27, you can't even fool yourself into putting up with the tranny because it gets good gas mileage.

Heck, the 3.6 liter 6 cylinder models get 18/25 and another 86 hp. Hard to understand what Subaru was thinking. If they are saying that they don't want to put sticks in their big cars, they could have stuck a monkey wrench in the five speed manual and not spent any money on a six speed.

Thankfully, the new Impreza retains the five speed manual-- but I am crossing my fingers anyway.

I would've expected a Honda to be on there.

I really like the manual trans in the 2012 Ford Focus SE Sport. Good solid feel and quick action allows you to take advantage of the 2.0L DI 4cyl. The only problem is you can't get the manual in the upper level Focus models. This manual deserves better than that!

Drove a manual BMW M3 the other day. Bloody awful. The clutch was the real problem. Really hard to tell when it was going to grab. When it did, there was no play. Glad to see it's not on your list.

yeah, Honda has to be included for something. i really loved the STI's shift action although mine was a JDM one so it had better gearing... it was perfection with a JDM STi engine in fact... add to that the power holding capability. US spec gets all funky to try to match the US spec engine and just ruins it.

"I would've expected a Honda to be on there."

Honda of yesterday would have been in there.

This is at the top of the list???

http://jalopnik.com/mt82/

http://www.autosavant.com/2011/08/09/nhtsa-opens-investigation-into-ford-mustang-transmission-issues/

Honda at one point would have, but at this point, they are seriously getting away from sticks. Even the Civic. They seem to have it down to the Civic Si, but those seem to be like Unicorns now.

The Accord, does that offer one at all? If so, maybe the strippo model. Ditto for the normal civic.

So, an after thought.

Honda S2000 still has arguably one of the best manual boxes _ever_. Made by Aisin, and similar to the Miata tranny, but whatever changes Honda requested seemed to make it more positive and mechanical. But, it is no longer in production so I guess it doesn't qualify....

While Honda has done a nice job with the transmissions in the Civic Si and the TSX 6MT, these, like most other FWD transmissions these days, are cable boxes. As such, they lack a certain connection found on direct or rod actuated transmissions (older Hondas used rod actuated shifters on FWD cars and, as long as the bushings were in good shape, I prefer them vastly).

I would put the Civic Si or TSX tranny on the list ahead of the Kizashi. Haven't driven a 2 so I can't comment on that one.

Only other transmissions I like a lot that I might put on the list are the 6MT gated shifter on the Audi R8, and maybe the 6MT from the Caddy CTS-V.

The manual on my NC Miata turns my commute into something fun. I can be heading into a long, boring day in the cube, but all it takes is one perfect heal-toe downshift to throw a smile on my face that lasts the rest of the day. It is brilliant.

Easily, the three speed column shift on my 1969 Nova that I had in high school.

No Hondas listed?

"The NHTSA has received over 32 complaints "

This is from the article linked above by noted internet troll and class action lawsuit hopeful JMatero. Yep, 32 complaints.

Take a look at what "jMatero" does for his full time job. Look at all of the cars he claims have trans problems.....this poster is an automotive ambulance chaser that is trying to scrape together enough people for a class action lawsuit against any car maker he can find. His latest target is the Mustang and Ford.

http://www.bing.com/search?q=john+matero+transmission+&form=MOZSBR&pc=MOZI

I don't have an enormous sample size of vehicles for comparison but my CR-Z has the best transmission I've ever shifted - better than the one in my RSX.

church123 is spot on with the S2000: it's the best transmission I've ever driven, and I can't remember how many that includes at this point. I owned a 2008 AP2 S2000 for about a year, and my only reason for getting rid of it was the terrible soft top (we have about nine months of Winter in Michigan). If they had ever made a coupe, I would have gone that route in a second.

My current car, a 2012 Audi S5 has a beautiful manual transmission, although you pay for managing all of that 4.2L V8's power with a clutch that required some practice (it's a bit heavy coming from I-4 Hondas). The gearbox is a bit stiff when cold, but the shifts are precise, there is no slop, and you never have any issues going up or down (like when I took a BMW M-Coupe out for a drive = worst transmission ever, or a 335i = are we even connected to anything?).

My Civic Si was an okay car, nothing compared to the S2000, but I expected it as it was all cables; when a direct-connected gearbox shifts worse than my 2002 Ford F-250, we have a problem...

Oh dear lord. A lot of people must be turning over in their graves to see a Mustang, a Suzuki, and two Mazdas with no Hondas on this list.

The Boss Mustang LS posted a faster lap time at Laguna Seca than the 2009-11 Nissan GT-Rs, and other elite cars, a stock Boss Mustang with just DRs runs 11.72s in the 1/4 mile,

A 7.0L 3300 lb 2 seat ZO7 Corvette that does the 1/4 mile in 11.9s with 345 slicks in the rear for $105,000 Motor Trend, Best Drivers Car

A 5.0L 3600 lb 4 seat Boss Mustang that does the 1/4 mile in 11.72s with just DRs PRICELESS

watch?v=VLmXeUflf4I

If the Mustang can do that with a supposedly buggy transmission I can hardly wait till Ford irons out the bugs.

Maybe an assembly issue and not a engineering one.

As for jmatero2 he can hardly be considered reliable.

A stock Boss Mustang 11.72 1/4 mile with a buggy transmission

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VLmXeUflf4I

Wait until Ford fixes the bugs then watch.

Love the 5-speed on my Hyundai Elantra Touring, with the B&M Racing Sport Shifter.

sohcammer, you always post cool vids, thanks. I like how the Boss got third gear scratch....

bodyblue, I'll give you the ratio of complaints on the Mustang transmission that NHTSA has recieved. The goverment agency is going to take a look at approx. 26,000 Mustangs and out of those NHTSA has recieved 32 complaints, that means that approx. 99.9% of Mustang owners have not filed a complaint, and it would seem to me that this problem is not wide spread. The transmission is made in China maybe that has something to do with it.

After the announcement Ford did acknowledge that they are aware of the problem. “We will fully cooperate with the government as they review this matter,” commented a company spokesperson.
August 10, 2011

"The goverment agency is going to take a look at approx. 26,000 Mustangs and out of those NHTSA has recieved 32 complaints, that means that approx. 99.9% of Mustang owners have not filed a complaint, and it would seem to me that this problem is not wide spread."

When BMW was in the thick of the HPFP issues for the N54 engines, the NHTSA complaint data paled in comparison to the internal warranty data from BMW. We're talking a 10x+ discrepancy between the two sources. If you were to only look at the data from NHTSA it didn't look like they had a widespread problem, but they absolutely did.

I'm not saying this Ford transmission problem is widespread, but I would not consider NHTSA's complaint numbers to necessarily be indicative of that. The NHTSA numbers tell me "Are the failures serious/dangerous enough to warrant people complaining to NHTSA versus just trundling back to the dealer to get it fixed?" It's too bad that the warranty data from Ford is not public information - that's really the most relevant source.

I would agree with you bimmerjay on the insufficient source sampling, so here's a little different approach. Here is a jmatero2 video showing the problems he's had with the Mustang transmission,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPmY2awSCsM

and here is a possible solution to the problem,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZZMXRo-h_U

Here is another jmatero2 2011 Mustang transmission problem/defect video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6IhadvWIX6o

and another 2011 Mustang problematic tranmission video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ATBtw8dqXE

Here are 2 possible solutions to the 2011 Mustang transmission problems. In the first video Ford warrantied the transmission, replacing it, and the problem has since gone away,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MiqWkZccwtg

and in this video the gentleman has simply added shims to create his slick shifting tranny,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nha9TInKErw

Im surprised Honda didn't make the list... While i am not a fan of the torqueless motors, they do make awesome snick-snick manual gearboxes. Gotta give credit where credit is due.

The TL and TSX both have sweet shifters.... I have one in my 2010 TL and the shifts are smooth and crisp!!