Should I trade in/sell my car?
 

Edit: I just came home with my new manual FR-S and I'm much happier :)

Hey guys,

First of all, want to say I'm very happy I picked the Fr-s. I love this car and its great fun in the twisties.

The only problem I have is I bought the car as an auto. I did it mainly because the only fr-s I could find were all automatic cars, and having never driven a stick the thought of an auto sports car never killed me.

Now having driven it for ~6k miles, I really regret buying the auto. Its my fault, I know, and I should have never bought an auto in the first place. This auto is great, but it just doesn't fit what I want out of the car.

So my dillema, is should I make the bad financial decision, and sell my a/t fr-s and try to get a m/t? I would never do this if it put me in a financial spot where I'd be struggling to pay the bills or anything, but I just see it as bad financial sense all around. I'm also considering buying used m/t or possibly selling my a/t then waiting a bit to pick up a used m/t within the year at a possible lower price.

Idk. I'm just torn on it, and its slowly eating away at my soul :brokenheart:. I know there's probably people who are satisfied with the a/t, but I don't commute at all (work from home) so it was a stupid choice for me...

I've looked into doing a possibly swap to a M/T trans later down the road, but the costs and difficulties sound too high. I do really like the idea of keeping my personal car, as I feel sentimental value towards it, but it'd probably be smarter to just trade it in. I've also thought of keeping the car for 2-3 years and trading it in then for a newer manual brz/fr-s, but that would just mean I'd be paying a lot more money all around.

Any suggestions? I'm not looking for you guys to make my life decisions for me, I guess I'm just asking what would you do in a similar spot (however stupid and unlikely)?

If you don't want the AT, sell it off and get what you do want.

If you plan on keeping it a while, get a manual. No reason to drive a car you don't want for years to come.

If you can stand to keep it then do that. But I knew I wouldn't be able to stand a automatic and I love my manual!

Obviously it's a terrible financial choice, but going back to the beginning and buying any new car generally is a terrible financial choice. It's a "want", not a "need", but you'll be able to rationalize away any non-logic.

Here's another thing to think about out of left field: can you drive manual yet? Have you tried an FR-S with a manual? Perhaps, and God forbid this to be true, you try a car that has a stick and *gasp/shock/horror* you realize that maybe you just don't like the car in general? I think this is something you need to answer before you take a huge $$$ hit, and potentially realize you're still not satisfied.

Nobody buys this car for purely financial reasons, do what makes you happy.

Yeah you tossed a bit of money down the drain, consider it a life lesson. By the way, have you driven a manual yet? Or are you just enamored by the idea and internet tough guys pressuring you into switching?

Another thing to think about: if you hang on to it and wait until the initial depreciation has leveled off (assuming you don't beat the tar out of it) you won't take as much of a hit getting out of it as you would right now.

Hell you may even like the car again.

Cars are money pits. But we love them. Across the entire board, there's got to be a reason you bought the FR-S and not a commuter car. You pay for enjoyment. I'd do anything I could to get all the fun out of my car and have it just the way I wanted. Even if it costed a bit more, because I've already made the financial choice of spending more on something I love to drive, doing something I love to do. Drive.

As with everyone above, it would depend if you've driven a manual yet or for daily driving. Learning and driving around the block a few times is a poor example of living with it day to day. Make sure that's your personal choice for your own enjoyment out of the car. Not external pressures of people chewing you out or changing your views.

Also, don't let the results of this poll be representative. It's pretty much a "what are you guys driving right now." Obviously every manual driver is going to tell you to go stick, every auto driver is going to tell you to keep your auto, and anyone who has a bit of remorse in their choice would choose the opposite of what they bought, which is the same boat as you. There's a thread or poll I read before that was "what transmission did you choose, and would you change it now if you could" but I can't find it right now.

Nothing sucks more, than owning a car you're dissatisfied with. More so, if you're still making monthly payments on it. In the end, despite the odds against good financial decisions. Just get what you want, what will make you happy. Life is short as it is. Good luck!

Honestly...I would enjoy this car for the time being and wait a model year or two until they make a major change to the car. Then you can enjoy having the new version as well as bracing yourself for the depreciation. I figure if you were going to make major race/performance changes to the car you probably would have researched the purchase mroe thoroughly so anything you are dissappointed about can probably wait. There will always be plenty of people who will need to buy used or want the first year car so simply put...wait 18 months and sell it to one of them.

Hey guys, thanks for the replies so far.

No I haven't driven the fr-s in manual, but I'm 99% sure I would much prefer driving a manual fr-s on a daily basis. I haven't owned a manual car yet, but would love to, and have always been a fan of manual gear boxes since I was a kid. I have driven a m/t mustang gt before and thought that was a good experience, even though the gearbox wasn't very accurate and slow.

And I definitely love my car. I'm in no way saying I hate my car, and have a lot of fun with it on a daily basis. I do sometimes wish it had more power, but the more I drive it through the twisties it seems the more I like the car. I'm not worried about me not liking a manual car at all.

I'm considering it because I feel if I can get a good deal, at maybe 2-4k more than what I have loaned for the car now, it would be worth the extra enjoyment a manual transmission would give me.

Just looking for others' thoughts on the matter. If I kept the a/t, I'd probably be satisfied with it but I'd always have that lingering thought of "I wish I got the manual".

P.S. I regretted getting my other car in an auto as well, and that was just a cheap beater point a- point b car... I don't know why I didn't learn my lesson there...

I've been considering this option as well. Downsides I see, are paying more in depreciation but it could be worth it for an sti model ;)

This doesn't make sense to me, is this something to do with inflation and interest rates over the next year or two?

My money says he's losing out every day he waits to sell it, it might be worth $22k now, but a year from now it'll definitely be less, maybe that's simplistic...

I learned not to get an auto after getting a tc2 in auto. That got traded in for the frs.

Sim ce the auto is priced higher you should see what the dealer will give you on it towards a manual.

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 2

we have the EXACT same problem my friend, exact.

Try and keep the car as clean and low mileage as possible and then trade it in for a 2014. :thumbsup: No use paying for a car that you regret buying in the first place.

there are probably some STRANGE people out there that regret getting a manual and they wished they could get an auto.

people with long commutes and nasty traffic regret owning manuals.
any way you put it this car shouldn't have an auto option just like the WRX.

Do it.

trade it outright for someone that wants an auto. just keep looking and eventually someone will bite..

people do get injuries that remove their abilities to drive manual.

Why not have your cake and eat it also?

Your car had the tap shift controls on the steering wheel and the manual mode on the gear shifter. You can always drive it in the manual mode and manually shift it.

Wind it up to redline between every shift getting up to speed and the downshift while braking to every stop.:)

I guess this all depends on how he gets rid of it. A dealer is going to knock off at least $2~3k simply because it's "used." If he can sell it privately for a slight loss then he's in good shape.

Just do it lol I love my MT

Might as well go to the dealer and see what they'll do for you. You'll know pretty quickly how much it's going to cost you to do the swap.

There was the other suggestion to look for a trade, I'm sure there are some people (maybe not on this forum, but try craigslist) who have made the opposite mistake that you've made.

If anybody wants to trade their manual for my auto, feel free to post. I have it financed at 3% interest (really low apr), and it has an extended 5 year warranty. I also keep my car clean and covered when she's not being driven. It also has bespoke audio.

I will trade for a manual fr-s of equivalent or possibly a little higher mileage, without any of the above. It is a great auto.

I'll post some pictures in the classifieds assuming the dealer doesn't fall through with a good price for trade in (I don't have too high hopes for that though...).

Obviously it'll cost you, but you didn't buy the FRS because it was the most financially responsible choice. I say get what you want; be happy in life.

Well...I will give you my Honest Idea.

Older people, or Classic, they Love manual Transmission. Younger people love Semi Automatic Transmission (paddle Shift)

Do you know Paddle Shift was made for Racing ? Requires Little to no clutch maintenance, Keeping the Driver on balance, and easier access, and so much more Benefit.

I drive Manual, and All I can tell you is that if you think Having Fun = Having another Pedal to Step on (clutch), then sure, go buy it.

But if you still want to have the Manual Shifting Phases feeling, reliability, go for Paddle shifting.

BTW, do you know why GTR has no Manual Stick ? Because Paddle Shifting (computer) can shift much faster than a Person, and also more Efficient.

I don't see why you would like a manual, really. Give me a good reason for that, please.

If someone wants to trade their manual b/c they realized they can't drive stick...why would you want to trade for that car? That's just asking for problems if you ask me.

Whether you keep it now and trade up later to version 2.0 (lol) you're going to pay the depreciation, that happened the minute you drove off the lot. I'd say if you keep it 18 months you'll be able to do a stronger comparison of this version of the car vs. any changes. THAT could make you a rockstar on this forum...just saying...

Hi, Whitigir.

I'm a firm believer that this A/T can be made faster than the M/T. There's a lot of benefits that A/T has compared to a M/T, but also downsides.

Most of it comes down to, yes, I'm considering paying 2-4k for another pedal to step on... I didn't think it would be this big of a deal to me, otherwise I wouldn't have bought the A/T. It isn't so much of a performance need, but that does factor into it a bit (stock for stock).

EDIT: I'll be going down to toyota either tonight or tomorrow, depending how work turns out today. That should help a lot with the decision making process.

Wait until new model comes out in a ciuple years then tradein for new one with a stick

Like others have said, you need to find out if you can live with a MT for daily driving. I previously drove manual in the past but now I'm always in traffic twice a day weekdays and I knew I didn't want to deal with the third pedal. I know a few people deal with daily traffic in a MT, kudos to them, but a majority of people that tell me "you get used to traffic" they usually have a puny commute to work or are still in school and their idea of traffic is only once or twice a week.
So it comes down to you trying an MT, and what your daily weekday commute is. If my work commute was under 20mi or this was not my daily driver, I would definitely go MT.

Have you inquired at the dealer of possibly trading in?

Just wondering, I'll be going down soon.

Thanks for the advice. I did choose the auto in the first place because of traffic (I hate traffic). But I've came to realize that was pretty silly. I bought this car to enjoy, and don't commute (I work from home). The rare times I'm stuck in stop and go is usually when we're taking a trip and its rarely for very long. I've also read this manual is buttery smooth & not rough at all in traffic, so I'm leaning a lot towards it. That said, an auto definitely has advantages over a M/T in this regard.

Anyway, thanks everyone for the advice my mind is pretty much made up as long as I can get a decent deal some way or another... It'll be a PITA all around, but worth it if I can finally seal the deal!

You're blurring the lines between an Automatic transmission with driver input ([ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automatic_transmission"]Automatic transmission - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia[/ame]) and something like a semi-automatic (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semi-au...c_transmission) or dual-clutch ([ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dual_clutch_transmission"]Dual-clutch transmission - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia[/ame]) transmission. The ToyoBaru has an Automatic, it's got a torque converter end of story. The high performance vehicles that are often brought into the A/T vs. M/T argument use one of the latter transmission types I mentioned; i.e. the Nissan GTR uses a dual-clutch, the new 911 GT3 will ONLY be available with a dual-clutch system. They both have clutches and are much closer to the traditional manual transmission than the automatic (or "manumatic") available in the 86.

As far as I know automatics are rarely used outside of drag racing (sticking to prestigious series such as F1, NASCAR, WRC, NHRA etc.) because there are inherent losses to the system (although minute) as well as a lack of control. In F1 they employ a sequential transmission ([ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sequential_manual_transmission"]Sequential manual transmission - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia[/ame]) which I believe has been adopted into many series such as WRC, MotoGP, and Indy.

tl;dr comparing the transmission in your FRZ to that of a GTR is like comparing your FRZ to a boat because they both have steering wheels. Functionally they perform the same task but when you try to understand what's going on you better have the right manual or you're going to have a bad time.

Do what makes you happy. Keeping the auto will probably only make you stress about it more. We've all made financial mistakes. Some guy who bought an auto BRZ at my dealership returned it the same day i came in to put in a down payment. It will cost you money but give you a peace of mind (which is often times worth it).

Autos have their advantages but I find traffic hardly a problem with a manual. I drive in traffic M-F (some stop and go, some low speed although not that bad at all) about 30 miles each way and it has NEVER bothered me honestly. It's not traffic the entire way, just in some areas (about 15-60% of my drive is in some type of traffic) I guess the traffic I deal with is not as bad as some others here.

Id imagine I will have to be stuck in stop-and-go traffic at least 40 minutes a day for me to want an auto.

I really hope everything works out for you.

i dont get why your so keen on trading for a manual when you said youve never driven a stick, let alone a manual fr-s. alot of people hate driving manuals hence all the automatic transmissions in cars. you might end up regretting trading for a manual later on. not really the best idea to trade and make a money dive on an idea that youve never experienced.

If I were in your situation, I'd enjoy what I love about the car. I usually find buyer's remorse to be an unproductive compulsion because it makes you regret a good choice. In this case, a really great choice, an fr-s. You'll get to chose another car someday; meantime, feel the joy in the one you have.

(Oh, I hope that doesn't sound too much like Oprah.)

If I were you, and I was not satisfied with the AT, I would sell the AT, buy a beater MT that will last you at least two years, then buy a manual FRS/BRZ in two years when they upgrade the engine and add some additional refinements to the chassis/suspension/body/links etc. You only have to wait one more year, why put more mileage on your AT if youre not satisfied with it?

I would hold onto it, until a refresh came out about ~4 years down the road.

Why did you buy it with the auto if you wanted a manual anyways? You're not getting the full experience of the car with a slushbox, so might as well trade it in and get the one with the right transmission!

You want what you don't have. Lots of people say and think manual is cool, and it really is but it isn't for everyone. You should try driving the manual for a week somehow before making such a huge investment. I'm sure for less than your loss in this trade you could borrow a manual car. Being stuck with a manual is worse than an automatic

You already lost about $4,000 driving it off the lot due to depreciation. Are you financing it or did you make a full purchase?