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Here's my $.02....
Learn to love what you have. I have an AT, and I was torn between the MT and AT when I bought mine. There are days where I regret not having a MT (it would have been my first MT) but when I am stuck in traffic, that disappears.
If you REALLY wanted to do it, here is my calc:
AT Cost:
Purchase Price: 17k, and assuming 8.9% sales tax (ATL), that's 18,513. Round up to 19K for licensing fees. I'll be assuming you are the second owner, since 17k is REALLY low for a new car and it's probably not the case. Assuming it's a 2013 AT limited, and 40k mi, KBB has trade in value of 13k-15k (set at "Good"). So, technically, you'd be losing 6k (19k-13k) on just trading in. Granted dealers would probably not give you 13-15k so you'll probably take a bigger hit. You can always take it to CARMAX, if you have one and they will give you close to KBB. For example, let's say they give you 14k. You've already lost 5k on considering a sell to Carmax.
"New" car (MT): Dealer is asking 17k. What they "ask" has some wiggle room. Assuming 10% markup (which dealers usually have a 25% markup), their est. cost is 15.5, so let's say 16k. Again, taking in a 8.9% tax rate for ATL, you are @ 17,424. After licensing/fees, est 18k.
So with 13k from your tradein, and 18k for the car, your additional cost is 5k. This is assuming you paid all cash for your AT. Any outstanding loan balance would probably increase your "loss" since you'll have less to put towards your "new" car.
So, with a loss of 5k on selling the car to Carmax and an additional cost of 5k for the MT car, you are looking at TOTAL 10K for trading a AT for a MT. Seems a bit high for me, but whatev.
TLDR: You are going to lose money on a car, that's a given. Doing any trade will result in a loss. TBH, if you can't do the calc, you probably shouldn't be doing this trade anyway.
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