No reason in the world NOT to believe you, time will tell whether the resale value for the MT will be greater than the AT...
Strong arguments for both sides, MT and the AT people, all comes down to what you really want your car to do for you, if YOU (the driver) want to be the only one in control of the car just get the MT, but if you want COMFORT and still being very much in control of the car you must get the AT...
I strongly recommend everybody to start learning to drive a car by using the MT first, way more different challenges MT offers you than an AT, and just after that, when you have become skilled in pretty much all traffic conditions just switch to AT and enjoy the comfort only an AT can offer you... my first 10 years (out of 25 so far) on the road were done using MT only (had no choice, no AT vehicles in Eastern Europe in those hard communist years ), but that's how I learned to drive the hard way, let's say you're at a dead stop (traffic light), cars behind you, in front of you a 30-45 dgrs steep uphill (why not, even some ice or snow on the road), and suddenly the color turns green and you gotta go, if you don't know how to work with the brake pedal (left foot), parking brake (right hand) and the clutch AND the gas pedal (right foot for both) properly, to synchronize them perfectly, well... super-great chances you will have to exchange insurance papers with the driver you just hit when your car rolled backwards!!! Or with an MT you can easily flood the engine! Not to say if you have to use the freaking phone while driving (so one hand holding the phone), you have to shift gears (right hand only) AND changing lanes that ALWAYS require left/right signal (left hand), how the hell you do it with an MT??? Very easy to drive an MT on a flat terrain, real MT challenges when road conditions change suddenly, and if you're not prepared for them, well... end of story
Happy Easter!
Chris

 

The C&D article said the 1/2 second faster time in 'S' mode was 'reflected in our test results.' So I'm pretty sure this 10.4 seconds is the time in 'S' mode, which means that the time in 'D' mode is 1/2 second slower.

Here's the relevent passage:
"The transmission holds selections as long as you like, shifts are brisk, and using the paddles yields quicker acceleration, reflected in our test results — a half-second to 60 mph. Or leave it in drive and simply go with the flow."

This also puts it more in line some other tests, e.g. MotorTrend which had the 0-60 time of the AT above 11 seconds.

Short Take Review: 2007 Honda Fit Sport Automatic - 2007 Honda Fit Sport Automatic Specs - Car and Driver - July 2006

 

My bro says C/D has better "real" drivers. If you look at their numbers, they always get better numbers than other magazines. edmunds says fit manual gets 9.6s 0-60 time.

 

Agreed, C&D numbers are usually better than most - even if you add the extra 1/2 second onto the AT time, it's still under 11 for the AT. MotorTrend put it quite a bit over (can't recall the # exactly), but I think they had the fit slower than both the Versa and the Yaris if I remember right.

My point was that acceleration is a considerably less on the AT vs. the MT, even if you just look at the C&D numbers, and the AT number quoted in their review is using 'S' mode, not 'D', which is slower.

 

Yea I agree

I had to comment this.
First, I am unsure why you say "time will tell" whether MT would be higher priced than AT. That's true for almost all cars. Not really because demand is higher, but that manuals are more reliable than automatic. Autos are more complicated machines than MT's so more things go wrong as they age.


2) Europeans drive stick shifts becuase that's waht a car is supposed to be to them. It's not good or bad, but that's just normal to them. Americans drive autos cuz theyr'e lazier. But another reason is Americans tend to drive bigger cars, which is harder to drive a stick shift with. This makes america an automatic transmission culture. A lot of people find weird at the size of our cars, the same way we might non-US people preferring stick shifts being strange.



3) I'd like to respond to talking on the cell fone. What I like most about MT is that you can jduge how good a driver you are by your MT skills. If you are a bad driver, with bad habits, you can still get from point A to point B with an automatic. But with a MT, you can't. I think that's why in US, we have a high auto accident %. A lot of people are worse drivers than they think, because the automatic is helping them get away with mistakes (in places like UK, accidents are rare).

And for the phone, I tried getting a bluetooth but it was inconvenient to charge or figure it's battery life. Eventually I went back to holding the phone with my left hand while shifting to the right. THEN I stopped using the phone *completely.* Why? I realized I shouldn't talk on the phone at all. Research shows drivers on cell phones (automatic or manual) actually drive worse than drunk drivers. So now I never talk on the phone. This is consistent to the theory in my first paragraph about how MT reveals whether you are a good driver or not. The fact that it's difficult to be on the phone when driving a stick shift is a strong indicator that you shouldn't be on the phone at all, regardless of transmission.

 

I have owned both.... click on my signiture to see them... If you send me a list of what you want from the Fit in the order of importance I may be helpfull. This is how I bought my fit. Just an FYI i bought it sight unseen. I did not make any mistakes.... I got the perfect car for the list I had...

 

CB19 understands something that I have experienced. His comment about having nothing when the road condition changes.... while driving an MT. He means accelaration. I spun out in a convertable for reasons I will not discuss. I was in 5th gear driving 60 mph. I attempted to change lanes to the # 2 lane. A car in the #3 lane meandered near the same place I signaled for and was commited moving to. It seemed that vehical did not see me.... I steered back to my position but oversteered. I counter steered 4 times. The point I like to emphasize is that I could not change gears and I was loosing speed from skiding. Very fast I was not able to steer the car. I think in an automatic I would have been able to counter steer and use gas to straighten it out sooner and at least mantain my lane possition. In the end I was facing I-5 traffic durring the 1500 hour weekday traffic in my car stalled....... shit I was so lucky that day. I had seen the face of a woman driving towards me that I knew would hit me but, she did not.... A tractor with a trailer was able to stop also. A buddy of mine races sprint cars he says I must have don some good driving.... The truth is it sucked. At the last minute the only thing I could think of to steer my car was to step on the brake which put me in the worst uncontrolable slide leaving me as I said facing traffic with a stalled motor. Perhaps an Auto tranni would not have done that for me.. Oh you know what the convertable top was down So many things went threw my mind that second. boy what a ride. not a single fender got bent. click picture http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h1...t/DSCN0069.jpg

Yes I told a long story but it is an example of the advantage of an automatic verse a Manual transmision for the amiture driver. I think cb19 was speeking of this in the prviouse comment of this thread.