Automatic vs Manual for Late Model Corolla

Mar 14, 2008 31 Replies

Hi...



I'm planning to get rid of my 2000 Tacoma (105k miles and still going strong) for a lower MPG Corolla. Before the Taco, I owned (new) a 1987 Corolla manual trans. A lot of fun but I had to replace the clutch at ~60k miles.



I'd like to know from those of you that have a later year (2005-8) manual Corolla when you had to replace a clutch.



I really enjoy the fun of a manual trans but didn't enjoy the big bucks of the replacement job. I hear that the automatics in the late year Corollas have no power to accelerate onto a major freeway...is that the situation?



BTW..the 87 Corolla kept going until 90k when I gave it away to a friend for his kid in 2000 and it may still be going, having been sold to someone else from there. So that's why I like Toyota reliability/quality.



Thanks for any insights...


--Bill


Don't know about the acceleration, but a heads-up: My last two Corollas have been automatics, because when buying my (new) '98, I couldn't find a

5-speed after 2 - 3 months of looking throughout the NE; so didn't even try to locate one when buying the '04. Automatically went for an automatic. However, I suspect that the maunals are more available on the S models. (My '84 & '90 Corollas were stickshifts, but not S editions.)

Cathy

My Ford Contour has over 150,000 mi and is still going strong on the first clutch. I suspect the problem is not the clutch, but the driver. Before you buy a car with a manual transmission, learn to drive one.

Jeff

Damn, Sam...ER, Bill! I have an 85 Corolla I bought with 10,000 on it in '86 that now has 260,000 miles and the ORIGINAL clutch!!! Before that I had an '80 Corolla SR-5 I bought new, 244,000 miles on the original clutch!!!

May I suggest the Automatic...

Damn, I wish someone would give me a car with only 90k miles on it.

Jack

When I bought my 01 camry there was a new 01 camry manual also available. I don't think I've seen a newer camry stick since. I gave it some thought but in the kind of traffic we have these days it'd be too much work. Besides I like to do paper work while I'm driving so that wouldn't work..

haha, me too ________ Used Car Donation Requirements

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"Charles Pisano" ...

While driving..................

Tomes (who hopes Charles is not anywhere NJ)

I've owned a '03 and am driving an '05 automatic LE. Plenty of power for passing or merging IMHO.

No problems with the A/T. I'm old and lazy so I don't by the sticks any longer. I drink and drive a lot as well so shifting would be a nusance.

That's a practice I'd give up if I were you. Or you may have to do the paper work on your incarceration when you run into someone while doing your paper work, eating, shaving and texting on your cellphone while driving. Such multitasking is less than productive. Take it from someone who once saw a guy in a Mercedes reading the stock market section of the newspaper while navigating the Hollywood freeway!

>

How much mileage one gets out of a clutch has to do with where one lives. When I lived on Long Island, I got , on average, 40,000 between brake pad replacements on my 1982 Cressida (much stop and go driving on the Northern State Parkway). I put over 130,000 miles on my Avalon before brakes came close to needing replacement.

reliability/quality.

So would getting pulled over by a State Cop!!!

I live in a 'mountainous' region of Massachusetts, and travel to Vermont quite a bit. Still got 240,000 out of one clutch and 260,000 out of another.

Driving style has quite a bit more to do with a clutch than where it's driven. And I'm no slouch, either. Light turns green, I'm gone.

He could be drinking.... coffee! (I do that sometimes - and I drive a stick!)

I think that it is a combination of both driving style and location. If one does a lot of stop and go it can wear on the clutch versus interstate driving. How the left foot behaves I see as the other side of that coin. Tomes

Hmmmm...when I bought the '80 Corolla I was living in Eastern Mass, and went to Boston quite frequently. When I bought the Hachiroku I was living in Hartford and then New Britain and had to deal with rush hour traffic. My wife was Chinese and we went to Boston and NYC quite a bit. I would say

40-50,000 of those miles were grinding-in-the-city miles. On both cars...

Uhh....ya, right....ahhh....coffee...right, right.

"Hachiroku ...

The two sides of that coin can indeed be weighted differently. Your intelligent left foot trumps the driving location for you. Everyone's mileage (clutch mileage that is) varies. The person who only rides the interstates but does so with their left foot resting on the clutch pedal will be the other way around. Tomes

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