Of course, the heavy duty 4 speed transmissions of the 1960s and later are a different story. One popular item back in the 1960s was a floor shift conversion kit because the column shift linkages were so bad. When Pontiac introduced the manual transmisson for its 1948 model, 80% of the 1948 Pontiacs sold had the GM Hydramatic automatic transmission. The manufacturers were pushing automatic transmissions. On the other hand, my 1947 Pontiac, 1948 Dodge and 1954 Buick manual transmissions shifted very smoothly. In many cars, including my 1955 Pontiac and 1965 Rambler, the column shift linkages were terrible. The transmissions were designed in the late 1930s and hadn’t been improved for the more powerful engines. Many cars from the late 1950s through the mid 1960s had three speed manual transmissions that were troublesome. I suspect that since most cars are equipped with the automatic transmission, the manual transmission cars are omitted from the transmission category. As I remember the questionaire that I fill out from CR, the questionaire does ask whether or not the car has an automatic transmission. There used to be a category titled “Clutch” that isn’t there any more. Get a copy today.Ĭonsumer Reports hasn’t split out manual transmissions from automatic transmissions for at least ten years. I love the magazine, available everywhere magazines are sold. I have been a Subscriber for many decades. Of participants in the survey, could the folks with automatics and no major problems in that pool have blurred or skewed the entire category so that the number with manual transmissions and trouble was rendered less significant ? I don’t see any break-out of manual transmissions from the category "transmission." ![]() What’s your theory on why the repairs don’t seem to fix the problems ? What number of the owners of those vehicles took place in the survey ? What percentage of Vibes had manual transmissions compred with automatic transmissions ? Were there, in fact, 50,000 03-Vibes with manual transmissions sold ? Where are you getting these numbers from ? Would a 0.2% failure rate even register in Consumer Reports stats? " The Matrix got some thumping ads in Canada, where the car was built." If 0.2% of the 50,000 owners have this problem, and 25% of those 100 owners get on the internet and make a lot of noise… This was the Voltz, and its advertising seems notably frantic even by the standards of Japanese car commercials. ![]() Toyota had right-hand-drive Matrixes brought over to Japan from Canada, but a NUMMI-built version of the Vibe could be purchased there for a few years as well. The kids, they were crazy about the Vibe (well, maybe not). ![]() Sold in Wyoming, will be crushed in an adjacent state. This car is covered with nasty dents from golf-ball-sized hail (all too common in High Plains Colorado), so it may have been an insurance total that nobody wanted at auction. You'll find plenty of three-pedal econoboxes from this era, because they were significantly cheaper than their slushbox-equipped counterparts, but the Vibe GT had plenty of competition from sportier-looking cars with manual transmissions in 2004. In fact, the six-speed was the only transmission offered in the early Vibe GTs (an automatic became an option later on). The Vibe GT has something you couldn't get in a PT Cruiser or Chevy HHR, though: a six-speed manual transmission as standard equipment. Sadly, no race series pitting Vibe GTs against PT Cruiser Turbos and Chevy HHR SSs on road courses ever materialized… but it's not too late. The regular Vibe had 123 or 130 horsepower, depending on the number of driven wheels, but the Vibe GT got the same 1.8-liter 2ZZ engine that went into the Celica GT-S.ġ80 horsepower, which was enough to make the 2,800-pound Vibe GT keep up with the 3,108-pound/215-horse Chrysler PT Cruiser Turbo that year. Today's Junkyard Gem is one of those rare GTs, complete with the nearly unheard-of six-speed manual transmission, found in a self-service yard in northeastern Colorado. The Vibe, sibling to the Toyota Matrix, mostly served as a ho-hum transportation appliance and/or fleet car, but a factory-hot-rod GT version could be purchased. The New United Motor Manufacturing plant in Fremont, California, built Toyota-derived machinery - badged as Toyotas, Chevrolets, Geos, and Pontiacs- from 1984 through 2010, and some of the very last vehicles that left the assembly line were Pontiac Vibes.
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