On my wife’s automatic Hyundai Ioniq, it’ll go all the way down to a full stop and re-engage as soon as traffic starts moving again (if it’s stopped for too long, you have to hit a button for it to engage). It’s pretty cool, actually, in stop-and-go traffic. With the automatic lane centering, you’ve got Level 2 autonomy, as I understand it. I’ve driven home from my daugter’s school in rush hour traffic with no foot on the pedal and just paying attention that doesn’t do anything stupid or somebody doesn’t suddenly cut into my lane. I’ve made the 35 minute drive from entrance-to-exit with no user input several times. It is a nice creature comfort, but wouldn’t work the same on a manual.
If Renault brings this back, I’m definitely buying it! For the “normal” stick shift, yes, I would buy one. But, as others noted, it would depend on a few issues before I would: fuel efficiency, terrain I usually cover, if I can get the wife to learn how to drive a manual…
Personally no. I drove one for quite a while, but my left knee is bothering me and the clutch doesn’t help that at all.
I had to do a parking brake hill start as part of my license test. Then when I moved somewhere with hills I got lazy and used to just ride the clutch on hills instead of using brakes. Ended up burning out the clutch.
Would I buy a manual shift car today? No. I have one now, and shifting has become an annoying chore, given city traffic and aging knees.
This is another growing annoyance with my stick shift car. Chad and Karen in their trendy-mobiles insist on stopping 0.00003 inches from my rear bumper on a hill. And I’ve gotten tapped when the aforementioned dipshits launch based on my brake lights rather than actual movement. So when a car is close on my rear bumper on a hill, I just turn on my hazard flashers and pretend I’m having car trouble* before the light changes. Eventually they’ll (angrily) back up and zoom around me. I’m retired, never in a hurry, and can wait as long as it takes.
*It’s an ancient, rusted Corolla that passed 250,000 miles many years ago. Breaking down is a believable act.
I’ve only owned standard transmission cars. I taught my daughter how to drive a stick, and she only buys them.
Currently drive a stickshift, due to be replaced (2007 Honda Civic SI). I’d replace it with another stick, but I’m concerned about greenhouse gas emissions now, so it’s going to be an EV not a stick.
Funny story about the stick: whenever I take it to the dealer, the millennial service techs have to get into a quick huddle to determine how it will get driven to the service bay, whether any of them on the floor can do it, or who they can can call from another department to come move it.
I see no real advantage in having the stick, except it’s fun to accelerate from 0-80 really fast on the highway on-ramp. Which I do about once every 6 months maybe.
I’ve owned both. Don’t really care.
If I couldn’t get cruise control in a manual, that would be a deal breaker. Though I did install an aftermaket CC on a 1989 Nisan 240SX. Have to admit that was a fun car. But I need a good 4x4 with as much ground clearance as I can get.
I’ve heard they are stolen less often than automatics.
We were visiting friends in Utah. As our host drove us around, he kept shifting to adjust for the terrain. That is, he’d downshift when driving down the hill to limit the car from picking up too much speed. The car in question was an automatic. He said he’d learned to do that while growing up in a mountainous area and it seemed quite natural for him.
The last car I bought was a Subaru with CVT. The manuals on “practical” cars had pretty much disappeared. I wondered why they would build a CVT but also have paddle shifters…I guess it’s for things like downshifting in mountain passes or maybe some towing applications?
I always ended up with 5 speeds because they were cheaper to buy. Dealers would have maybe just one on the lot and they could bait and switch a lot of customers with it—oh, you wanted an automatic? Well we have those but not at that price we advertised. But I liked driving them and they got a little better gas mileage as well.
I miss driving them, though I will say not all manuals were equally pleasurable. I once test drove a Corvette—it had a really short, tight pattern that I struggled to get the hang of. The Japanese manuals were like buttah.
We have 2 daily drivers (both Mazda) an F-250 for hauling the horse trailer and heavy farm shopping, and 2 clunkers that aren’t worth selling but are useful as occasional extra vehicles. All of them, including the truck, are stick shift.
The only reason I would not get a manual transmission on my next car is if I go with a hybrid of some sort - there’s no choice but automatic there.
Also, generally more reliable through the virtue of having fewer parts to fail.
I purchased my most recent manual transmission in 2019, and I’m very likely to continue that practice today.
I find this the case as well, but not at the dealership. I take it to the dealer for all the routine maintenance but I’ve taken to both a local tire shop for some good wet weather tires as well as a local place to have the windshield replaced. At both those places an older tech had to move the car in and out of the shop because the younger gofers couldn’t drive them. The techs at the dealer seem to skew older.
The only bumper sticker I’ve ever seriously considered is a small warning sticker: “This Vehicle Equipped With Anti-Millenial Security System” text surrounding a 6-speed shift pattern. However, at 41, I’m technically a millennial myself.
My FIL, who was a mechanic in the army in the 80’s, says this is why the humvees at that time were all automatic: kids coming in couldn’t drive the old manual jeeps.
I don’t buy new cars, so I’m stuck choosing from whatever combination of options people who do buy new cars are clamoring for. Which is generally not in line with what I’m clamoring for. Beggars can’t be choosers, nor can used-car buyers.
That said, the EV will be finally kills the manual transmission, and I barely drive anymore anyway, so… c’est la vie.
The standard transmission car I have is a 1966 MGB. Should a service tech try to drive it, s/he would have to know how to use a manual transmission. And they didn’t put synchromesh between 2nd and 1st until 1967, so there’s that. And if they don’t get to it in a while and the car cools down enough, they’ll have to know how to use the choke; which is a push-pull knob on the dash marked ‘C’.
I love doing that. But SWMBO keeps saying ‘Slow down!’ and complains the leather seat is slippery. (That’s why I put seat belts in.)
I’ve had a couple of plow trucks. Surprisingly, it’s recommended that they be an auto tranny. Not a manual.
Forward/Reverse/Forward/Reverse… again and again and again. Guess it plays hell on a clutch in a manual.
Every car I’ve owned in the past 20 years (all three of them) has been a stick shift. The first two were cheap econo cars; a Saturn and a Corolla. The current one is a sports car, a 2019 Miata.
And that’s actually the trend I’ve noticed in the cars available with manual transmissions lately. It used to be that the manual was the cheapest transmission available on the bare bones base model. That might still be the case for a few cars in the US, but now most often if a stick is available at all it’s a niche option only available on the sporty model or higher trim level. I’ve heard Toyota is coming out with a manual Supra due to popular demand, but it might actually be an extra cost option.
To answer the OP’s question, would I buy another one? I don’t plan on buying a new car any time soon, but I am seriously considering an EV for when I do. If I go that route, it obviously won’t be a stick because it won’t have a transmission at all.
When I bought my Miata I had to wait for them to find the one salesman who could drive a manual so he could bring it around so I could test drive it.
Manual transmission is still the default choice here in England, though more people choose auto than they used to.
This is especially annoying when you’re driving a fully loaded dump truck. 
Why do people feel the need to ride the ass of the vehicle in front of them at stoplights? Being 10 inches away from the person in front of you vs being 5 feet away isn’t going to make a goddamn difference when the light turns green.
Yeah, we were taught at drivers’ ed not to get any closer than where you can still fully see the back tires of the car in front of you. And larger vehicles I give even a bigger berth. Especially so if on an incline (which happens a lot on the freeway overpasses when traffic backs them up. I always get nervous watching a car get right up on the ass of a semi – give the driver some space! They can’t even see you back there!)