Wanted: A normal car if they still make them

And 20 years later those days are long gone. My daily driver is a 62 Cadillac with a radio that looks like that, but with a foot pedal to change stations!

Go to cars.com or autofinder.com and put in what you want, see what’s out there. There are plenty of MTs near me.

I want a car with a hand crank.

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Manual transmission Toyota Tacoma’s exist but a rare sight on dealer lots. 3 within 50mi against about 200 automatics.

There seems to be some strange idea that you can not buy another car unless you get rid of the 1st one. I have never traded in a vehicle, I run them until they die or give them away (which is what I did eventually with both of my pickups) if I do not need them. I had BOTH pickups for well over a decade, in addition to my wifes car.

I gave away the 1985 in 2006, so there was lots of time to rack up 400,000 miles. The '91 I gave away somewhere around 2012. I live out west where we drive a lot of miles. When the '91 was one month old it had 5,000 miles that I put on it.

Where are you getting that . I am looking for a used truck and will still keep the 2 vehicles we have .

Window or starter?

I loved my basic cars for years and kept them until they turned to dust (or rust). Now I own a 2018 Mazda6 GTR with all the bells and whistles. I love it because I spend so much time in my car (or did until COVID) and it makes driving a pleasure. I’ve learned to coexist with all the safety features and use them to my advantage. I learned how to program every feature of the car and it now feels like a custom fit suit, made just for me.

I’m 51,000 miles in and the car has been flawless. The brakes are still original and not even 50% worn. Unlike other brands, Mazda has done a phenomenal job of making the car a “driver’s” car and ensuring the safety features work seamlessly and cooperatively.

All I’m saying is that sometimes you can dive in and embrace the “new” to get the best of all worlds instead of striving for the old and familiar and “getting what you always got”.

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I suspect power assisted steering and brakes were standard on the vast majority of cars built in the last 30 years.

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Ever hear of the term “new normal”?

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Wife’s 96 accord - over 400k miles without a single repair. Just fluid change every 50k miles.

And you mean to tell me you’ve never had a clutch replaced in those 400k miles? that I’d like to see.

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starter. Cranked a friend’s Bug in the '60s.

Sorry. You get to pick the entertainment and communication systems and color and just have to accept whatever mechanism is attached to that.

You could almost do that with a power screwdriver. :wink:

Wait for the Tesla Cybertruck: you never have to lock or unlock it, you never have to start or stop it, you never have to carry keys. You just get in and start driving and then stop driving and walk away. No transmission, no gas, never visit a gas station again- just plug it in at home.

None of that is normal now for you, but is for lotsa people.

I bought the closest thing I could find to a “normal” car a couple years ago. Manual tranny, crank windows, manual door locks, etc., 2018 Versa S. I’ve always had the best reliability with “normal” cars. Bought my 27 year old Toyota pickup new, now with over 300,000 miles and still the original clutch. Even taught my daughter to drive and towed a trailer 25,000+ miles.

Cars and drivers are changing. The future is electric which is in many ways simpler. Welcome to the future.

There are 3 brands out there that still make brand new trucks with the manual transmission:
Chevy Silverado
Jeep Gladiator
Toyota Tacoma

As technology and featured safety, convenience, and comfort prefences of most buyers evolve, so does what is “normal” in vehicles.

What the OP and some others prefer in a vehicle is simpler, more basic features that are no longer considered normal. That is not a criticism, merely an observation.

After all, personally, I miss bench seats, because they were more comfortable for me than today’s heavily bolstered bucket seats, and column mounted shift levers, because most console shifters hurt my hands. I’ve had to adapt.

These days, bare bones basic simplicity of options is no longer normal and hasn’t been for some time.

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Not that I can find.

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Hyundai venue might work