Convince me...

[rufio275]

I've been looking into buying a new car for a year now. I love the gas mileage on the Fiesta, the price is right, the body style is sharp. I drive a manual transmission and would like my next car to be a manual, too, however I've read a lot of posts on various sites (Edmunds, Fiesta blogs, etc.) from owners who've had issues with their manual transmissions: grinding when going into reverse, unidentified "whining" noises from the clutch, problems with the throw-out bearing.

If it were only one or two posts I wouldn't be concerned, but these seem to be cropping up everywhere. I've also heard some horror stories about dealing with Ford to get these issues fixed--which is ridiculous for any company when a customer drops that amount of cash on a product--though to be fair I've heard some good stories about the dealerships.

I guess what I'm getting at is this: I've driven two Fiestas and I like them, I didn't notice any problems or odd sounds, but then again neither did anyone who bought one. I can't trust a salesman on why I should go with a Fiesta instead of another car, so I figured I would go to the actual owners. Is this the right manual transmission car to get nowadays? Should I wait another year to see if the kinks have been ironed out? Or should I look at something else?

Thanks so much for your suggestions. And just for kicks, I've also researched the Kia Rio5 (which is new), the Hyundai Accent (which is affordable), and the Mazda3 (which probably has a great gearbox but a higher price tag).

[WitchCitySVT]

I drove the Rio and the Accent. Even though there built on the same platform you would never know. The Rio is an awful car. There was nothing about that car I liked. The Accent wasn't terrible, just terribly boring. The Fiesta, Rio and Accent are B-segment cars. The Mazda 3 is the next class up. Me personally, I went a different route. Turbo and a six speed all under 20k fully loaded.

[viney266]

I've driven 3 of them with manual trannies. No whine that bothered me. They do have a "grind" to get into reverse as there is no syncro on reverse. Haviing driven vintage cars with NO syncros I find it no big deal.

[yamaha940]

Originally Posted by viney266

I've driven 3 of them with manual trannies. No whine that bothered me. They do have a "grind" to get into reverse as there is no syncro on reverse. Haviing driven vintage cars with NO syncros I find it no big deal.

i have a manual tranny.. its says in the owners manual to hold the clutch in and counting to eather 3 or 5 before you move the shifter from netral to reverse. as long as you do that everytime, it wont grind :D