xiopan

I have only driven column/stick shifts, Chevy C10 and Tercels. I live in New Orleans, with flat, pot-holed, and ruined streets. I usually drive only in the city, on stop-sign and signal infested streets, with a once or month or so Interstate drive of 150 miles round trip.

With our climate, the AC will run at least 6 months of the year. And I cannot emphasize enough that the streets are the pits.

I had intended to buy an XD automatic because of the current conditions, but read that the manual is a better transmission, with better milage and more power.

What do you guys recommend? Obviously, I'm not looking for a "driving experience," just economy and convenience.

Also---has anyone measured the front bumper to street gap on the XD? The FIT looks like a snowplow, and will scrape our average asphalt irregularites every block or so. There are no XDs to examine that I can find locally.

Thanks to those of you who respond.

offroadinfrontier

the overhang on our xA isnt too bad, and the xD is going to be a lot better from what ive read, plus the clearance is higher.

the auto gets slightly worse, but thats what im getting. driving my stick around stop-n-go traffic drives me crazy, ill take the 1-2mpg hit.

cant speak for the xd, but my xa gets excellent highway, an its only at 3K. i can manage better than old-school epa on my 2001 toyota and my 2006 scion when driven properly, so i can only imagine the same for the xD (actually, id guestimate much better than epa, since the 2008 rules are so much tighter).

as far as power, i can only be realistic in saying that these arent performance beasts. as far as weight-to-power, the xD is better than the xA, and i dont mind the xAs power. of course the stick will be more efficient, but its not worth it to me in city driving (especially with the type of people i live around - as if the lights werent bad enough, the driving around here SUCKS. i barely take my 5-speed out at all during the day).

a side pic of the xd is all you should need. from the looks of it, the only thing past the wheels are the bumpers - it looks great. so much better than my 01 Solara boat!!

cant wait to test drive an xd to make sure the pics and specs measure up...