Yahoo Autos Junkyard Gem: 2009 Hyundai Elantra with manual transmission
As recently as the early 1990s, a good-sized percentage of bread-and-butter commutemobiles were still sold in the United States with manual transmissions. In those days, skipping the automatic transmission made a car much cheaper, sometimes as much as 10% cheaper, and three-pedal cars tended to get significantly better fuel economy. Then automatics got cheaper and better; manuals were more often chosen by the small minority of drivers who preferred them. The U.S.-market Hyundai Elantra has had a manual transmission available since the first 1992 models showed up here (you can buy a '23 Elantra N with a six-speed manual right now), but few 21st-century Elantra shoppers have proven willing to choose their own gears. After quite a lot of searching the car graveyards, I finally managed to find an ordinary 21st-century Elantra with a five-on-the-floor.
This is an Elantra GLS, the cheapest trim level for 2009. The MSRP for this car was just $14,120, or about $20,007 in 2023 dollars.
If you wanted an automatic transmission in your 2009 Elantra GLS, the price tag got $1,000 bigger ($1,417 in today's money).
That's a bit more than a 7% price jump to enjoy two-pedal driving, which nearly all '09 Elantra buyers were willing to pay.
I've managed to find some unexpected 21st-century cars with manual transmissions in boneyards, including a Saturn Vue, a Honda Insight and a PT Cruiser.
