bambey

TLDR, has anyone gone from a A4 to an M6 and if so how has your experience been and was it worth it to you?


I’be owned my ‘99 A4 C5 for almost a year now. When I first got it I was ecstatic to drive it everyday but my enjoyment has waned a bit. It has gotten to the point where the cons of daily driving a 25 year old V8 seems to outweigh the enjoyment and pros of this amazing car. I love how the C5 looks and feels but it just feels like something is… missing.

After I got my C5, I learned how to drive stick at my car auction job and ever since then, the idea of owning and driving a manual has been bugging my brain every single day. I hate to say it, but driving Civics/miatas/accords/etc that are manual seem much, much, more fun and just rile me up way more than my C5 has in a long, long time. It really feels like the enjoyment of driving manual is what’s missing, and everyday I kick myself in the shins for not getting a manual C5.

I love my Bette and she has the perfect specs/cosmetic mods and I would hate to see her go, but everyday I just can’t help but wonder what a manual C5 would be like. Has anyone else been in the same situation and went through with a swap? I would love to hear from others who changed from auto to manual and just how much more of the driving experience they feel they gained.

Midwest19942000

I haven’t done a conversion but keep in mind that all C5 M6 cars came with the 3.42 rear ends and the autos either got the 2.73 or the 3:15. So even if you do a trans swap you’re not going to get the full effect unless you also change out the rear end. My opinion is that even though it might be possible it probably isn’t going to make financial sense. I would sell the auto and then go buy a manual.

bambey

im sorry I should have made it clear but I meant trading/selling my C5 for one that’s manual, not doing a transmission swap which I’ve heard is ill-advised, as much as I would love to do one.

Midwest19942000

Got it! My first Corvette was an auto C4 and I love that car but then got the bug for a manual. My C5 is a manual and for me it makes the car much more fun to drive. Both Corvettes are weekend drivers and as much as I enjoy the manual trans on the C5 I don’t think I’m hard core enough to have a manual as a daily driver.

I know that’s kind of apples to oranges with the C4 and C5 comparison but I’m sure lots of folks here will chime in that have had both auto and manual C5s.

Vetteman Jack

I went the other way - from two 6-speed C5s to an A4 C5. Many will tell you that the 6-speed allows for more driver interaction and a more engaging experience, but I honestly had fun with both transmission types and do not regret either one.

bambey

that’s fascinating to hear. I feel like I’m probably going under FOMO a bit as I’ve just learned how to drive manual and don’t own one and therefore just want one so badly considering I don’t have access to one.

I also sometimes wonder if I should trade into a Z06 while I’m at it, although I do quite enjoy the targa top aspect and being able to remove it on the occasion. So much to consider… I wish I could just own 10 corvettes

Sydwayz

It depends on how you use it. I have a C5 MN6 that is a garage queen, and I treasure driving it; occasionally.
My last manual daily driver was a new 1997 Pontiac Grand Am. Ever since then, I've had an automatic daily driver.
Every time I get stuck in traffic with the MN6 C5 now, I just end up pissed off.

cdee63

I am another in the had a manual and now an auto, though different vehicles. I swapped a 5 speed into my Crown Vic some years back using a donor trans from a Mustang. Very much a PITA job but it was fun... for awhile. Being a daily driver like mentioned it got old rowing gears all the time in traffic. Now my C5 is an auto and though I think at times it would be more exciting driving it as a stick I do still a lot of fun driving it as an auto, especially when I get stuck in nightmare traffic around Tampa..

smitty2919

The only reasons you should own an auto sports car is age/general heath issues.

Unless the auto has a real fancy paddle PDK or sequential transmission....manual all the way.

My last 6 cars have been manual sports cars (Mustangs/Camaros/GTO) and now C5Z.

DDaaryl

I was surprised to learn that manual transmission was an option on these cars. My first C5 was an M6. Just picked up an A4 this week. Every time I get in the car I'm looking to hit the clutch pedal to start it. When I slow down in traffic I'm looking to downshift. Don't know how long to will take to get used to it but I miss shifting gears the old way. They say it's better in heavy traffic, we'll see.

JCMDoug

I could have go either way and I ended up with an A4. I swapped the Diff on and it helped make more fun to drive. I had a fear of getting a manual that had been abused and needed a clutch job in a year of ownership.
From what I understand its a big job that costs big bucks unless you can do it yourself. Removing the whole transaxle is not a job I want to do to replace a clutch and it's also hard to bleed the clutch or near impossible without again removing the transaxle.

I also deal with lots traffic so the choice was easy for me.

bambey

im surprised that this is the only response that seems to favor the manual, though if what they say about corvette drivers are true it might be an age thing

Midwest19942000

I fall right in the middle of the millennial generation and I’m not sure about daily driving a manual. Love it for weekend toys but like a lot of things I could see becoming disenchanted with it. I also live in a large metro area and have been stuck in traffic with the M6 Corvette. I just don’t like the feeling when I constantly have to ride the clutch. Everyone has their own preferences and circumstances though.

cdee63

Age and injuries are my excuse. At 60 I'm not exactly old but both knees being replaced makes THEM feel like a lot older, add the fact I also have a right shoulder replacement. Between a **** left knee for the clutch and a **** right shoulder for the shifter I guess I am destined to stay with an auto forever...

Hary Gahtoe

Our first C5 was manual. C5 #2 is Auto.

That said; My second car is my first choice. Only because I was able to customize tune the transmission shifts to my choice after changing the differential ratio
Much firmer and faster than originally
My biggest issue with the manual was the ratio between gears was more for mileage than speed. Top two (almost three) are for gas mileage
I put in a C6 ZO6 shifter that helped daily driving but the individual gear ratio’s could be closer for acceleration

Hotrodzz3

Manual for me, it's my daily driver and I live in Phoenix so plenty of traffic to me automatics are boring....

RC81

Thank you o wise one lol.To each their own, we all have our own reasons for what we prefer.

Elektro

Love the auto. I do kinda wish there were more than 4 gears on the c5 tho lol. I used to only drive manuals. My last manual car was miata.

I recently rented a manual car for about a month. fiat 500 hybrid. Worried I might be having some kind of manual fomo. It was fun to change gears again, but I was over it after two days. No matter how smooth you shift there will be a torque interruption.

I prefer to focus on driving. At bare minimum, if I ever got another manual car it would have auto blip... huge game changer. If yall like dancing the pedals in brake zones or playing with stick shifts then be my guest. I have a husband for that.

The old autos get damn hot. Anybody who says they track/race their auto c5 with a cooler is delusional or just not going very fast. Maybe couple laps of tt is OK. I have 3 cooler now which is just about right.

To get the most out of these old autos you still need to know the shift mapping, how and when to change to which gear, etc. If you drive it mindlessly you will have the same results as mindlessly driving a manual car.

1999corvettels1

Sounds like you need to get a T56 C5, you already know manual transmission cars are more fun!

I’m about to swap my automatic truck to T56 magnum, the #1 reason is for fun, but with 4.10 gears and no overdrive it gets loud on the freeways, and mpg hopefully will improve a lot.

REDEVIL

I'll chime in here. I have had my C5 for 22 years. I bought it in 2002 pre-owned. It's a 1999 and had ~30k miles at the time. It was an A4 and the previous owner swapped the gears to 3.42. I drove it that way for about 4 years and really wanted a manual. I decided to swap the A4 to M6 instead of buying another car (because I had the car exactly how I wanted it minus the transmission). At the time (2006ish) it was more common for the A4-M6 swap and even the other way around M6-A4 (for drag racing purposes). Anyway, a local shop in Southern California said they wanted to evaluate the business opportunity of transmission swaps (they were getting a lot of customer inquiries about this) so they said they would try it out on my car. I bought the transmission from a guy on the Forum and had it shipped. Remember my car already had 3.42 rear end (which was also a fairly common mod back then for A4s). Also, everything bolts up pretty well for the A4 vs. M6, so very few if any modifications need to be done. So, the shop embarked on the project. They said it was a pain in the azz and would never do it again. I got the car back many months later and still didn't have several things sorted out (like neutral safety switch, cruise control, reverse lockout, and maybe a few more). I didn't want them to touch my car anymore so I enlisted the help of the forum and completed the misc items myself in my garage. I had to wire in the neutral safety switch and dig into the computer to add the functionality that was missing. (I know there are some detail threads on here about this). The conversion was done in 2006 with ~50K miles and now the car has 101K. So half of it's miles have been in M6 mode. I have not had ONE issue since I sorted all of the details out. I drive the car a lot and no one would even know it started life as an A4 (unless you really dug into it). Even though it was a lot of work, I'm glad I went through the pain early on because I will probably keep this car forever. I have no intentions of selling it and I love rowing the gears. So, if you have the ability and patience to do this or trust someone it might make sense to go for it. If not, there are plenty of nice M6 C5s out there to choose from.

P.S. I really wanted a Z06, but since I am 6' 7", I cannot drive a Z06. They did not have the telescoping steering wheel option which I need to get my long legs under the steering wheel to work the clutch. Therefore, I had to stick with my coupe and decided to convert it rather than sell and buy a new one.