hoping for some advice...

Who said it was not "fine"???

As KevinW pointed out, his commutes are generally AGAINST TRAFFIC, so a MT is a none-issue. The clutches in a Corolla are pretty light and in most other countries autos are the exception, so I would presume if the rest of the world is tough enough for a MT, we should be too (not that the OP even wants a MT).

 

Read about his commute again. "Srellim, my commute us from North county San Diego to Irvine and back. This is generally a pretty smooth trip (ie against traffic) with the exception of a 10mile stretch of bad traffic that has forced me to take the toll road quite a bit.

That bad stretch is exactly where the Prius excels. The rest of the commute is at 65 mph, not something that will reduce the fuel efficiency significantly compared to a 55 mph commute. As for "...the rest of the world is tough enough for a manual transmission, we should be too", why? It's not a matter of "toughness". It's a matter of convenience for each individual. What the rest of the world is driving is irrelevant. The rest of the world is not driving the same commute with the same conditions.

 

He might need another cookie.

 

Well we agree there! LA traffic has nothing on other major cities like Mexico City, Tokyo, London, etc! Hell, even the "little" Mexican city of Escobedo has "worse" traffic than LA and almost every personal vehicle is a MT.

 

Driving a stick in heavy traffic gets to be old. Drove my 4 runner with a stick for many years on I-5, I can assure you the Prius is much more comfortable.

 

Agreed that an AT/DCT/CVT/HSD is more comfortable in heavy stop-n-go, especially as we get older. For me, the joy of a MT far outweighs that inconvenience.

 

It sure does. I spent a year driving a small car with a stick for a work commute from here to LAX. Mornings I would just go a couple of hours early and nap in the company parking lot to avoid traffic. Afternoons were almost always 2.5 to 3 hours to go 60 miles on the 105 east, 605 north, 210 east. A real pain.

 

Good lord man, that’s crazy stuff. As a Clutch man all I can say is best of luck Brother. My mom did the nap thing driving into San Francisco.