We have a 2018 Spark manual. It's a fun little car and will keep up with traffic just fine if you keep the RPM's up. First gear is geared a little two high in my opinion. If you pull away from a stoplight with what I would consider normal engine speed its a dog. The only downside to any manual transmission is they are a P.I.T.A. driving around town. We will probably upgrade to a Chevy Equinox just to get back to a automatic and more room. Our Spark gets about 40 mpg most of the time and we've had zero problems in 20,000 miles. They seem to be well made.