Wow! I enjoyed reading this thread, and I was going to respond earlier...but it went off the rails onto manual trannies (which I also love!). I drove a deuce and a half in the Canadian military as well, but my fav vehicle was my old 89/90 Honda prelude with a 5 speed. Also drove a Chevy S-10 pickup 5 speed. Ah...those were the days.
Okay, now to the used gun stuff. I have two S&W handguns which were LE trade-ins. The compact Shield EZ is virtually flawless. The full sized M&P9 M2.0 has significant aesthetic wear but is still in good shape. Both were "overhauled", and they shot fine out of the boxes they were shipped in. I like the feel of S&W, so the EZ went into my EDC cycle. I'm too small to carry the full sized, so it's my home defense piece. I like the 17 round mag capacity.