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The end of the manual transmission is near?

popularmechanics.com

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Re: The end of the manual transmission is near?

#181

Post by RamRodification »

bergenty wrote: post #150
blackfawn wrote: post #141

I doubt I'll never buy an automatic transmission vehicle. If that means never buying a new car after some point, then so be it. I've had quite a few manual transmission cars over the years and have driven them through all the things people complain about like steep hills in icy winters, stop and go traffic for an hour or two commute, etc. and I'd still go for a MT every time. Not only is it cheaper and less complex,…

Manual is stupid. Automatics have been better than manual for a while and who the hell wants to spend all that time changing gears for no reason. Boring is the silliest rationalization there is.

You prefer thing?! Me mad!

Re: The end of the manual transmission is near?

#182

Post by antegamisou »

pier25 wrote: post #164

> As sad as it may be, manual vehicles make up a miniscule percentage of the current market share. Is the author talking about the world or the US? AFAIK the vast majority of vehicles sold in Europe are manual. Not sure about the rest of the world. I'm from Spain and I've never seen an AT car there. I'm sure they exist though, probably. I now live in Mexico where AT is very common and I've gotten used to it. I think…

> Is the author talking about the world or the US?

World = USA for something like 90% of Internet posts/videos.

Re: The end of the manual transmission is near?

#183

Post by _delirium »

pier25 wrote: post #164

> As sad as it may be, manual vehicles make up a miniscule percentage of the current market share. Is the author talking about the world or the US? AFAIK the vast majority of vehicles sold in Europe are manual. Not sure about the rest of the world. I'm from Spain and I've never seen an AT car there. I'm sure they exist though, probably. I now live in Mexico where AT is very common and I've gotten used to it. I think…

> AFAIK the vast majority of vehicles sold in Europe are manual.

This was true up until a few years ago, but it's around 50/50 now for passenger cars. There is a definite regional split, with manuals still popular in southern Europe, but having rapidly declining market share in northern Europe. Part of that is that hybrid and electric cars have had more uptake in northern Europe and are almost always automatic (there are a handful of manual hybrids, but they're not common).

Automatics as a percentage of new passenger car sales in 2020 for a few European countries [1]:

    EU27+UK: 50%
    Sweden:  86%
    Germany: 61%
    UK:      56%
    France:  48%
    Greece:  34%
    Spain:   32%
    Italy:   28%
[1] Full table is on p. 57 of this report: https://theicct.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/ICCT-EU-Pocke...

Re: The end of the manual transmission is near?

#184

Post by lfowles »

iamevn wrote: post #152

I love driving manuals, learned on an 5 speed New Beetle and mostly drive a 2012 Mazda 6 now. My partner has a newer automatic Mazda 3 and it just feels wrong to have the car guess what I want lagging behind me rather than me just telling the car directly ahead of when I need it. The only argument that's swayed me away from being entirely on the side of manual cars is that if I'm out hiking with friends who I've driv…

With a little instruction anyone can drive a manual poorly :)

Re: The end of the manual transmission is near?

#186

Post by allenrb »

electric_mayhem wrote: post #8

Nothing protects your car from theft by millennials like a manual transmission.

This! About ten years ago, I had to make a late visit to a rental property in a rougher part of Atlanta. Walking back to my 1995 Accord Ex Coupe w/ manual gears (they probably made about a dozen of these…) some kids appeared out of the darkness. One had a gun pointed at me. Asked for the keys. I handed them over. And then asked, “do you know how to drive a stick?” Gun-boy said yes, and they climbed into the car. Engine starts. Car sits there. About 30 seconds later, they all got out and asked what else I had.

Cost of that evening? One already vintage iPhone 4. Still driving manual, but not visiting properties in the dark any more.

Re: The end of the manual transmission is near?

#188

Post by xnyan »

aaaaaaaaaaab wrote: post #71

I’ll stay manual until I go electric. Every time I’ve tried automatic transmissions I had the feeling that the computer was struggling to figure out what I’m gonna do (upshift, downshift, accelerate slowly, accelerate agressively?) based on the limited input available. It always felt annoying compared to the direct control with a manual.

Which automatic have you tried most recently? I suspect it’s somewhat older than you may think, because even moderate quality automatics don’t often have that kind of constant gear hunting anymore. The ZF Friedrichshafen 8HP was a game changer for autos that don’t feel terrible but also relatively affordable, and they are everywhere now.

Re: The end of the manual transmission is near?

#189

Post by tmh88j »

legitster wrote: post #42

I wouldn't jump to this conclusion just yet! Porsche, Ferrari, etc all commanded huge premiums this year for their manual versions. Specifically among younger buyers and first time buyers! You even see this effect downmarket - Toyota promised to never make a manual version of their Supra, then just this last year they put together a cobbled transmission to save their car. Manuals are also an order of magnitude less c…

> You even see this effect downmarket - Toyota promised to never make a manual version of their Supra, then just this last year they put together a cobbled transmission to save their car.

They didn't say never, just that it was unlikely. I think the new Nissan Z scared them into offering one. The timing was too perfect to be coincidental. From the lead engineer a few years ago:

> Tada said he knows people keep asking for a manual in the Supra and in time, after customers have driven the Supra with the automatic, if they are still clamoring for a manual, he will consider it. "It is not out of the question to see an update like that."[1]

[1] https://www.motortrend.com/news/why-2021-toyota-supra-doesnt...

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