The end of the manual transmission is near?

Shifting is completely normal to me, almost like muscle memory. I know my car well enough that can match motor revs to the new gear pretty close, without having to look at the dials. The whole process is automatic - I no longer even notice doing it. I just shift when needed, without actually having to consciously think about anything...

That being said, I don't really feel nostalgic or emotionally attached to that experience. I'm not used to automatics, but I know that in an automatic car that gives you good feedback, you can still develop that same "intuition", allowing you to for example kick-down in a lower gear for overtaking.

For me personally, loosing manual transmissions is no cause for concern.

I am concerned about people becoming worse drivers, and roads becoming more dangerous, but I think that other trends contribute more to that than automatic transmissions do. Like modern SUVs providing super little feedback. You can't feel the road, you can't feel the motor, you can't feel your speed, or the cornering forces, or how much grip you have. The whole driving is experience feels floaty and detached - like playing a video game.

There's a ton of things you can do with a manual when pushing a car to its limits that simply aren't possible with an automatic, especially when on slippery terrain (mud, snow).

Damn shame.

That said, I will never buy another ice engine if I can help it. That’s coming for all of us ”enthusiasts”. For better or worse “boring” electric motors with all the smoothness and infinite torque across all rpm’s are the future…

Mt and even ice will be only for the affluent as a recreation item. (See who currently can own a horse and what they use them for as an example)

So what are the enthusiast masses to do?

My pitch is that electric sports cars of the future should have digital simulations of the mt experience. We just need to modulate the electric motors to simulate the torque curve of an ice engine.

Either put a real clutch and mt gear box in and pump the output into that. Or fake the whole thing with a haptic clutch pedal.

Sim racing has just about all the tech figured out for how to make it believable enough. And we already pipe fake engine sound around ice cars to make em sound better.

The best part is that you could simulate different types of engines and new and fun combinations of manual and auto stuff. And when you want efficiency just plonk it in the middle gear and let the electric motors be electric mode. You get all the options. Full manual, sequential shifter, paddles dual clutch, and full auto electric.

Maybe that would be better in electric retrofits but if Mazda made an electric Miata with that option the haters would hate until they tried it and saw how fun it would be. Really that’s the only reason anyone has to get a mt anymore. They are just fun as hell to drive so all we need to do is figure out how to make the electric cars we will all have to drive fun.

Why is this 20% increase in price not being discussed here?

I suppose this was partly because the cheapest automatic version had more HP than then cheapest manual version, and partly because automatic is just more expensive. But the point stands...