The last few times we visited Europe, the car rental places basically defaulted to either electric or automatics, but all three options were virtually the same price, or the manual is only a few Euros cheaper.
This last time we went to Spain, picked a manual, got to pickup where they told us they didn't have a manual and would we mind a free upgrade. Sure! They offered us an electric. We needed to do a lot of driving so we asked if they had something else, we ended up with a Toyota crossover Hybrid (CR-Z maybe) which was a CVT.
Merp.
I don't know the stats but it seems even Europe is starting to shed manuals. I don't know if its the popularity of electrics that has finally busted through or some other cause.
Another anecdote, we sometimes ended up a taking taxis while in Spain and Portugal, not a manual in sight, which was notable enough that I remembered it.
New automatic gearboxes are pretty much better in any way other than raw cost and with things like hybrids and cruise control etc I imagine it'd actually end up costing more to adapt a manual to all that than just using an automatic
And reaction time. I drive a manual. When I get into an automatic, the thing that annoys me most is it's in the wrong gear and takes a while to react to the press on the accelerator. I generally know what gear I need in a couple of seconds time, so when I'm driving a manual it's already in that gear when the time arrives. I'm amazed at how often I thinking "oh for pete's sake, do catch up" to an automatic gear box.
That said, that's an ICE problem. Their low torque at low revs is means you have to be in the right gear to accelerate quickly. In EV's the effect isn't noticeable.
I'm convinced the only reason manual is still made is so that rental companies could gauge for auto's. No sane person should buy manual (or ICE car to begin with).
So, not everything is lost?
> Only six-speed and a few seven-speed manuals will remain.
As a manual Miata owner, thank you for the compliment!
Take it from my cold dead hands.
After he pulled around I guessed it was because his car was a manual and none of the kids changing oil had the ability to drive it. Confirmed it with him when he came out to leave.
I was sad. :-(
On a positive note, I recently read about a carjacker being foiled by a manual transmission, so there's that.
This happens all the time in New Orleans.
I ran the numbers. Automatic won for cost.
For a cheap car, manual makes little sense for a rational consumer.
Ergo, they're only left on fancy sports cars.
Cheap fossil cars with shitty automatics can be quite stressful to drive. With a manual clutch and transmission you are in control, know how the car will behave and can relax. It might still be slow, but you know exactly how slow in every situation.
This is a self inflicted problem. They're programmed for fuel economy (we're talking a small fraction of an MPG here) at the expense of drivability. The might even get worse fuel economy in practice because drivers learn you gotta floor them to tell the compute "no I'm serious, give me the ponies".
I find it hard to believe that the Smart car I rented once shifted terribly for fuel economy reasons. It just sucked. I’ve never been so worried that I’d get rear ended leaving a stop sign (during the unbelievably slow shift from first to second), and putting the pedal to the metal didn’t make any difference.
If you ever have a the opportunity to drive a Nissan from the "hurr durr Nissan CVT bad" era like 2008-12ish it'll feel like a sports car by comparison to just about any modern crossover. "Oh you want revs, let me give you revs"
A typical manual maintenance schedule will keep the gearbox running for a very long time. The typical automatic maintenance schedule will keep it alive for its "lifetime", but that lifetime ends up being a few hundred thousands miles and instead of more maintenance at the end of that interval, you end up with a dead transmission.
No, no, no. The US tariffs may have a teeny tiny effect, but Nissan is actually cutting across-the-board due to their extremely bad spreadsheets (and failed Honda merger/acquisition).
I want to drive the car, not the other way around.
floxy•8mo ago
https://www.theautopian.com/manual-transmissions-now-make-up...
quantified•8mo ago
floxy•8mo ago
svpk•8mo ago
I'm sure its more complicated in practice but I imagine that's the core issue.
UncleEntity•8mo ago
They would and I'm sure they produce just as many as they can reliably sell.
I always end up with a manual as they are cheaper (presumably) due to less demand. Hell, my current car they strait-up lied that it was an automatic on Carvana and when it showed up I was, like, whatever. Wasn't really worth the effort to go through whatever Kafkaesque dispute resolution system they crafted and I needed a car so now I have one of those elusive 5-speeds.
bdangubic•8mo ago
throwcarsales•8mo ago
They sat and sat. I made it my personal goal to sell them because I felt bad. I would present them while walking past them no matter what car you came for. I eventually sold them all, even though there were 6 other salespeople working there. I was top 1% in the country so it wasn't a skill issue.
Tldr; manufacturers have been tracking 'average days to sale' for decades. They saw the trends even when the cars were in stock. They took way longer to sell, thus they are gone.
nradov•8mo ago
In some other countries the new car sales system is a little different with more consumers wanting to custom order the car they want, then wait for it to be built. In the US, many mainstream brands won't even take custom orders anymore.
Fezzik•8mo ago
xbmcuser•8mo ago
FiatLuxDave•8mo ago