Quote:
Originally Posted by 3A53
Quote:
Originally Posted by Fuller
I'm not sure manuals are disappearing altogether. They're being phased out in certain segments, like luxury, but are still offered in most u.s. domestic and import hot hatches, us sport/muscle cars like Camaro, vette, stang, gt350/500, some Japanese makes like Mazda, Honda etc also still offer manuals in some of their models. Wrx, Miata, and brz/86 still come with manuals as well. I'm sure there are still others I'm missing that offer a manual transmission. Obviously these are mostly models marketed toward driving enthusiasts, and many people might not want these cars, but I think reports of the manual's demise are bit exaggerated.
|
The small sports car segment q1 2018 is down 40% from a year earlier. |
I don't know how that 40% breaks down, but I will say that it seems like many of the more exotic, performance cars like Porsche, Lamborghini, Ferrari, have been phasing out manuals for a while, in favor of faster shifting dct type transmissions. Theyre focused on obtaining the best performance as measured by statistics, in a market where those numbers are getting more extreme and difficult to compete with, and a person cant shift as quickly as software. The less extreme sports cars that are less focused on 2 second 0-60 runs, and more about just being enjoyable, seem to be where manuals are still offered. In all seriousness, I don't think manuals will completely go away until autonomous vehicles are mandated by law. Can you imagine a world that offers the Miata in auto only? Maybe if it eventually evolves into a 350 hp midsize sedan or crossover.....(sort of like the 3 series
