Makes me happy to know the Ford CEO is a diehard racer and has said on stage they’ll be the last selling manual v8s.
Take it from my cold dead hands.
js2 · 18h ago
The other day I was at an oil change place and the guy in front of me was waiting in front of the bay. After his oil was changed, an employee brought him his keys and he went and got into the car in the bay and drove it around, then went into the office and paid.
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.
cafard · 7h ago
I saw a bumper sticker showing a shift chart and the words "anti-theft device".
selimthegrim · 18h ago
> 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.
m463 · 21h ago
> there won’t be any new five-speed manual vehicles for sale in the United States.
> Only six-speed and a few seven-speed manuals will remain.
fragmede · 20h ago
The problem with that is those are traditionally higher end sports cars. Porshes and BMW-M series and the like. 5-speeds have been more entry level cars (in recent history), though of course there are exceptions.
snapetom · 17h ago
> higher end sports cars
As a manual Miata owner, thank you for the compliment!
zinekeller · 1h ago
> Looks like Nissan is trying to create as much savings as possible to handle the 25% tariff on cars imported from Mexico.
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).
Koshkin · 21h ago
> That isn’t much of a surprise, given that six-speeds have been the norm for years.
So, not everything is lost?
floxy · 22h ago
Looks like ~1% of U.S. car sales have manual transmissions.
As someone who tried to put together a CVT startup in 2000-2001, that first graph on transmission production share over time makes me feel... damn vindicated. Too bad we missed that opportunity.
quantified · 22h ago
It's be higher if they offered it more. You can't buy what isn't sold.
nradov · 18h ago
The issue isn't consumer demand but rather dealer demand. US franchise new car dealers live and die by inventory turn rates. Due to the way that floorplan financing works they can't afford to have a car sit on the lot for months. Most customers who would prefer a manual transmission will take an automatic for a good price, but customers who want an automatic won't take a manual at any price. Thus except for a few sports cars, dealers are almost never willing to order manuals from the manufacturer.
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 · 17h ago
For new cars I believe it is nearly 100% consumer demand. I’m a manual fanatic (currently shopping for my dream 93/94 Supra) but the tech for automatics is just too good now. Assistive cruise control doesn’t even work with manual transmissions and I don’t know anyone that wants to buy a new car that doesn’t have that technology. Also, the gas mileage is better, the wear-and-tear on the transmission is less and, as fun as shifting is, unless you’re a hobbyist with multiple cars the incentive of getting to shift just doesn’t outweigh the objective benefits of not having to. Heck, I clearly remember that even in the mid-90s when I was starting to drive manual transmissions were already falling out of style with kids my age buying their first cars.
throwcarsales · 18h ago
I sold cars for a decade. I love manuals. My brand offered some cars still in manual at that time. I convinced the owner to spec more of our cars as manuals from the factory.
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.
floxy · 21h ago
Why wouldn't automobile companies build more if people were willing to buy them? Is there some sort of environmental, safety, or other regulation pushing manufacturers away from manuals? Are EVs displacing the demand for manual transmissions?
svpk · 21h ago
You can get people who want a manual to compromise on buying an automatic, but the opposite is rarely true. So economies of scales dictates that you're better off just making automatics exclusively. This is all the more true since many of the key advantages to manuals (cost, fuel economy, reliability) have been greatly reduced by technology improvements.
I'm sure its more complicated in practice but I imagine that's the core issue.
UncleEntity · 20h ago
> Why wouldn't automobile companies build more if people were willing to buy them?
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.
xbmcuser · 18h ago
It won't majority of the people are not car or driving enthusiasts they just want a vehicle to get from A to B. And even car enthusiasts are more into classic cars and sports cars.
bdangubic · 20h ago
you must be living in China or something… american business will sell whatever people are willing to buy. no one wants to drive manual and hence they are not being made anymore, not the other way around in USA :)
ternaryoperator · 22h ago
Europe is behind the US in terms of the ratio, but even they are headed in this direction. 10 years ago in France, you couldn't rent anything but a manual transmission, now renting an automatic is not unusual.
bane · 20h ago
I can drive a manual fine, and we don't rent fancy cars, so if it saves a few bucks we'll get the manual option when we visit Europe.
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.
arlort · 17h ago
Manual wasn't a religious choice. They were cheaper, used to have better fuel economy and quality of the drive was better
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
dzhiurgis · 18h ago
Yeah it's bizarre. My partner (European) only got license to drive auto. Whenever we travel Europe it's either me who is going to drive or spend tons more to get auto.
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).
frognumber · 18h ago
When I bought my car, TCO for manual was higher than for automatic. Base purchase price was about $500 lower, but required a pretty frequent maintenance schedule. Automatic was nearly maintenance-free (although the little maintenance required had higher unit costs).
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.
cosmicgadget · 17h ago
For a cheap car I'd especially prefer control over power delivery.
Dylan16807 · 16h ago
Why do you prefer it less on an expensive car?
apelapan · 14h ago
Expensive cars usually have more power than cheap cars. You can enter a highway, safely overtake someone or climb a steep incline in a larger selection of gears. Also, fancy cars tend to have better automatic gearboxes that behave well in more situations, compounding the advantage.
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.
potato3732842 · 8h ago
>Cheap fossil cars with shitty automatics can be quite stressful to drive
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".
amluto · 6h ago
> 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.
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.
potato3732842 · 5h ago
Maybe it sucked too but fuel economy absolutely is a large part of why modern cars all drive like mush.
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"
BoorishBears · 13h ago
Manufacturers are notorious understating maintenance items for automatic transmissions, like "lifetime" fluids and skipping filter changes.
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.
moderation · 19h ago
I have a 5-speed manual Polaris Slingshot. A lot of fun.
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.
> Only six-speed and a few seven-speed manuals will remain.
As a manual Miata owner, thank you for the compliment!
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).
So, not everything is lost?
https://www.theautopian.com/manual-transmissions-now-make-up...
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.
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.
I'm sure its more complicated in practice but I imagine that's the core issue.
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.
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
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).
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.