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Automotive News & Views The Future Of The Manual Transmission
5809 messages, Last post on Dec 03, 2009 at 12:30 PM
You are in the Automotive News & Views Forum. Your Hosts are steve_ & claires
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I used to think I'd be the last stick shift driver after going nearly 40 years without ever owning a slushbox car. That changed after I had a stroke in 2000 and I was forced to buy a clutchless car. I'm now on my third juicebox car and I'm grateful that I've been able to get then with manumatic gearboxes (Tiptronic Audis and a Steptronic BMW). These are not as satisfying to operate as a good manual but they do allow you to easily select a gear which may be more appropriate when driving in certain conditions. They're getting better all the time and there's a good chance that my next car will be equipped with a DSG type shifter which allows for very fast race-car type shifts and best of all has no torque converter to soak up the power. I wonder why some high performance cars, notably the new Corvette C6 do not offer a Manumatic type shifter in place of the tradition set it and forget it automatic?
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Replying to: andys120 (Mar 12, 2005 11:05 am) |
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are still the way to go and what's more is I don't think they're going to disappear. I love to control the engine output and transmission manually. I notice that my favorite Kia still offers a new car with manual transmissions(like the new 2005 Kia Sportage)and Scion is big on stick shifts, too. I wouldn't buy a tC with an automatic transmission! No way! I think the carmakers will keep offering them...I don't like the fact that A/C isn't standard on many new cars, including my favorite Kia Motors. If you want the base model you'll get your manual tranny but in most Kia models you have to add A/C as an option. There's no way I would even try to endure a Midwest summer without air conditioning! |
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If I'm interested in a car, and one trim level makes you pay for A/C, I won't even consider that trim. The Mazda3 i is like that. I'm not paying $850 for A/C. Ain't happnin'! DrFill |
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I can't believe a/c is still an option on some cars. Even in in New England where hardly anyone has an airconditioned home it's almost universal in cars. After all a car is a big metal box that heats up quickly and cools down slowly. Back to topic I'm sure we're only about a decade away from a time when only purpose built sports cars will have three pedals and even with those many will have no clutch pedal, like today's Enzo. . |
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| Manual transmissions will be around for a while. At least in Europe. I was talking about cars with one of my friends from Germany, and she thinks automatics are "no fun!" Right on. There isn't anything like a stick. Even though these manumatics are getting better, they're on more expensive cars. Still.... there are a bunch of cars that have manuals. | |
| What irks me are cars that are offered with a manual in other markets, but not here. Like you could get a manual S-class up until 1991! Except in NA, where I believe the last manual S would be a 6cyl 108 c. 1969. | |
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last I checked, the 3-series here in America sold 40% of their cars with manuals! And the lack of a 5-speed really hurt sales of the Lexus IS to their desired market in 2001. DrFill |
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for the manual quite rapidly last year, but was MOST gratified to notice this year that in the truck realm, Nissan, Toyota, and Jeep took the trouble to upgrade their manuals to six-speeds for the '05 model year, and make them standard (if not in plentiful supply!). That is in Frontier and Tacoma, Liberty and Wrangler, and XTerra. Next year's Toyota FJ will have a 6-speed manual which, while optional, is an encouraging sign given that it is included on a brand new model for the '07 model year. Then there are companies like Honda that still seem fairly committed to making sticks available, at least for all their 4-cyl models. And they still sell a very healthy mix of manuals in the Civic and even the Accord lines. Toyota, of course, has all but given up on the manual but even it is aware of the appeal in sporty cars - the Corolla XRS with the Celica engine has a 6-speed manual as its only transmission. Lastly, I am encouraged to see Acura having a very hard time moving auto-trans RSXs, so much so that they have extended and cheapened a promotional lease on auto RSXs only. BMW had so many leftover auto 3-series sedans that it did the same thing - the salesman informed me when I checked into it that the special lease applies only to autos, NOT manuals. Subaru is another one that still sells a healthy mix of manuals, but of course follows the trend of not offering a manual for any of its 6-cyl models - shame shame. That is all the good news. The reality, I think, is that most of the premium-branded models we still have with sticks today (Acura TL/TSX, BMW 3- and 5-series, Mercedes C-class and SLK, Lexus IS, Audi turbo 4's) will not have them within a decade. Either SMG/SMT will be cleaned up to work much better, or more companies will adopt a DSG-type system, and it will be toughened up to handle more power. In the meantime, auto-stick will gain wider and wider acceptance. I think we can reasonably expect some pick-ups to continue to have them, along with some smaller sporty cars. I think the rule of having manuals standard in all really cheap 4-cyl cars will also go away, however, once auto-stick becomes really pervasive. And on a sidenote, I think A/C will be standard on every car within a decade. Cars without it already take such a huge hit on saleability at trade-in time, it is doing a disfavor to the owner not to make it standard. And it must be like 95% of all cars and trucks that now have A/C from the factory. |
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I think Aston Martin is doing it right with the 2006 Aston Martin V8 Vantage...it will only be available with a manual transmission when it goes on sale (at least for a year or so). The 2006 Pontiac Solstice will initally only be available with a manual tranmssion. I hope the Cadillac CTS-V is only available with a manual transmission in the future (as it is now). The Corvette Z06 needs to stay manual only (no autos or paddle shifters). I think it is sad that the new BMW M5 doesn't have a manual transmission...any pimple-faced teenager with a permit can drive it! It took skill to drive the old M5s. |
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