The Decline of Manual Transmissions

There has been a decline in manual transmission vehicles in the US. According to a report by Fox, only 10% of the cars in the US had manual transmissions. While there are quite a few car manufacturers that only offer automatic in their vehicles, there are still a few vehicles left that are only available in manual. This means car buying may require a bit more research, depending on your preference. Many car makers are moving towards a double clutch or shifter system, which allows a car's computer to shift transmission much quicker than a person can. The Nissan GTR is a great example of a car that only offers automatic transmission for performance reasons. Nissan believes that in order to keep their fast 0-60 time, they need to equip the vehicle with a dual clutch system which can shift transmission in as little as .15 seconds in “R” mode. The main purpose of the Nissan GTR is speed, and for that reason Nissan believes that a manual transmission is not beneficial for the car's performance stats. There are however, car makers that produce vehicles only available in manual transmission, since they believe that a driver should have full control of their ride. The Dodge Viper, Porsche Cayman GT4 and Mustang Shelby GT350 are 3 sports cars that are only available in manual transmission but can keep up with the Nissan GTR on the track. Many smaller vehicles are also only available in manual transmission such as the older Honda S2000 and the turbocharged Ford Fiesta ST. The decline of manual transmissions is due to quite a few factors. With better performance in automatic vehicles and people just unable to drive manual transmission, there has been a steady decline in the amount of manual transmissions available. For the ones that remain, some car makers such as Ford are taking steps to ensure that drivers know how to drive manual when they purchase one. They have started adding small tags to the car with instructions on how to properly drive your manual transmission so you do not damage the gears. Though there may be fewer manual transmission vehicles on the road, there is still a large crowd that would drive nothing but manual. The joy you get from having full control of your vehicle is one you can’t experience on the road or track with an automatic car. For that reason, it doesn’t seem as if manual cars will completely phase out. Instead, they will remain in select vehicles that have been known to carry the option. For those that see a car they want which is only available in manual, learning how to drive it will change their views on driving forever!