Manual Transmission Endangered Species

http://www.msn.com/en-us/autos/ownership/why-are-manual-transmissions-disappearing/ar-BBwHYFp

Most already know this, but a matter of time before they are gone for good.....

 

Meh... MT are still popular everywhere else in the WORLD..... why do people think the USA market is the center of the universe??

 

Autonomous vehicles are the future of mass produced vehicles. And if I am not mistaken, the listed fuel economy for the Tacoma AT is more than the MT, which is another strike against MT.
I love MT because of the reasons listed in the article, but in North America, most do not feel the same way. Voting with your wallet is one of the most efeffective, and MT is not feasible in a businless sense anymore- IMO.

 

"Automatics give engineers better control over how every drop of fuel is used in every revolution of the engine, and every molecule of pollution that comes out the tailpipe."

More like autos let the engineers design around the MPG/emissions test so they can cheat them like VW did with their diesels.

“We saw a big drop in manuals when we introduced the CVT with much better fuel-economy”

Simple engineering-- there is literally no way to get a more efficient coupling of engine output to drive wheels than a clutch. Put the same gear ratios and final drive in an MT as any auto, use the exact same engine, tires, weight, etc. and the MT will get better MPG than an auto.

"The latest figures show only about five percent of cars are sold with a stick shift."

Thats about on par with convertible uptake in the USA, which require a complete redesign of the vehicle chassis to support/certify. Yet no one is saying "OMG convertibles are dead, save the convertibles"

IMHO, the big deathblow will be driverless cars. Now manufacturers refusing to introduce manuals, pairing manuals with junk engines and drive wheel combos, etc. are just nuisances but we will keep buying them.

 

More and more people have no interest in driving. The #1 reason I bought my truck was because my wife refused to drive a manual. I had a Mini Cooper with a manual, and I loved it. FUN FUN FUN. But even those are being sold as autos more than manuals. When my wife got a new job further away she needed a better vehicle. So bye bye manual mini, Hello auto Taco.

 

I currently own three manual vehicles and live in a rural area, but I can see the argument for automatics. Population is growing, more people are on the roads, and the infrastructure just isn't keeping up. Stop/slow-and-go traffic is the getting to the norm anymore and it can get old pretty fast when you're in and out on the clutch and seemingly not getting anywhere fast.

 

I live in SoCal and have driven manuals all my life up until the last 2 vehicles i have purchased because the wife wants to drive them... have to say, in traffic I never paid attention and it was like second nature switching gears. Never tiresome and I never understood people saying its a pain in traffic unless you were pushing on a Stg3 race clutch. Just sucks that now that I bought her a Jeep to learn stick, I am stuck with a Tacoma in A/T...

 

Slow sales contribute, the real reason the inability to control shift points to aid in reduction of emissions

 

It is more a matter of being ticked that other people are causing what I perceive as premature wear on my clutch because of their bad driving habits. I currently have 109,000 original miles on my Taco clutch and my wife has 138,000 on the original clutch on her Honda. The Subie only has 25,000 miles. More annoying than anythimg, not a "physical hardship".

 

Same here

Daily drive 405 traffic

Aside from our LX, others are manual

Love it

 

To echo what has been said, the MT has now lost the battle for MPG as well as performance. The DSG and whatnot in the high end sports cars shift faster than any human can do. Thus to get max performance out of a car, DSG / Automatic is the way to go and to get the best economy out of a car, AT / CVT is the way to go. I forget which era M5 it is at this point but one of them didn't even have a MT option until US-based enthusiasts complained loudly about it. The PDK gearbox beats anything manual Porsche produces from a performance standpoint.

It's a shame really, but I anticipate when I need a new truck in hopefully 15 years, I won't have a MT option. As long as they don't ban cars driven by an operator, I can at least always have something with a MT at my disposal.

 

It's pretty sad. I love my MT. I was in a wreck last week and before I figured out my truck wasn't totaled, I began looking and worrying I'd never find myself another solid MT Tacoma. They're truly a dying breed.

 

Understandable. Though I would go and say thats up to the skill of the driver as i have never replaced a clutch (even tracking my cars) prior to 120k miles.

Especially now in the vehicles with anything over 400hp. Dual clutch trannys now shift faster than manuals so companies have faded them out for the autos. No fun if you ask me.

Edit: looks like i duplicated what @MikeyMcFly said.

 

The worst thing about my 06 V6 DC was the 6-speed manual. In the 2.7L I can understand the manual to wind it up for more power but that's how the small import pickups started after all, 4cyl and 5-speed.

I just remember towing my 18 foot flatbed with it one day. Had to make a left turn from a stop sign across a busy road on a slight incline. It was slightly wet and just wouldn't get going. Dropped it into 4wd and finally got going without major rollback. Then the joke 4wd system started binding because the street was dry and I was turning.

 

and the next features to go will be the gas pedal, brake pedal and steering wheel.
I was shocked to read that one of the economic forces driving the switch over to autonomous vehicles is the real estate market. So much valuable real estate is eaten up by parking lots. Autonomous vehicles do not need to park, in a technical sense, freeing up a lot of valuable land.
But our world is changing so fast and in so many ways, who really knows what the future will look like.

 

agreed, but all the automakers are backing it, as well as Google, Apple, Uber and many smaller firms. Once it becomes economically prohibitive to actually own a vehicle, everyman driver will be SOL. Reading a lot about the future of the job market and there are some dire predictions on that front also.
Fucking robots!

 

Is it just me or does anyone else have a random feeling that people who take the time to learn how to drive a manual tend to be better drivers? It's a little more than just a new teenage driver who jumps in a car and only knows how to hit the gas pedal

 

can't drive a stick and text at the same time....

 

Maybe he lives in the USA and is a car enthusiast?

 

but you can drive stick and hit that apex.