Why Stick Shifts Are Going Extinct

[Music] this is a ferrari 488 pista and this is a lamborghini uracan and this is a mclaren gt these cars all have a number of things in common they are all quite rare extremely fast and very expensive but they have something else in common that might startle some car fans and that says a lot about the automotive industry today none of them can be bought with a stick shift a once ubiquitous feature that is now in danger of going extinct and a small but vocal tribe of die hard drivers seems to be growing more depressed over that by the day you ride in an automatic shifted car but you drive a manual shifted car the vast majority of people in the united states rarely ever encounter a manual transmission car and numbers suggest the stick shift is becoming only more obscure as time passes the manual transmission is such a an art and and it's a it's a method of driving that many people just simply don't enjoy anymore because driving's more of a chore than anything data indicate the number of models in the u.s available with a manual transmission is falling every year less than two percent of cars sold in the united states in 2019 came with one so why does anyone care good question throughout most of automotive history nearly all cars on the road have run on gasoline or petrol powered engines an engine basically powers a car by spinning a rod called the crankshaft that is ultimately connected to the wheels via the car's drivetrain the speed at which the engine spins that rod is measured in revolutions per minute or rpm a revolution being a single turn of the rod between the engine and the drivetrain sits the transmission that regulates the amount of power the engine delivers to the wheels an engine will spin at different speeds depending on how much a driver hits the accelerator when someone revs an engine that is the sound of an engine working harder engines have a specific speed at which they operate best if an engine works too hard it can overheat and break but if it isn't working hard enough it won't move the car somewhere between those two extremes sits the engine's power band that is the range at which the engine most efficiently balances power and speed a series of gears of different sizes helps achieve this balance the relative sizes of the gears can be changed so that the car can make the most of the power the engine is producing at different speeds or in different conditions a manual transmission accomplishes this well manually the driver changes the gears using a shifter and a clutch pedal that third pedal on the left side of manual cars the clutch temporarily disconnects the engine from the drivetrain allowing the driver to switch gears once pretty much all cars were manual transmission and they remain common in some auto markets around the world the advantages of manual transmissions are that they are totally mechanical and relatively simple this has made them relatively inexpensive to produce and easy to fix but a lot of drivers also like manual transmissions because they give a feeling of control and connectedness to a car manual transmissions allow drivers to change gears exactly when they want to which can be helpful when driving at high speeds around a tight race track or on tricky off-road terrain the trouble with manual transmissions is that they require work skill and constant attention and that is why many people say they have fallen out of favor over time just decades after the automotive industry began to grow especially in europe and the united states companies began developing automatic transmissions like many technologies and cars automatic transmissions developed gradually over time but a few significant developments in the 1930s and 1940s began to bring mass-market automatic transmissions closer to reality chrysler introduced a direct ancestor to the automatic transmission called fluid drive for the 1939 model year general motors introduced another pivotal system called the hydromatic transmission for the model year this is commonly considered the first widely available fully automatic transmission it was sold on oldsmobiles and cadillacs there's no c because there's no clutch no shifting no work for the driver nothing difficult to learn just some of the old driving habits to forget at first the automatic transmission was a luxury like many new technologies on cars think of it as something comparable in its day to certain cutting edge options found on cars today such as advanced safety features large heads-up displays or driver assistance systems but over time automatic transmissions became more available and more popular for reasons that probably seem obvious to drivers now they were more convenient to use than manuals especially in traffic or on hills and didn't require any special instruction or practice however for a long time they were also seen as less efficient and less precise than a good old stick shift but that has changed automatic transmissions have become more sophisticated and better performing every year drivers in the past had frequently complained that automatics could take too long to shift from one gear to the next but many say newer systems are smoother and more precise these newer systems are typically controlled by computers and proponents say they can switch gears far faster than any human being could these types of technological leaps suggest the era of manual transmissions may be coming to a close at least in developed automotive markets and for the vast majority of drivers the change appears to have been welcomed or mostly ignored customers in the market for a commuter car or family vehicle seem to have adjusted pretty well to the new reality after all if there were widespread demand for manual transmissions say industry watchers car makers would happily sell them the demand just isn't there i think it's consumer demand even the consumer demand of the of the ultra wealthy they don't necessarily want to have a manual transmission they don't know how to drive a manual transmission it's not for for even for supercar enthusiasts the enjoyment may not be there you know it's it's something that they would rather have ultimate acceleration ultimate torque for example in 2006 47 of the 305 car models sold in the us offered standard or optional manual transmissions but that number fell over time one decade later only 27 of new car models offered manuals by 2020 the number was just 13 however some car buyers do have strong opinions about the decline of manual transmissions a category of consumer often known as the enthusiast this includes fans of racing and off-roading lovers of european sports cars supercars muscle cars and performance suvs and trucks the larger decline of manual transmissions has been felt by buyers more strongly in these areas of the market the last several years have been witness to some remarkable decisions by car brands that cater to certain types of customers especially those interested in sports cars or certain types of utilities take the famous supercar brand ferrari for example the brand used to be widely known for its manual gearbox but ferrari said in 2016 it would stop producing any cars with manual transmissions british supercar maker mclaren doesn't offer manuals neither does lamborghini this has been one of the more brow raising developments in the world of performance cars in recent years again there are some purists especially older ones who insist there really is nothing like the experience of operating a stick shift the steering wheel is one part of how you control the car and the shifter is the other um there's three pedals okay and my feet know what to do with those three pedals i am fully engaged in driving the vehicle and what happens is the man machine interface you become one with the car but specs from the manufacturers themselves suggest drivers can actually get comparable or more often better performance from an automatic buyers seem to increasingly feel that a manual transmission is no longer a necessity even in a sporty car for example sports sedan pioneer bmw ended production of manual transmission versions of some of its high-performance m badged cars prompting sadness among some long time fans of the line and members of the automotive press lamborghini's similar decision to stop offering manuals was also due to the lack of a business case for them in other words it is just too expensive to keep offering an option sophie lambo buyers want bmw still sells manual transmission in a few of its cars such as the m2 and the m3 and m4 smaller siblings to the now automatic only m5 porsche still offers manual transmissions on some of its cars and has even added manual transmission options in recent years american muscle cars and pony cars also still cater to the buyer looking for a stick shift the dodge challenger ford mustang chevrolet camaro and the corvette can all be bought with manuals a few such cars are only available with a manual transmission such as the ford mustang shelby gt350 which as of february 2020 started at a price of sixty thousand four hundred forty dollars drivers who want a shelby without a stick will have to option up for the gt500 starting at 72 900 that car can only be bought with an automatic the 2020 gt500 is the first one in the model's history that is not offered a manual option another sign of the changing times likewise general motors widely anticipated mid-engine corvette will not have a manual option at all almost no pickup trucks sold in the u.s come with a stick shift either 2018 was the last model year any full-size truck came with a manual transmission option and it was on the ram 2500 with the cummins diesel engine mid-sized trucks with manuals include some versions of the jeep gladiator toyota tacoma and nissan frontier industry insiders who spoke to cnbc said they expect manual transmissions to continue to fade into obscurity though they may hang around for a while on some performance cars what is increasingly left is a range of automatic transmissions that attempt to capture some of the experience of a manual while offering the benefits of the new technology first on the list are standard automatics some automatics are shiftable there are also automated manuals systems that are similar to manual transmissions and how they are built but that function more like automatics there are single clutch systems which are now rare historic examples included the smart 42 and bmw's smg system far more common is the dual clutch transmission sometimes abbreviated as dct or dsg cars with shiftable automatics or dual clutch transmissions will often come with paddles along the sides of the steering wheel which allow the driver to shift up and down in certain drive modes alternatively the driver can slip the shifter into a different position and shift in a manner resembling a traditional stick shift some brands use continuously variable transmissions or cvts these transmissions feature a belt that slides back and forth on two smooth conical spools constantly seeking the best balance of power and speed cvts have their critics but they can be quite fuel efficient and are often found on cars with smaller engines for now drivers getting into a brand new car can usually expect to encounter a system like one of these despite this degree of choice some enthusiasts say the disappearance of the manual stands to alienate a small but devoted portion of buyers who are a vital ingredient in american car culture i believe that that portion of the population is underserved and is in danger of being wiped out but as this trend away from manual transmissions continues enter another shift in engineering that stands to drastically alter the auto market electric cars because electric cars run on electricity rather than gasoline engines there is no need for varying speeds at all there is no engine power band because there is no engine an electric motor can deliver maximum torque at any speed so low gears and high gears aren't needed this is part of the reason electric cars can achieve quicker acceleration than internal combustion vehicles right now electric cars are a tiny portion of the market and industry observers think the internal combustion engine is going to be around in one form or another for several years to come but automakers large and small are making big bets on electric vehicles and they are increasingly trying to leverage the performance capabilities of electric powertrains to lure buyers electric vehicle technology is expensive and many industry surveys show ordinary buyers still have a number of concerns about electric cars they take longer to charge than it takes to fill a fuel tank many drivers are also concerned about having reliable and convenient access to charging whether at home or on the road but electrics already surpassed one group of cars in sales in 2019 manual transmission vehicles

Channel: CNBC

Views: 3,975,140

Rating: 4.6131263 out of 5

Keywords: CNBC, business, news, finance stock, stock market, news channel, news station, breaking news, us news, world news, cable, cable news, finance news, money, money tips, financial news, Stock market news, stocks, top gear, motortrend channel, chrisfix, doug demuro, carwow, scotty kilmer

Id: _JuyDN0qzRY

Length: 13min 28sec (808 seconds)

Published: Tue Apr 14 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/KawiNinjaZX]

Guys I brought a brand new stick shift car I'm tryng to help.

[u/miatatony]

Great, another "manual transmissions are dying" thread with nothing new to add. Way to beat a dead horse. Let me take a guess at what's in this thread without even reading it.

1. People who say modern autos are superior by every measure

2. People who say nothing beats the driving engagement of rowing your own gears

3. People who wish they could drive stick but can't

4. People who complain about a specific car that doesn't come available in a stick

5. Lots of downvotes and shit talking

[u/Trades46]

A real shame. I haven't had the opportunity to learn stick myself until a year ago and greatly enjoy whenever the possibility I get to drive a stick comes along - it does make driving much more engaging.

[u/white0302]

Im german and idk how it is in america, is it really all automatic and like a small percentage manual?

[u/tacomafrs]

its almost time for us to drink the Kool aid

[u/CollinWoodard]

Working on a personal theory here, but if you're old enough to drive and have never learned to drive stick, do you know someone who owns one and would be willing to teach you if you asked?

Anecdotally, it seems like a lot of younger drivers who I've talked to (say, under 35 or so) don't know anyone who is willing to teach them to drive stick. Either because they don't know anyone who owns a manual at all or because the only manual-owner they know won't let anyone else drive their car.

[u/[deleted]]

I drive manual because nobody knows how to drive manual, so nobody asks to borrow my car.

[u/[deleted]]

I've never owned a manual car, but the fact that they're becoming rarer and rarer makes me want to get one.

[u/jhg123jhp123]

but is it not easier to drift with a manual stick shifter? Paddles dont use a clutch pedal I thought.