increased interest in manual transmissions?

I'm taking a more positive tack here and am happy to see uptake of manual models has increased, regardless of the cause or the delta amount. 

The segment from the Today Show is now available on their website.  Granted, it is a fluff piece and not 'hard news.'

https://www.today.com/video/stick-shift-in-cars-what-s-fueling-the-growth-in-popularity-191330885605

I just bought a 2024 Integra with the six speed manual. It has the same engine and transmission as the new Civic Si. It's the easiest manual transmission car that I've ever driven.  
 

I've read in several places that when the cars were introduced in 2023, 40 percent of the initial orders were for the manual transmission.  It's tapered off a bit, but they are now selling at a rate of about 20 percent of production, which I still think is pretty amazing. 

I would love a manual car again.  The Miata I had was just not my soulmate.. maybe anotehr civic hatch... or boxster..

We have a new kid at work who is in his his early 20s. 
 

He has a manual transmission shift pattern tattooed on his right arm. 

More people wanting manual transmissions is pretty cool.  I have to wonder if the decrease in manual transmissions over time has less to do with desire and more to do with availability.  By that I mean did people always have the same level of desire for rowing their own but their buying decision wasn't driven by that, but by the fact that the auto was more expensive or really impacted the performance of the car?  Was the person choosing a manual Dodge Neon in 1995 buying the 5 speed because they really liked to shift or because the 3-speed auto made the car feel really sluggish and was more expensive?  I know this is a kind of heresy, but unlike cars of old, for regular street-driving I don't find the modern automatics to be as hateful to drive.  When you've got 7 speeds from which to choose and there's more intelligence involved than simple vacuum readings or whatever, I don't constantly find myself in the wrong gear like I would with the old 4 speeds.

Personally, I think that if you're going to learn to drive you should learn to drive everything that you could reasonably expect to encounter.  It's highly unlikely that I'll find myself in a position to have to start a car that has a crank starter on the front, so I don't really need that knowledge, but there are still plenty of stick shifts out there on the road.  My kid might want to drive one of my other cars, might want or need to drive a friend's car, and will be shopping for a car someday.  Since she wasn't allowed to drive an automatic until she had the manual transmission learned, she can jump in to any car built in the last 30-40 years and go.  I've got one car with a carb and a choke and as soon as I have that running, she'll learn how to cold-start one of those.  Just in case.

If you're a valet, though, and can't drive a manual, I think you've sort of failed the assignment.

The thing that really seems to have gone away that I'd like to see a resurgence in is how cars used to be offered as a 2-door, 4-door, or wagon.

I ordered a new Bronco with the manual. Sadly, I had to abandon the order and not buy it. I wanted to show Ford some appreciation for offering the manual by buying one. Ford has dropped the base model which will force people into the next higher trim level. More profit...

I think manufacturers are noticing that manuals will sell but only to a small group (aka enthusiasts). Like what Woody talked about with the Integra. Look what Toyota did with the A92 Supra. We have a (small) voice but its there.

I'd love to see more pedestrian vehicles be offered with a manual but it doesn't make financial sense to manufactures to produce multiple transmissions options if the manual take rate is like 3%.

Woody (Forum Supportum) said:

We have a new kid at work who is in his his early 20s. 
 

He has a manual transmission shift pattern tattooed on his right arm. 

Which pattern?

iansane said:

Woody (Forum Supportum) said:

We have a new kid at work who is in his his early 20s. 
 

He has a manual transmission shift pattern tattooed on his right arm. 

Which pattern?

This the main thing stopping me from getting such ink. My favorite transmission ever? My favorite car, so far? The daily? My first car? They're all different patterns!

The first quartz wrist watch was introduced in 1969. Mechanical watches took a hit in the 70's but now seem more popular than ever. Maybe the same thing is happening here.

There are so few new manual vehicles that those that are available are bound to pick up those few who want them.  Add in vehicle price and manuals holding value better and I can see it.  I have a feeling it's no where close to changing the tide, but will show manufactures that a car or two with the option is worthwhile.

In reply to iansane :

I don't remember. I try not to stare at guys' tattoos. 

logdog (Forum Supporter) said:

I think its a continuation of manuals maintaining their popularity primarily in enthusiast vehicles.  People will buy a manual Bronco/Wranger but a manual Explorer/Grand Cherokee would be lot poison.

I was at a work event recently and they had hired some college kids to help shuttle cars.  When asked if they had questions one of them raised their hand and asked if there would be manuals because they didn't know how to drive one.  The guys I was with started kinda laughing about the question and it rubbed me wrong.  I asked one of them if their college age kids could drive a stick and he said no because he didn't have access to a car with a manual trans to teach them.  I asked the other if he was planning on teaching his daughter who just got her permit and he admitted he didn't know anybody but me that still had one.  How can you blame "the kids these days" for not knowing how to drive stick when their families abandoned the transmission before they were born?

You learn to drive from watching your parents.  If your kids don't drive a manual, and you don't, don't complain.

They learn it from watching you, dad.  They learn it from watching YOU.

My indoctrination to a manual transmission was in a 1963 Dodge Dart wagon equipped with a 3 on the tree attached to a 225 slant SiX  that Dad owned when I was 10 ish back in 1963. In the stable now is my '91 chevy extcab short bed with a 350/5spd.....the 2010CTSV....6spd .....and last but not least the 2003 Duramaxx LB7/ZF six speed that delivered Curtis73's '66poncho to the Challenge Plot back in Oct2020.....

My life with clutches started when I was eleven.

My older brother (+9 years) bought an orange mini bike with his paper route money. He sold it once he outgrew it, but then I begged my parents for years for one of my own. Eventually, they gave in and (I think, accidentally) bought me a small, two stroke motorcycle with a real three speed transmission. I remember laying it down in the front yard when it started going too fast on my first ride, but I realized immediately that If i wanted to ride, I would have to learn how to use the clutch properly. That came quickly, and I rode that thing constantly for three or four years. I learned a lot about turning wrenches too. Overall, I think it was a good investment of $150 on my parents' part. 

Also, I ended up selling it for $200, so there's that too.

And when it came time to start driving on four wheels, I'm fairly certain that my father just wanted to put me out there in the least expensive vehicle that he owned, which was the $750 Chevy pickup with three on the tree. Shifting that came fairly easily to me because of the bike.

One of the happiest days of my teens was when my father asked my brother to move the truck. He got into it, looked around and said, "How do I drive this? I thought it was an automatic...". I hopped in and showed him how to do it.

My brother was rendered powerless, as the result of having a centrifugal clutch on his silly little (super cool) orange minibike.

We were taught to use a stick in Drivers Ed, in high school. Pretty sure that's long gone.

No hard data on this but I've also noticed that there seem to be more manuals around as of late. Toyota finally offered it on the Supra and, unless the articles are wrong, the manual is staying for the Taco and coming back in the 4Runner which is awesome. 

Acura pretty much said they'd never have a manual trans again like 5 years ago and now the Integra gets one. It's all very small compared to overall sales but I only see it as good news.

To play the game, we've got 8 cars (sheesh). All run, 6 are manual and if they had been offering a stick in the 4Runner when my wife bought hers, she 100% would have elected for it.

I taught my girls to drive a manual right after they got proficient at an auto.  When they were 12.  I taught my wife when we were teenagers.  It's a good skill to have and it keeps the boys' egos in check.  The sooner you get kids driving, the better they are at it when they're ready to solo.

Of course the manual transmission is probably only applicable to 'vintage' cars for the rest of their lives.

AxeHealey said:

No hard data on this but I've also noticed that there seem to be more manuals around as of late. Toyota finally offered it on the Supra and, unless the articles are wrong, the manual is staying for the Taco and coming back in the 4Runner which is awesome. 

Acura pretty much said they'd never have a manual trans again like 5 years ago and now the Integra gets one. It's all very small compared to overall sales but I only see it as good news.

To play the game, we've got 8 cars (sheesh). All run, 6 are manual and if they had been offering a stick in the 4Runner when my wife bought hers, she 100% would have elected for it.

I wonder if they are ever going to make a new 4Runner? Does it still have the 5-spd auto, vs the 6 like the Taco? 

The 4Runner has been on the same platform for approaching 15 years. 

My opinion is this: Demand for "normie" vehicles with a manual transmission continues to go down (realistically it's near-zero). However, the demand for enthusiast products with a manual transmission remains solid. The difference is that OEM's are finally catching on to the fact that most consumers don't care about a manual transmission in a CUV, but they care very much about one in (for instance) the Supra.

There's several benefits from an OEM's standpoint which is basically that manual transmissions take little to no development, where as the team of auto trans calibrators are the same size if not larger than ICE calibration engineers at this point. Where this pays dividends is in enthusiast products, which generally sell less and thus lower development costs is a key factor in whether the vehicle will be made.

11110000 said:

Am I wrong in thinking that a Bronco used for "Bronco Things" would be better suited to an auto anyway?  Crawling a nasty trail is often easier with a fluid drive slipping and keeping some torque at the wheels.

 

The people are doing it wrong!

Your not wrong, technical offroading is definitely easier in an auto. Bronco things (or jeep things) also means cruising down unimproved dirt roads w/ the top down. That is perfect for a manual. 

Between the supra getting a stick, the 2nd gen 86, the new GR corolla, the new Taco keeping a manual and the potential (rumors, we'll see) for the new 4runner to bring back a manual, Toyota has sneakily become an enthusiast brand for the masses again.

Woody (Forum Supportum) said:

In reply to iansane :

I don't remember. I try not to stare at guys' tattoos. 

Reminds me of the "take a picture" scene.....

Fupdiggity (Forum Supporter) said:

11110000 said:

Am I wrong in thinking that a Bronco used for "Bronco Things" would be better suited to an auto anyway?  Crawling a nasty trail is often easier with a fluid drive slipping and keeping some torque at the wheels.

 

The people are doing it wrong!

Your not wrong, technical offroading is definitely easier in an auto. Bronco things (or jeep things) also means cruising down unimproved dirt roads w/ the top down. That is perfect for a manual. 

Between the supra getting a stick, the 2nd gen 86, the new GR corolla, the new Taco keeping a manual and the potential (rumors, we'll see) for the new 4runner to bring back a manual, Toyota has sneakily become an enthusiast brand for the masses again.

That and driving in snow/ice. With the same tires I have a harder time driving in snow in my landlord's auto Taco vs my manual Jeep. Easier to modulate wheel slip.

Woody (Forum Supportum) said:

I just bought a 2024 Integra with the six speed manual. It has the same engine and transmission as the new Civic Si. It's the easiest manual transmission car that I've ever driven.  

We need a thread.

In reply to Datsun310Guy :

I'll get to it eventually. Short version: I really, really like it.