A manual transmission is now a luxury for enthusiasts

In U.S. and Canada, the manual transmission is a rare luxury

Every year the list gets smaller.

Car and Driver magazine publishes a list of car models still available in a manual transmission to American consumers. And each year, a couple of models drop off the list. This year’s list has only 32 models. That may seem like a lot, but there are about 275 models of cars, trucks, and SUV’s available to buy at any given time.

Why are so few car models available with a manual transmission? The reason is simple. American and Canadian drivers just don’t want to shift their own gears. Back in the 1940s, a standard transmission was, well, standard. Automatics didn’t hit the market until the next decade. By the late 1950’s, automatics outsold manuals for the first time.

But even through the 1980s, manuals could reliably be found on the showroom floor. They were cheaper to install than automatic transmissions, so a stick-shift car had a sticker price several hundred dollars less than the automatic version. Driving a stick shift could also be more fuel-efficient. And, for many people, it was more fun.

Over the years, though, the automatic transmissions got cheaper and better. Now—and I am sorry to have to admit this—but now, the automatics are more fuel-efficient and they offer better performance on the road; they’re more responsive to the driver than older transmissions were.

Here are some numbers. In the early 1980s, about 35 percent of new cars sold in the United States were stick-shift cars. Okay, 1980s was 35 percent. In the mid-1990s, that had fallen to 15 percent. In 2010, just six percent had a standard transmission—and in 2020, two percent. In 2021, 0.9 percent of new cars came in a stick shift. So it went from 35 percent in the 1980s to 0.9 percent in 2021.

In other words, now, almost everyone wants an automatic transmission. If carmakers are making only one or two percent of their cars in a stick-shift version, that means the standard transmission is not economical for them: they have to spend money on engineering and parts development that can’t be spread out over a large number of units.

And yet, there are still enthusiasts who demand them—and demand them loudly. Some buyers want to shift their own gears on the racetrack. But many are like me. We just like the connection we feel to the car. Shifting gears as you drive gives you a connection to the machine you’re operating. It helps you stay alert and connected to the drive.

So carmakers continue to offer the standard transmission as an option—but there’s a catch. A stick shift is now a premium option, not an economical option. Now, you have to pay more if you want the stick shift—a reversal from the past.

Here’s what I mean. The Toyota Corolla is a great small car. The first car I ever bought was a Toyota Corolla. Today, the entry-level version of the Corolla—the cheapest trimline—costs about $22,000 in the United States. You can get it in a sedan or a hatchback design.

But those cheaper trimlines only come in an automatic. If you want a stick-shift Corolla, you need the race-car inspired Corolla GR hatchback. That’s a high-performance car, with a price tag to match—the GR Corolla starts at $40,000, almost double the price of the entry-level model.

The Honda Civic, Kia Forte, Nissan Versa, and Hyundai Elantra are also great, affordable cars. But it’s the same deal as the Corolla. If you want the stick-shift, you need to get the high-performance trimlines, which tend to cost at least 50 percent more than the base models.

Those are the everyday cars. Many sports cars still proudly come in a standard transmission. The Chevy Camaro, Ford Mustang, Porsche 911, Mazda Miata, and a handful of BMW’s and performance Cadillacs all proudly sport a third pedal. But these are expensive cars for aficionados, not for the average person with kids and a 30-minute commute.

The strange thing is how different drivers are around the world. The U.S., Canada, China, Korea, Australia, and Japan all love the automatics. In Latin America, about 36 percent of new cars are stick shifts. In India, it’s about 15 percent.

Consumer tastes in Europe are changing rapidly. As recently as 2005, about ninety percent of new cars sold in Europe came in a manual transmission—so just twenty years ago, nine out of every ten cars bought in Europe was a stick-shift. But today, that number has fallen to just 32 percent. Now, just under a third of new cars have a manual transmission. That’s still a whole lot more than the one or two percent in the U.S., but it looks like the stick shift is fading fast in Europe, too.

Jeff’s take

I said before that in 2021, only 0.9 percent of new cars sold in America had a standard transmission. That edged up to 1.7 percent in 2023. Search the hashtag #SaveTheManuals and you’ll see plenty of enthusiasts out there.

I’ve only bought two cars in my life; both were stick shifts. The first one was a used, four-year-old (at the time) 1998 Toyota Corolla, which I drove for 12 years. Great car.

And then the second one was a 2016 Mazda3 hatchback—I loved it. That car was perfect in almost every way. But to get it in a stick shift, I had to be patient and I had to search. I finally found one in a different state. Listen to this, a local car dealer had to drive up to northern Wisconsin—like five hours away—to pick it up for me. Most people won’t go to that trouble.

I don’t have a car now and I wonder if I’ll ever own another manual car again. Electric cars don’t have a multi-speed transmission, and hybrids are all automatic. So I don’t know.