Bell Road Toyota Auto Repair Service

Are Manual Transmissions Shifting to Extinction?

Manual transmissions used to all the rage, because they cost less, provide total control and greater durability over the long-term. Plus. they enable drivers to get more involved in the overall driving experience. But, within the last few decades, manual transmissions have faded into the background, as automatic transmissions become so much better than their manual predecessors.

At Bell Road Toyota Auto Repair Service, we see mostly automatic transmissions in Pheonix and all over the State of AZ, so in this blog we're trying to find out why.

The latest statistics illustrate that only roughly 5% of all vehicles sold in the U.S. feature a stick shift.  Manual transmissions hit an all-time high in 1987, when 24-30% of all cars had them, but since then they have dropped quickly in popularity. Now manual transmissions are seen primarily in sporty cars, such as the Mazda Miata and the Ford Mustang. Manual transmissions used to be prevalent in Ferraris and Lamborghinis, but not anymore.  

It's gotten so bad that Car and Driver magazine, the bible of automotive fandom, recently kicked off a campaign with its very own Twitter hashtag to #SavetheManuals. With some early excitement, the movement has stalled  among consumers and carmakers alike.

So, why is there such a lack of interest in the manual transmission? If you're older than 40, for example, your first car likely contained a manual tranny. In short, the demise of the manual transmission comes down to things like economics, the affordability and scalability of technology, government regulation and ever-changing social norms.

The automatics are better than the manuals and they're better on today's engines, so buying a car without a manual transmission is a fairly basic no-brainer for consumers. Another big reason for the advent of the automatic transmission came about when new automatically controlled continuously variable transmissions (CVTs) helped automatics to achieve superior gas mileage over manuals.

Auto manufacturers worldwide are now developing better and better automatic transmissions as they try to squeeze as many miles per gallon out of cars to meet Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards mandated by the EPA. Since stick shifts get worse gas mileage than automatics do, car engineers are not enamored with manuals, because it messes with their average fuel economy. If carmakers can't meet the an average of 39.4 mpg by 2025, automakers will face large penalties, so watch manual transmissions as they become rarer and rarer all the time!

Sources: Drive and Driver, CNN and USA Today