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Is this the end of the stick shift?
Go to any given dealership with 100 new cars.
On average, just four of the 2012 models will have manual gearboxes.
The trend of the vanishing third pedal is nothing new, notes The Detroit News.
Even a decade ago, just 8.5 percent of 2002 models were manuals. The paper’s own automotive reporter even confesses she never learned to drive a stick shift until it essentially became a job requirement.
It’s more than a little contradictory to automotive reviews (including many you’ll read here) extolling the pleasure of enthusiastic driving with a true manual gearbox. Likewise, purists gravitate to manuals for tackling their favorite twisting road or occasional track day. It’s the original form of in-car connectivity.
Read: 10 fuel sipping classics
But everyday life for most isn’t about testing new cars on tracks or winding highways. It’s stop-and-go commuting and running errands; pretty mundane stuff by comparison. One serious traffic jam can numb the left legs of manual drivers and give cause to reconsider.
Read the rest
here.
7 comments:
Fathers have a responsibility to make sure that their daughters know how to drive a stick, just in case.
I find this very sad. I feel useless when driving an automatic, with one hand just flapping about. My little 96 Toyota Tacoma, which is the one and only car I ever purchased new, is a stick and driving it is one of the pleasures of my life. I'd always hoped to replace it with another little truck with a stick.
Three different people tried to teach me how to drive a stick shift before everyone (including myself) gave up. I know the principle, just can't seem to get the coordination together. I agree that it is sad they're fading out though.
I find this ironic because most cars in Europe are manuals, at least in my experience.
This actually makes me sad because my first car was a '85 Camaro with a suicide clutch. I loved that car. If you popped the clutch, you'd go 3 feet in the air. But even then in the late '90's when I was in college, I was the only person I knew that had a clutch car. I imagine it is only gotten worse.
Indeed AotF,
I live here in Europe and there isn't an automatic in sight. 65% of the vehicles are also nice gas-sipping diesels, too, which incidentally costs less here than regular gasoline (the opposite of the US). The US auto market is tightly controlled IMHO by collaboration between the manufacturers and the oil industry. We have limited choices of cars and options in the US, and I for one would NEVER willingly buy an automatic. I prefer to drive and not be driven, if you get my drift.
Just try renting a car in Europe with automatic shift. Not so easy, and a lot more expensive than a stick shift.
I learned to drive stick from a woman I was interested in at the time. Since then, I've probably driven one 3 times in the past 10 years. It's nice for a change of pace, but I wouldn't want one being a commuter in a hilly part of the country.
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