AUTONEWS

Manual gearbox close to extinction?

Less than a third of new car model lines currently on sale are available with manual gearboxes, according to research by Carwow.

Of the 298* new car model lines available to order in the UK, 200 (67.11%) are available with automatic transmissions, leaving 98 cars (32.89%) with manual gearboxes.

Some automakers only offer automatic gearboxes in all of their ranges, with no Mercedes, Genesis, Ferrari, Jaguar, Lexus, Maserati, Rolls-Royce, Subaru and Volvo models available with manual transmissions. Two car manufacturers – Abarth and Seat – offer manual gearboxes on every car they sell.

Hugo Griffiths, consumer editor at Carwow, said: “The writing has been on the wall for manual gearboxes for some time: the rise of electric cars, along with increasingly sophisticated safety systems that work better with automatic transmissions, have conspired to push the manuals out.

“Additionally is the smooth and efficient nature of modern automatics, which dovetail perfectly with the value drivers place on comfort and convenience.

“There will undoubtedly come a time when being able to drive a car with a manual gearbox will be as archaic a skill as trimming a candle wick or programming a video recorder.”

Carwow said the scarcity of manual gearboxes in automakers' lines is reflected in new-car sales figures.

Data shared with Carwow by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) shows that 24% of new cars sold in 2011 were ordered with an automatic gearbox, a figure that rose to 62.4% in 2021.

Learner drivers are also more likely than ever to take their test drive in a car with an automatic gearbox, Carwow said, which prevents them from buying a manual used car as their first vehicle.

The Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) told Carwow that 5.2% of candidates took the test automatically in fiscal 2010/11, a proportion that more than tripled in 2021/22, when 15.78% of driving tests were carried out in automatic cars.

Griffiths added: “The real death knell for manuals will sound when the proportion of candidates taking the driving test in an automatic car exceeds those taking a manual test, as this will signal that knowing how to manually shift gears is neither helpful nor helpful. interesting to most people.

“Given current projections, that time will come in just over a decade.”

Carwow founder and CEO James Hind recently appeared on an episode of the AM News Show where he explained how the online automotive marketplace remains a lead generator rather than an e-commerce platform.

Why are manual gearboxes dying?

Carwow said the end of the manual gearbox could be attributed to several factors.

Firstly, it is linked to the growing popularity of electric and hybrid cars, which are not available with manual gearboxes and modern safety systems are often easier to integrate into cars with automatic gearboxes.

by Carwow