Stick Shifts Going Way of the Dinosaur

If you like driving a stick, the numbers aren't going your way. Consider this remarkable stat unearthed by the Washington Post: Preliminary federal data show that manual transmissions accounted for just 0.6% of vehicles built for the US market for the 2025 model year, down from roughly 35% in 1980. The changeover has been decades in the making, driven by ever-improving technology. "Eight- and ten-speed automatics shift faster than any human foot-and-hand combination," notes a story at Gadget Review.

At the same time, buyers have traded sporty coupes for SUVs, which are almost always automatics, while electric and semi-autonomous cars—they don't need a clutch pedal, either—are spreading fast. Automakers are responding: Subaru has pulled manuals from the Crosstrek, Outback, Forester, and Legacy; Honda's Accord stick is gone; BMW has trimmed its manual lineup and dropped them from Mini. Volkswagen plans to end the Jetta GLI stick this year; Toyota is axing the manual GR Supra. Only about two dozen models still offer a manual, led by holdouts like the Ford Mustang. "Out of our cold, dead hands will we not have a manual Mustang," vows CEO Jim Farley.