Interesting article, less than 3% of new vehicles in the USA are manual

[LemonHunter 583]

I wonder how this applies to the rest of the world, I know myself and many bimmersporters are Manualists who lament at the difficulty of buying a manual BMW in NZ...

 

http://www.latimes.com/business/autos/laautoshow/la-fi-hy-disappearing-stick-shift-20161115-story.html

[MD13 496]

:-(

[Haitoman 110]

Manual transmission is great in smaller cars or hooning around, but larger cars are more suited to Auto. Newer BMWs like mine with F1 style flappers are extra quick through the gears and are a real pleasure to drive. 

[E30 325i Rag-Top 2963]

I'm surprised it's even as high as 3% in the USA.. would have put it nearer 0.0001% from my exxperience of US cars and drivers.

Current market stats show just over 13.3% new registrations YTD have been manual in the passenger cars / SUVs / utes / light commercial segment.

[bga 96]

I never had an Auto whilst driving (for 25+ years) in the UK, and remember being quite surprised by the lack of manuals - and indeed the desirability of what were, to my way of thinking, run of the mill manual cars - when I landed in NZ a few years back - heres an article I just found as reading this thread I wondered what the ratio Manual/Auto currently is in Blighty - apparently 75% of new vehicles are manual over there - http://www.autocar.co.uk/car-news/industry/death-manual-gearbox - I imagine it to be higher in older vehicles

Edited November 22, 2016 by bga
typo

[E30 325i Rag-Top 2963]

That's a pretty old article, the figure of 75% manual quoted are from October 2013. I would wager that figure has changed significantly in the three years since.

When I was back in the Uk last year all the new-ish cars I drove were autos or DCTs

[bga 96]

haven't been back since 2012 - my old man has bought a new car in that time and yea, it was an Auto, never known him have one before

[zero 1162]

I agree with you 3pedals on everything except the pizza.

And for all their huge range of foods, they don't even have individual pies.

[NZ BMW 368]

6 hours ago, 3pedals said:

Why would you ever use the US market as a metric for anything ??

 - One of two countries in the world still insisting on using imperial measurements or their approximation of them (the other is Myanmar)

- the inventors of the 2 speed automatic

- the butchers of coffee take a perfectly good espresso , add hot water so it looks  and tastes like the boiled to death swill Americans call coffee

- Take a perfectly good pizza toss away the interesting  toppings  and  base and replace with greasy cheese on a  bread-like slab of stodge  and some over processed red sh*t.

If you want to find the bottom of the barrel and the most un-informed populace look no further -  how else could an idiot like Trump be voted into the top job?

 

 

 

 

 

 

What a hater.... 

I don't know why you'd buy anything other than auto in the US for a normal daily car. Most people do a lot of freeway driving and a lot of the larger cities like LA, Atlanta, Seattle etc are all pretty choked on the freeway at rush hour. Fun in a manual, that would not be. 

I've been travelling to the US regularly for business for 6-7 years now and find them to on the whole to be lovely people. Just like here it's a mix of good and bad people, food and products. 

Using more and more metric system too. 

[NZ BMW 368]

2 hours ago, 3pedals said:

It was a  PISS TAKE designed to bait  guess who gut hooked themselves?

P.S pleased to hear the Americans are starting to use metric, question is will they be the last country on the planet to dump the rubbish imperial system  maybe Trump will rule that S.I  is a subversive ,  anti American movement designed to undermine the engineering prowess of the "rust belt" --- don't you just like the term "RUST BELT" conjures up images of  ?? well rusting sh*t for me , much like my memory of their cars.

Ya got me :-) 

Yup, seen plenty of rusty cars in Michigan and upper NY along with what's left of their industrial base.