One often reads about endangered animals, that there are only so-and-so-many of species “x” estimated to remain in the wild.
How many new vehicles available with manual transmissions remain in production? The answer – not very many – strongly indicates this species is well on its way to extinction.
Like the dinosaurs.
But not because they are.
Let’s go by categories, starting with one that used to be abundantly populated with clutches and third pedals. That being trucks.
How many are left that offer manual transmissions? The answer is . . . just one. It is the current (2022) Toyota Tacoma, which can still be had with a stick. But only in the higher trims and only with the optional V6 engine. And probably not for much longer as the current Tacoma is about to be replaced by an “all new” version that is very likely to be automatic-only, just like every other currently available pick-up truck.
This includes even the new trucklets – models like the Ford Maverick and Hyundai Santa Cruz, which are really car-based vehicles made to look like trucks. But unlike similar models made once upon a time and long ago, such as the VW Rabbit-based Caddy pickup and the Subaru Brat which came standard with manuals – because in those long ago days, many people preferred to shift form themselves – the new trucklets come only with automatics and two pedals rather than three. 
Next category. Sport sedans.
This is a category of vehicle once defined by the presence of a shifter rather than a gear selector in between the driver’s and shotgun seats. The ur or archetype of this species being the BMW 2002 of the long-ago ’70s, which car helped to establish BMW’s once-upon-a-time reputation as the manufacturer of Ultimate Driving Machines. It still makes a few such, but they are almost as hard to find as a plesiosaur in Loch Ness. The majority of BMW’s current cars come without manuals – or the option to have them. This includes the regular production versions of models such as the 3 Series and 5 Series, which once-upon-a-time were available with them.
Same goes for Nissan’s versions of what BMW once sold, the Maxima and the Altima. The former was marketed, once, as the four-door sports car, chiefly on the basis of the manual transmission that was offered with the punchy V6 engine- which is now paired only with a CVT automatic transmission. The Altima is no longer available with the V6 engine, either.
Last year, one of the very few remaining luxury-sport sedans you could still get with a stick passed into oblivion. This one being the Genesis G70 which was available with a stick last year but no longer is, this year.
This leaves the Subaru WRX and its main rival, the VW Golf GTI. That’s pretty much it.
Probably not for long, too.
Category the next, SUVs. Two remain – with third pedals. One is the just-launched (just revived) Ford Bronco, which was launched to compete with the only other SUV that still offers the opportunity to shift for yourself, that one being the Jeep Wrangler. (Which is also offered with a small bed, so a kind-of truck, too.)
These two sort-of-three may be new but they are also very old – in terms of what they represent. They are holdouts from the era when SUVs were expected to come with clutches, just like trucks, because both were designed to appeal to the kind of people who expect to be in full control of their vehicles and also expect simple, rugged design. For them, a manual is the only way to shift and for that reason, these two sort-of-three lonesome holdouts hold the line. 
If you went back in time 20 years, you’d have found a plethora of manual-equipped SUVs, including light-duty runabouts like Toyota’s RAV4 and if you went back a few years more, there were models like the Geo Tracker and Scion Xb. More recently, there was the Subaru Crosstrek, which you could get with a stick.
But not anymore.
This leaves us with two other categories of car where manuals were also once the rule rather than the exception, where the opposite now obtains:
Sports cars. 
Here, things aren’t as bleakly same-same. Mazda Miatas, Subaru BRZs, Chevy Camaros and Ford Mustangs still come standard with manuals. But the Camaro, itself, is on the way out (reportedly) and the Corvette comes standard with an automatic. So does the Porsche 911. The revived Toyota Supra and the BMW Z4 it is based on are automatic-only. Dodge’s Challenger is on the way out entirely. Most currently available hyper-cars are automatic only.
The trend line is clear.
Economy cars. 
Here – in a category of car in which, once upon a time, every such car came with a manual, we find that only a relative handful still do. Among them, models such as the 2022 Mitsubishi Mirage recently reviewed by this writer and a few of its remaining rivals, such as the Nissan Versa and Hyundai Accent. Ford and GM and Dodge no longer make economy cars at all, having given up trying, replacing them with crossovers and other kinds of automatic only successors.
We know why the dinosaurs went extinct – or at least, we have a pretty good idea. A natural disaster happened when a large chunk of rock from space hit the Earth, punching a crater into its surface near the Yucatan peninsula. The ejecta and other side effects killed off the great scaly beasts, which were supplanted by furry little mammals and – in time – us.
We also know why manual-equipped vehicles are dying off. It is the result of an artificial disaster called government. This entity – rather, these people who are “the government” – who decree that cars must meet ever-higher mileage standards, as established by tests that automatics can be programmed to deliver the highest-possible results on. You cannot program a manual transmission.
Hence, get rid of the manual transmission.
This thing called government is also pushing electric cars – and these cars haven’t got transmissions. So – unnaturally – it will soon be the case that nothing but cars without manuals will be on offer.
Our era can thus be considered the KT Boundary layer as regards the manual transmission. Soon, you won’t find anything with a clutch on the other side of the iridium.
And unlike 64 million years ago, we’re around to see it happen.
. . .
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It’s crazy…you used to be able to get pretty much any car in a manual up through the 80s early 90s…heck even a damn Chrysler Mini-van. I can’t drive autos…they are boring.
Hi Manuel,
It’s deliberate. Part of a coordinated plan to end cars – in part by making them so anodyne and homogenous that most people just don’t care about them anymore.
What’s better? Using a manual to wring the neck out of a simple, small lightweight affordable engine using 100% of its potential (like my Soobie crosstrek) or buy a complicated, expensive, heavy four hundred horsepower motor with an automatic that you rarely have the opportunity to use more than 50% of its potential? Or worse drive a glorified golf cart? For me – I like neck wringing, Manual or die.
Manual transmissions have so many advantages. There is no need to list them as most of you already know. It is a shame that their availability has diminished to near extinction.
Hi Floyd,
While not necessarily pernicious in and of itself, the automatic transmission is part of a general trend toward the transformation of the car into something that is less driven than transportation. The distinction is important. When people become bored they lose interest in driving; the less people drive, the less able they are to drive. In the end, why not just take the bus? Or a “self driving” car?
And that’s the end goal here.
If you’re a guy that can’t drive a stick that makes you a fag. I tried to think of followup comments but yeah thats pretty much it,
Eric, do you think it’s feasible to retrofit newer vehicles (that have a regular internal combustion engine) with an aftermarket manual? Even vehicles in which a manual is not a factory option?
Years ago, I met someone who retrofitted his Ford Fairmont, that came from the factory with a column-shift auto, with a floor-mounted manual. That was probably easier given that the late 70s / early 80s cars were simpler, but I’d still like to entertain the idea. I don’t care if the computers throw a fit; thankfully I live in a car-friendly state
Hi dood,
It’s feasible; the question is – is it worth it? One would probably have to change the ECU and a bunch of peripherals, in addition to the physical swap. If the car didn’t come from the factory with a manual (as an option) then you’d need to fabricate linkages/floorpans and so on to make it physically fit.
This, by the way, is one of the many things I dislike about modern cars; i.e., their non-modularity.
My ’76 TA originally came with a three speed automatic (THM350). It now has a four speed automatic (2004R) which was a simple, bolt-in swap requiring only a few minor adjustments. I could install a factory-type four speed manual (Super T10) as it would literally bolt in. The only significant physical modification necessary would be to the floorpan, also easy to do because these are readily available, too. Installing an aftermarket five or six speed would be only slightly more trouble. The engine doesn’t care. There is no computer to worry about. So long as the parts mesh, you’re good!
Yeah, depending on the cost, it might be worth just getting an affordable kit-car
I say this a lot now, but it seems like I’ll have to be buying older (now MUCH older) vehicles the rest of my life if the old ones die, or hopefully keep maintaining my existing ones perpetually; I’m in my mid 40s. 2 of the 3 vehicles in my fleet are manual
Let’s go back in time when cars got better fuel economy than now:
https://i.imgur.com/NiiW0Ok.jpg
And if you drive 5th gear slow your mpg goes up:
https://i.imgur.com/WuF5r3k.gif
Do you want to drive the car or do you want multiple computers driving it? I prefer to drive the car myself 100%, no computers, I want to be in control and interact with the car. I only buy sports cars because I like driver’s vehicles, totally analog only, so I am 100% in control. I like something that is light, responsive, quick and agile with lots of feedback.
‘This chick and her Z3: a defiant throwback to the 1990s.’ — BaDnOn
How to decide between a 4-cylinder Miata, and a Z3 with its silky inline six?
Ultimately, I’m going to own one of these two vehicles.
‘Marry in haste; repent at leisure,’ as the saying goes.
So I’m takin’ muh time …
Hey Jim,
Probably which ever you can get your hands on. 🙂 Happy hunting.
Hi Jim
I would recommend a Porsche 924 or 944 instead of a Miata, a 924S or a 924 turbo is better. if you want a convertible get a super 7, the most fun car ever made, or second choice maybe a Porsche Boxster.
Hi Anon,
Those are all great cars – but the Miata has a singular greatness: Abundance. They made so many that it is easy to find a good one and at a good price. Less so any Porsche. Also, a Miata doesn’t draw attention as a Porsche does!
The Miata engineering is not inferior to Porsche engineering in any way, but the price most definitely is. Like many top tier elitist brands, you pay a premium for the badge. A big premium.
“throwback to the 90s”… god im getting old. And man has the world changed since the 90s….
Me too, Nasir!
Of course, part of this is also the whiplash effect of the almost surreal changes that have taken place since the ’90s. Consider that as recently as the late 1990s, most people did not have a sail fawn. The Internet was not everywhere. There was no “social media” to speak of. Then things began to happen – fast. In 2001, the “enemies of freedom” struck – and your former freedom to be presumed innocent was no longer in existence. It was replaced by the freedom to spread your legs – if you wanted to fly. More and more people began to get – and constantly use – sail fawns. We got Obama – and lost the right to be let alone as regards our health care choices. “Social media” became a “thing.” The Internet was suddenly everywhere. Mass zombification of the population. Weaponized hypochondria.
And – just like that – here we are.
wow eric – come to think of it, it is sudden how quick that happened! I still remember sitting on the internet using dial up in the 90s…. and well when you stepped outside, it was completely gone!!! Had PDAs and stuff but again they were all un-connected. You could get away and for the most part made your own decisions in life at the moment without consulting google or someone…. Actually quite miss that.
The BMW Z4 is mentioned…
On my way home, there was this chick in a Z3 that passed me. Not sure if it was a manual BUT…
She and the BMW were such a contrast to all of the dead souls inching along the freeways in their metal coffins, to borrow from Patrick Swayze’s character in Point Break.
All of those crossovers depressed me, moving somberly and deliberately, like mobile bunkers, while she darted around them like a vibrant hummingbird and gave me reason to smile. This chick and her Z3: a defiant throwback to the 1990s.
Z4 or Z3? There’s a big difference. Close to 1000 pounds of difference, the Z4 being the heavier.
The car yesterday was a Z3, John. The Z4 is mentioned in the article as having been stripped of a manual option. That it’s considerably heavier isn’t a surprise.
After reading the article on the Mitsubishi Mirage with a stick, I looked for it and other cars. It is nearly impossible to buy a car with a stickshift even though it is ostensibly advertised as available on the Corolla, for example. And the Kia Rio.
The only option that pops up for 2022 cars is for CVTs on the Corolla and 6 speed auto for Kias.
Another thing Eric, not sure if you noticed, the FT today reported that VW will drop about 100 cars it makes today, and just focus on the more premium end of the market and electric…. I suspect that will mean all manuals are gone.
So much for the peoples car which made the affordable beetle or golf once upon a time…
Eric – unfortunately in the UK i think the mustang no longer offers a manual. Only the Mach 1 does, which is impossible to get an order in for because you know – the chips thing they say….
I do have to say while I used to prefer manuals, that the march of years and the family tradition of arthritis have made clutching a literal pain.
Also, just got a nice bright red Audi A4 cabrio for a daughter. The A4 is pretty, very comfortable, and good handling. It also turns in well over 32mpg when I let the automatic shift for me, though it feels stodgy and boring. But when I toggle the shifter over and manually run it through the gears, it really wakes up and that 1.8 DOHC turbo mill becomes a completely different and very satisfying animal.
Most of the newer stuff I’ve seen has a manual shift option, so…while it is different it’s not so bad. What I really miss is being able to bump start a dead car with a real manual.
Manuals remain ubiquitous in Europe.
When I was 15 years old, I fried the clutch plate on a 1965 Ferd pickup truck.
Didn’t know how to drive a stick shift but I did learn. Was on a steep incline, probably in the wrong gear, maybe the clutch plate was worn out by then. I’ll take the blame for wrecking th clutch plate, got a new one right away, can’t go wrong there. Long time ago, now.
I am in the market for an older pickup truck. It is a waiting game, the prices are going to fall, maybe crater, high prices for fuels will do the job. Pickup truck owners will sell rather than have the monetary burden of another vehicle that costs an arm and a leg these days.
Not all will experience price declines. New will be a hard sell from here on out.
The impact crater from the Chicxulub asteroid/comet and the resultant sequence of events with regard to the entire aftermath is referred to as the Tanis Event.
Ocean waters traveled a good 1500 miles inland to Hell Creek where marine life was interspersed with fresh water organisms. The fish in the seas and lakes were here back then.
I do think that the impact caused the earth to move some degrees north. Ripped a good-sized crater into the earth’s surface. Probably moved the earth’s equator a few degrees north, maybe.
The comet or asteroid had to have iridium in its core, me thinks. Looks more towards an asteroid, not from the Oort Cloud. The iridium could have formed in the earth’s upper atmosphere after the impact, then precipitated back to the earth’s surface.
Wasn’t much fun after that for the survivors.
It’s happening with semi’s as well. I used to drive for a large national carrier a few years ago, and when I started, I took a manual for the first 6 months before they replaced it with a newer automatic. Recently, a buddy of mine started driving for that same national carrier. I asked him if he’s taking a manual or automatic, and he replied that they only have automatics. End of an era.
Hi Jim,
I was not aware until recently of the widespread switch to automatics in road tractors. What percentage of U.S. over-the-road trucks would you say are now auto?
Fond memories of the 13-speed Roadranger.
That explains the decline in skills and courtesy that I’ve observed in over-the-road drivers of late.
Every thing I own has three pedals……I think the autotragic transmission is the worst thing that ever happened to the internal combustion engine.
Nah, you want to know what killed manual transmissions and simpler cars.
It was the same thing that leads to overreaching govt and all of the nannies.
It also led to ridiculous stuff like muscle cars and the automakers stopping innovation with control arm suspension in the front and OHV engines. NOTE: not against personal choice if a person wants to sell something and another person can afford it. Will be clear shortly.
We got fat, dumb and happy on a post war boom based in a government spending and monetary policy that assiduously avoided the necessary and usual post-war recession and all of the sins of a depression which was still overhanging as it never went away. This allowed us to unnaturally capitalize on blowing up the world, actually twice.
Thusly people lost that desire for things which last, durability, efficiency and industrial arts where things were innovative, beautiful and timeless. The concept of making due and only accepting luxury when it did not diminish this quality and human ability was lost. Worst yet, they came to expect their replacement and luxury driven lives. It made less and less sense to be personally disciplined to learn to “deal” with a manual transmission.
Coddling of women also became a thing of note, hence cars becoming easier to drive.
Nothing occurs in a vacuum. I am a Libertarian with personal conservative disciplines which i would not inflict upon others. However, very few would have been driving muscle cars or have been interested in all sorts of innovations except a very exclusive crew without the unearned societal boom. This is normal. We live in abnormal.
Yes, it is a tragedy that young men cannot work a summer or two and buy a reasonable used car like years ago. However, it is a tragedy that they could afford outsized things when they did. Not that we needed govt regulation to fix this which is what many seek in justification. As a society we lost delay of gratification and moderation by the natural forces of freedom with freedom from kicking the monetary can down the road.
People got used to middle-class and even working class luxury as they passed the costs to the next generations.
This is where the manuals went, along with the ability to start over in the bottom of the economic chain. No one feels he should as he knows perhaps at the unconscious level that few if any in the immediate cohort before him actually did.
Here is the nuance. The minute that the system allows basic living such as manual cars without luxury or jobs with no minimum wage, there is a message delivered that this is a life option for people. Don’t you get it? By making things mandatory under guises of safety and emissions and other product and job regulations, it means that no person can be forced to accept said by his situation and worse, choices.
This is also why i get to see regularly welfare people driving much nicer cars than me.
Most everyone is on welfare and thusly not free, except those of us who choose the path of doing without on principle. I will tell you that after a life of said, they are closing the window on this choice. They is not the government, but the citizenry who cannot bear to face the truth.
Yup, the populace has transormed into amoebas having had all the hard work and nationbuilding done for them. Now they think they can just run on the corporate-grubberment hampster wheel and dig themselves into an ever deeper hole paying others to keep the illusion alive. It’s a big game of musical chairs, theres lots of players-not many chairs.
Chris, you nailed it. We are brothers, you and I. Not only do the welfare cases and especially the poor sacred single mommies drive shinier and newer cars than I do, but they buy more expensive food and take vacations which I know I cannot afford.
And yes, they are absolutely trying to bolt and bar the door on those of us still clinging to freedom and independence. Free men living in reality are a visceral rebuke to their fantasy world.
Part and parcel with the disposable market structure we live in. While I did love manual trannies when I was able to drive one, my primary goal in purchasing one was longevity. While some are notoriously durable, Toyota and Honda for instance, none can compare to the durability of a manual (which used to be called “standard”) transmission. Even in the event of a failure, the manual is FAR cheaper to repair, and it’s probably your fault it needed repair. In the coming economic collapse, ATs might be a severe burden.
I blew up my share of Honda manuals. Used to tow a dirtbike with a small utility trailer (500lbs?), and I’m sure they were not rated to tow anything back in the late 70’s. I got real good at swapping honda transmissions. Sometimes junkyard units, sometimes rebuilt them myself. Depending on how bad I messed them up. Then the 1500 engine came out with the 5sp, wow I was in heaven, and I don’t think I blew any of those up. Haha…….
Ohhh yes I did, moved to roadrace bikes with a bigger trailer, so around 800-1000lbs? That didn’t last long having to drive 3-4hrs each way to Summit Point raceway in WV. Eric may know the place. Finally was able to move up to an old chevy window van with a V8, ahhh the luxury, haha…..
Even I’m not immune to this changeover from manual to automatic. We own four vehicles in my family and only one, my Supra, is a manual. My truck, my daily driver car and my wife’s SUV are all automatics.
Up until recently, I almost always had a stick for my daily driver. I tried to find a new manual Mazda 6 when I bought my used daily driver and several dealers couldn’t/wouldn’t order me one.
Sure, automatic tech is far better now and the paddles are fun on the cars that have them. But there’s something to be said for a great run through the gears on a curvy road like the Tail of the Dragon in North Carolina or in the Hocking Hills in Ohio.
I had a rental Nissan Maxima (I had a 1999 GXE with a five speed for 5-plus years) with the V-6 and the CVT and it was very annoying. Fast, but with no downshift under heavy throttle it presented a strange sensation of speed.
I think the remaining manual cars and trucks on the road will increase in value as our Ruling Class tries to put the kibosh on personal transportation through the regulatory leviathan.
Disagree: automatic tech isn’t that much better and the paddles are not fun. They are crap. Like playing video game. I’ll pass.
Manual or bust.
This bronco is the last new vehicle I’ll ever own. Also turns out you can get manual 911s, brother in law’s building one on a configurator and while hes choosing pdk, I see a 7spd available, plus think the M3/4 still have 6spds
Govt cant completely get rid of stick unless they start up another cash for clunkers, and even then, always hold outs
because in those long ago days, many people preferred to shift form themselves…
I wonder about that. Back in the days before lock-up torque converters there was an obvious fuel economy bump with a stick, and better acceleration too. Now that there’s electronically controlled dual wet clutch transmissions that can shift in under a quarter second, the only reason for a manual is purely for entertainment. And most of that can be achieved with a set of “flappy paddle” shifter buttons on the steering column (althought I found them wanting). Most driving is either sitting at stop lights or at highway cruise, neither of which are fun with a full manual transmission. Oh, the few days a year one gets to take a back road with no places for cops to hide a stick is a fantastic experience. But for the other 360 days it’s just a PITA, especially when dealing with all the slushbox drivers who don’t have to think about stop-and-go driving.
However, I understand that you don’t do a lot of highway driving, what with rural VA not having much in the way of big roads or big cities. When I lived in central PA driving was a lot of fun just because the roads were twisty and empty. Now that I’m in the west the only thing close to that experience is off-road, where a stick becomes a problem.
Those paddle shifters are no good. Pieces of crap. I learned to drive a manual in Connecticut and perfected my skill in crowded (for then) New York City traffic. Didn’t bother me a bit and still wouldn’t. I have got about 15 more years before I would abandon the idea of ever owning a manual. Of course, It’s nearly impossible to find one and those that are for sale, go quickly.
“Our era can thus be considered the KT Boundary layer”. That’s a good way to put it.
Two years ago was the, “Before Times” and now the KT Boundary layer begins for many things, not just the disappearance of the manual transmission,… the list, grows?
It appears the Social Credit Scoring System is already operational in North America, are the credit bureaus like TransUnion & Equifax the perfect corporatist gatekeepers?
If the Social Credit Scoring System “switch” has already been turned on in Canada, is it only a matter of a casus belli or something to turn it on in the rest of North America?
Consider this:
… “I had donated to the freedom convoy fundraiser on GoFundMe before GoFundMe capitulated to the demands of the Canadian government and canceled it. […]
I’ve tried obtaining a credit card from four different institutions (1 bank, 1 credit union, and 2 big-box stores). The bank told me the credit side of the application was fine however ‘they could not authenticate me” – whatever that means […]
I have no debt of any kind, own my home & property free and clear, never missed a payment in the 25 years I’ve had credit, etc. […]
I have excellent credit rating but unable to get another credit card or any kind of credit (vehicle loan for example). Something is going on! It would appear there is also a social credit scoring system in existence and I’ve been blacklisted in that system as an undesirable. Unfortunately, there is absolutely nothing I can do about this conundrum as the existence of a social credit system is denied by these credit bureaus.” …
https://survivalblog.com/2022/04/06/survivalblog-readers-editors-snippets-52/
What’s that line, “Believe nothing, until it’s been officially denied”?
Eric, Eric, your criteria are so 20th Century. Your protectors know that the measure of a really great car is how effectively it nags you to put on your seatbelt:
https://www.carscoops.com/2022/04/iihs-introduces-seat-belt-reminder-test-subaru-ascent-and-forester-the-only-to-earn-a-good-rating/
I miss a stick shift particularly when towing a trailer. Even with the “tow/haul” mode on, the transmission wants to up/downshift at times when a thinking driver would just leave it as is.
amen