Stick shifts are making a small comeback in the US with 7% of new cars sold this year equipped with manual transmission, according to Edmunds.com.
The figure is still a long way from 20 years ago, when one in four cars sold had a manual ‘box, but it is a jump from 3.9% last year and on track for the highest rate of manual vehicle purchases since 2006.
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Edmunds.com industry analyst Ivan Drury, said: “A combination of factors – from the growing age of vehicle trade-ins bringing more manual drivers back to market, to a greater proportion of smaller cars on the road – is creating a small spike for stick shifts. But, even though manual cars are on the rise now, they’re on track to be virtually extinct in the next 15 to 20 years.”
According to Edmunds’ data, 64% of all 2012 model year vehicles are available only with automatic transmission, compared to just 48% 10 years ago. It said that cars with manual transmission no longer always get better fuel economy than automatics nor are they always cheaper to buy.
Edmunds also pointed out that many sports carmakers, such as Porsche and Lamborghini, offer a choice of a manual or automatic transmission in their product line while some Ferraris and Jaguars no longer offer traditional manual transmissions at all.
Those cars that still come with manual transmission only include the Audi TT RS, Aston Martin V12 Vantage, Fiat 500 Abarth, Ford Shelby GT500, Mazdaspeed 3 and Volkswagen Golf R.
