Manual transmission is dying as 'unstoppable' trend threatens its existence

Ladies and gentlemen, the manual transmission is officially dying in production cars.

We hate to be the bearers of such bad news, but unfortunately it is true.

Recent data has highlighted the sharp, stark decline in the popularity of the manual transmission.

And it is an ‘unstoppable trend’ that is threatening its very existence.

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Manual transmission could be under serious threat

For the past decade or so, the manual transmission has been under gradually increasing threat.

At the turn of the 2000s, manual transmission cars ruled the car market with an iron fist.

Europe’s top five car markets (the U.K, Germany, France, Italy and Spain) clearly illustrated this.

In 2001, almost every single car in these five markets was sold with a manual transmission.

At that time, cars with a stick shift accounted for roughly 91 percent of all car sales.

The data for last year (2024) has now been released, and it paints a stark picture.

Last year, manual transmission cars accounted for just 29 percent of all car sales in Europe.

In America (a market which has never been big for manuals), the data is even worse.

Back in 2001, manual transmission sales in the U.S. accounted for just 28 percent of car sales.

Last year, that number absolutely plummeted – to just 0.7 percent of all sales of cars in the U.S.

Automatic transmission could be the demise of the stick shift

So what on Earth is the reason behind such a swift and dramatic demise?

To put it simply, it’s down to one thing – automatic transmissions.

By the turn of the new century, automatic transmissions were very much still a luxury.

The technology was nowhere near as advanced as it is today.

Additionally, high development costs made automatic transmissions much more of a luxury.

The past 20 years has seen the automatic transmission boom in popularity across the world.

Such a growth in availability has seen development substantially progress – which, in turn, has led to cheaper costs.

As a result, the sale of automatic transmission cars has spiked to 63 percent as of 2024, compared to nine percent in 2001.

The U.S. is a totally different story, because the automatic transmission has always dominated in that market.

As a matter of fact, automatic transmission vehicles accounted for 99.3 percent of all sales in 2024.

Do you think the manual transmission is in danger of dying out?