Why are car companies/plants shying away from the traditional manual transmissions in automobiles?

Question

I noticed Dodge Chrysler and a lot of car companies have that auto shift gear box. That's so wack, compared to the traditional clutch. It just goes from side to side for gears, no more clutch. It's really still an automatic to me because the clutch is gone. I see now why American cars are not being bought as much as foreign cars now. We (car consumers) want the traditional clutch to come back in effect. It's the sportscar feel behind the wheel, you can't feel it behind a Dodge Charger because there's no clutch anymore, no matter how fast you make it. My favorite car is the Corvette, however, if someone tried to sell me a automatic I would not take it because it wouldn't feel the same without the manual transmission. What's your opinion on this?

Answer 1

The auto makers make cars that sell. While there is a small market for manual transmission cars, the great demand is for the automatics. There are many people in this world who can not drive a stick. Others can drive, but prefer an automatic transmission.

It is a case of lack of demand!

Answer 2

There are several issues in play here; it is true that the demand for standard shift vehicles in the USA and elsewhere is falling, however, that is only part of the picture.
Meeting emmissions standards is easier on an automatic transmission than a standard shift due to better control over the engine rpm by the PCM (engine control computer) and as a result, the costs of certifying a vehicle for sale in the US and elsewhere is lower (engineering costs). The fact is that today's automatic transmissions are very fuel efficient; indeed, in some vehicles the automatic version of the vehicle gets more fuel economy than a standard shift version. In a Honda Civic, the automatic transmission gets 1 - 3 mpg better overall than the standard shift. In the last dealership I worked at (left Honda service in Dec 06), we did not have a standard shift Civic on the lot; people just didn't want them.

Besides the fact that automatic transmissions have gotten more fuel efficient, is the fact that vehicles are getting larger. As vehicle size becomes larger, the smaller the demand for a standard transmission. The Honda Accord 2007 is almost as large as the 1986 Ford Taurus, a mid-full sized vehicle of the time. The Honda Fit is larger than the first generation of Civic, and the current Civic is as large as the first generation of the Accord.

Finally, its also an issue of tooling costs. Years ago, I remember that AMC told us at a shareholders meeting that the 1978 Concord roof only cost (I seem to remember) $4 million dollars to tool up, since they reused the Hornet dies for the new model. Today, tooling up for another transmission costs into the tens of millions of dollars or more between engineering costs and tooling costs and the only way to recover these costs is to stamp out thousands of units in production. With the decline in popularity of the manual transmission due to costs for certification in emmissions and tooling, I suspect that very soon, only sports cars or special products will have manual transmissions. Hey, even Corvettes and Mustangs v-8's are automatics these days (in California anyway). With the advent of the select-sport shift automatic transmissions, this day will come even sooner. So, get your sports car or whatever with a manual transmission while you can.