Fewer than a third of the new cars currently on sale are available with manual gearboxes, an investigation by carwow has found, a trend echoed by new-car sales figures and driving-test data. Of the 298 new models available to order in the UK, 200, or 67.11%, are only available with automatic transmissions, leaving just 98 cars (32.89%) for drivers who want to change gear themselves.
A number of car makers offer only automatic gearboxes across their ranges, with no models from Mercedes, Genesis, Ferrari, Jaguar, Lexus, Maserati, Rolls-Royce, Subaru and Volvo being available with manual transmissions. Just two car makers - Abarth and SEAT - offer manual gearboxes with all the cars they sell.
The scarcity of manual gearboxes in car makers’ ranges is echoed in new-car sales figures. Data shared with carwow by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) shows just 24% of new cars sold in 2011 were ordered with an automatic gearbox, a figure that had risen to 62.4% by 2021.
Learner drivers are also far more likely than ever before to take their driving test in a car with an automatic gearbox. The Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency told carwow that just 5.2% of candidates took their test in an automatic in financial year 2010/11, a proportion that had more than trebled by 2021/22, when 15.78% of driving tests were conducted in automatic cars.
Given sales and manufacturer trends, the fact that drivers who pass their tests in automatics are unable to drive manual cars looks to be less of an inconvenience than it once was.
The demise of the manual gearbox can be attributed to several factors. First, it is intrinsically linked to the growing popularity of electric cars, which are never available with manual gearboxes. The same is true of hybrid cars, with one or two past exceptions.
Second, modern safety systems are often easier to integrate into cars with automatic gearboxes. Autonomous emergency braking, for example, can apply a car’s brakes if sensors detect an obstacle for which the driver has not taken evasive action. In a car with a manual gearbox, AEB can cause the engine to stall if the driver doesn’t depress the clutch, something that does not happen in a car with an automatic transmission.
And while automatic gearboxes tended historically to be significantly less fuel efficient than their manual counterparts, technological and engineering advancements mean today’s auto transmissions have efficiency figures that are more comparable to manuals.
Hugo Griffiths, carwow consumer editor said: “The writing has been on the wall for manual gearboxes for some time: the rise of electric cars coupled with increasingly sophisticated safety systems that work best with automatic transmissions have conspired to push manuals to the sidelines. Added to this is the smooth and efficient nature of modern autos, which dovetails perfectly with the value drivers place on comfort and convenience.
“There will undoubtedly come a time when changing gear manually will seem as archaic as programming a video recorder or trimming a candle wick.
“The real death knell for manuals will sound when the proportion of candidates taking their driving test in an automatic car overtakes those doing so in a manual: this will signal that knowing how to change gear manually is neither useful nor interesting to the majority of new drivers. Given current projections, that time will come in a little over a decade.”
