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.
