Interesting story of the decline of the stick shift

[mdh157]

 

[thrashingcows]

Pretty much boils down to that the majority of the people don't want to be "inconvenienced" with having to think about shifting the transmission when their "valuable" time in the automobile could be better spent looking at their entertainment/info/media center in the center of their dash.

 

[PH27L7]

Personal observation is that overall driving skills are at an all time low. Distractions play a major part in that but also all the new nannies like lane correction, automatic braking, self parking, etc. The ideal that many would like is total automation- program a destination & let the car do the driving. Manual transmissions will continue to decline, even if a young kid wanted to learn there are not enough around to accomplish that. I'm a die hard, all my vehicles are manual, even my C!