new cars with manual transmission options
 

still a decent amount

https://www.autoblog.com/2018/04/24/...transmissions/

Weird to see Toyota Corolla on that list. I'll bet they're very rare.

I was thinking the same thing.

No Mercedes, Volvo, Aston Martin, Ferrari..... Just saying....

Also weird:

Mitsubishi Outlander Sport

So sad that Audi ditched the manual in the S4.

Too bad, because the manual Volvos were so easy to shift.

yes. ditching the manual in the audi is bad news.

That list is depressing. Most of those cars aren't vehicles you'd want to drive, and some of the cars that do have sticks in more than just the rental-spec trim level exclude it on the highest trim line, for reasons unknown.

At this point, if I had to buy a new car, it would be a 6M Audi A4. That's a car I'd be OK driving, though it wouldn't light a fire in me.

I blame Trump, somehow.

ha ha ha. so true. the car available with the manual are the trim levels a lot of us would 'opt' to avoid buying.

And apparently Ford is getting ready to kill off everything but the Mustang...

Still a good number. Hope they never get rid of manuals.

Would love to splurge on a new Miata.……

Yeah just saw that:eeps:

Yeah, jaw dropping and yet not jaw dropping. Mostly just sad.

I dunno, guys. I love my manual transmissions but the writing is clearly on the wall, and not just for the clutch pedal. We are living in an age where driving is more of a necessary inconvenience than an experience to be enjoyed. It's more important just to get somewhere. Meanwhile, we're increasing distracting ourselves with texts instead of looking out of the windshield, and manufacturers are busy trying to be first to market with autonomous tech.

We're already being forced to buy cars with reverse cameras. Automatic headlights are surely coming soon, since no one can be bothered to turn them on any more. Automatic braking is next. Sure, these are good ideas in the name of safety, but they're all just more excuses for us to pay less attention to driving.

I see a future where all cars will be fully automated and the Stone Age machines we have now will be phased out of existence. It will be safer and incredibly boring. I bet it happens long before I buy my last car.

How long can the Mustang last?

Forever.

It'll just be reborn as a crossover.

Ha ha ha ha ha

Yes.

Lol put me in this category for being too lazy to turn on the headlights. I am so used to this feature that we rented a dodge minivan a couple of weeks ago and I was almost one of those idiots that didn’t turn on their headlights .. I actually started driving and was like ... man my headlights are off, it took me forever to find the switch :eeps:

Auto braking is a strange one, we have it on some of our cars and the A4 actually has it at low speeds so it is really weird when your coming out of a parking spot and the car just hits the brakes ... the system is too sensitive sometimes and there really is no reason for it to brake.

I made sure to avoid all the intrusive "driving assistant" options on my 2 series.

And I’m so glad they still LET you opt out of them.

Say it ain't so! The company that used to tout it had a better idea, has become one that will have a bitter idea if true.

Which options are you talking about ? Our 340 has pretty much every option and I wanted every safety option they offer such as the Pedestrian and frontal collision warning, the blind side assist, etc.

I think these are key features and I know some of them such as the blind side assist has saved my butt more than once. I wouldn't want a car without this feature if it is available.

OTOH the lane departure feature I find very annoying and turn it off on all of my cars especially in our Acura MDX which actually steers the car back into the lane.

The first thing I do when getting in a car that has that stuff is turn it all off. The auto braking thing is dangerous.

I’ve been driving for over 30y and never needed that stuff. Why do I need it now. I love the non intrusive safety features like great collision protection and airbags but when the car starts doing things for me or beeping all the time. No thanks.

because you are supposed to be snapchatting while you drive

Right....because 30 years ago everyone else was paying attention also. I've had near-misses every day this week with morons who can't even be bothered to look before entering major roads. :mad:

I hate lane departure warning. We have that on the X5--actually we have a lot of the features on the X5 because my spouse wanted HUD, and these things come as a package.

The 2 series offers only the Driving Assistance Package. It is missing useful features like Blind Spot detection and HUD. Instead it offers only the things I really DON'T want, including the auto braking (a.k.a :Collision Mitigation):

"Experience increased peace of mind behind the wheel with an attractive bundle of features that significantly enhance driver, passenger, and vehicle safety. Maximize safety with Lane Departure Warning, Pedestrian and Frontal Collision Warning with City Collision Mitigation. All provide varying degrees of automated braking assistance based on speed conditions. Finally, Speed Limit Info shows posted speed limits on the instrument cluster display."

I'm glad to have park distance control and a rear view camera (would like a front camera, too, which might have convinced me to buy that steep driveway lake house.) Glad to have airbags, too, now that I've purged all the Takata cars from the fleet.

I would not consider PDC a safely feature but yeah I won’t have a car without it any more. I’m soooooo used to it. That’s one beep I can handle.

We specifically decided to go with the lower “Premium” model of CrossTrek because the “Limited” had way too many technical monitors (blind spot / cross traffic warning / lane departure warning / etc). It would have been nice to have leather interior but we are happy with the cloth.

The argument is being made that everyone will be safer if we just let computers take over. Traffic will merge more efficiently, we'll never have accidents (in theory), and everyone will be able to Facebook and eat cereal instead of pay attention. I hate it but it's almost a certainty.

Because they're snapchatting. These are the poster children for the move to autonomous cars. And it can't come fast enough, from my perspective.

After my dad hit about 60, learning new cars became an increasingly difficult chore for him. Putting him in the driver seat of a rental...oh boy. Finding and figuring out how to operate the control to do whatever the thing he wanted took 100% of his concentration. He'd wait until he was stopped to adjust the climate controls, but if it suddenly started raining and he didn't where the windshield wiper controls were or how they operated?

Part of it was him, part was age, but a big part is that so few controls are "standard" any more. Every manufacturer is afraid of the others' patents so, instead of licensing, they try to build a better mousetrap. So every car with an automagic trimode-paddleshifting-buttonpushing-CVTPDKDSGSMG transmission with super clear and obvious gear and mode names with their controls on the console, behind the wheel, on the wheel, on the back of the wheel, and who the fuck knows were else does its part to ensure nothing works the same.

It's dangerous. It's costly. It's annoying. It's fucking stupid.

There was a time if you could hop in one car and get to driving in 10 seconds, you could get in any car and get to driving in 10 seconds. Get in a new car today...?

Anyway, before I rant

:D

When those things are buried 4 levels deep in an on screen menu and you have no idea which screen operated by which buttons, knobs, or your fingers, and they need to be disabled every time you turn the car on?

It's going to happen. I just wonder if self-driving is banned before the end the carmudgeon-generation's lfetime.

I kind of go through this ‘problem’ on a daily basis since I switch off cars throughout the week, a dumb example of this is I go to parallel park the R8 yesterday and can’t fix out why the passengers rear view mirror isn’t tilting down when I’m in reverse ... I played around with the mirror switch and still couldn’t figure it out ... now I’m thinking does this car even have that feature :dunno: you would think after owning it for almost 3 1/2 years I’d know this, also the other day I plugged my phone into a usb connection to play music in the MDX... for the life of me I couldn’t figure out how to get it to play music I finally gave up :dunno:

Half the time I get into these cars and am trying to figure sh*t out.

Porsche reverse-tilt and bmw reverse-tilt use opposite sides (bmw when on left and porsche when on right).

Porsche 981 handbrake is push, bmw 535i handbrake is pull. Both electronic. Grrr...

Jeep parking brake is push by foot, sort of like an archaic 981. It doesn't seem to work much, as in I can easily drive off (and the dealer says that's how they are).

Jeep windshield wiper controls are overloaded on the turn signal, high beam stalk. This includes front/rear on/off/mist/speeds and squirts front & rear. Way too much on one stalk.

Other than the e-brake and lack of two front cupholders, I think the f10 535i is the best cabin, comfortable, simple. Porsche has the most buttons. Generally ergonomic, but for me a dislike are driving-related controls require me to take my eyes off the road (exactly when I don't want to):
- exhaust on/off
- normal/sports/sports+
- shocks normal/stiff
Ideally, these (along with stability that I don't touch) should have been knobs on the steering wheel.

Where as the BMW *mode* button is reachable by feel right next to the shifter. Comfort/Auto/Sport/Sport+. DTC doesn't require eyes off either.

In the best of all worlds, the average texting-while-allegedly-driving people will have autonomous cars, making things safer for us. It should also help with traffic-slowdown-for-no-reason things where someone jams on their brakes and that disrupts traffic for an hour as things turn into a stop-and-go ripple effect. And the few non-autonomous cars still sold will be totally enthusiast-focused, since that will be the only market for them.

Sadly, the best of all worlds seems to be less and less of a possibility these days.

Hard to believe that "A Nice Morning Drive" is 45 years old, and the Rush song "Red Barchetta" it inspired is 37 years old.

I like it. But unfortunately most of us probably couldn't afford how expensive those last remaining enthusiast-focused cars would have to be. Which would put the last nail in their coffin too.

The more I drive Mike’s 335i, the more I start to think that modern turbo cars are best “enjoyed” with an automatic or DCT.

No.

Maybe it's just an N55 problem. But it drives me crazy.