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this post was submitted on 13 Feb 2026
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Manufacturers have been prepping for this by simply eliminating all base and entry models. You can't find compact sedans with cheaper, simpler manual transmissions anymore for a reason. It shifts the overton window of pricing infinitely higher.
Yes, I was just looking out of curiosity and there are no cars available new for under $20k now. This is shocking to me
No one was buying manuals, and even those weak sales were declining. Modern automatic have more gears and shift more efficiently.
A bit of a catch -22. If you can’t get them, how can you buy them?
Three cars ago I finally gave up on a manual because I couldn’t find one anywhere. There were only a few specific model where it was a choice and I wasn’t interested in them. Turns out to be a good choice, as Boston traffic was much easier to deal with in an automatic.
Two cars ago I got a CVT and it is an amazing piece of technology! Worked out really well.
But now I have an EV, no transmission.
I gave up on teaching my teens to drive a manual because that technology is almost gone. And with EVs being the future, there’s no longer a reason for it to exist
They also break more easily, which is a big boon to selling more expensive cars that break even easier.
I tried to always buy manuals, then I got married to someone who struggles with manuals. Now we have automatics sad times
I drove manual for nearly 20 year of my life and then I got married and had kids and now I have a Minivan and it's the fucking tits.
A little over twenty years ago I switched. I think it used to be there were many upsides to manual, including better mileage. I think that has since flipped, or at least been largely mooted.
I still preferred manual for driving in snow, but I think even there if you have an automatic that shifts up/down, the advantages are mostly just a placebo, I think.
The main advantage for me is I can accelerate faster in a manual, automatics just can't keep up out of the gate
I think the choice of automatic-only may be less conspiratorial and more streamlining the product to broad tastes.
If only 10% of buyers choose the manual, it probably adds a fair amount of manufacturing and supply chain complexity to service them, which might drive up the cost for all models.
It's like how most US carmakers don't offer many diesel models.
Now, the ratchet of interior features... Plenty of people don't want a huge monolith of an infotainment system with 14 speakers, but it's standard and you can then be upsold the premium one with 25 speakers.
Its also fuel economy standards. In the 1990s manuals could give you better mileage but with the invention of 8 and 10 speed autos, they get better mileage than a 5 or 6 speed manual.
I agree that the elimination of manuals likely gives a benefit to the other 98% that chose automatic (though not necessarily passed on 1:1 of course), but I disagree on the diesel. Sure, the market preference is probably poor enough to bar it, but it's crippled by US efficiency requirements into a non-starter for nearly every make. The US has stricter NOx allowances than the EU while also measuring emissions per gallon, whereas the EU rates vehicles by mile. So yes, NOx is pretty bad, especially when concentrated in city settings, but the pollution of passenger diesel in general is overblown when looking at net emissions over distance.
Yes and no. Diesel exhaust causes acid rain.
Well, yes, but also no. They used to get you in the lot by showing you the low prices for base models and then they'd up-price you with the decent trims that were horrendously overpriced - $5000 for a "premium sound package?" did they ship the orchestra with the car?
Now their base models are better specced: they cost more, but they have to compete as the new base, so the prices will have to settle down eventually. Who knows what they'll come up with for upcharging? My current guess is subscription services for essentials. Buy our Freeway Speed Package for only $30 a month, that unlocks speeds over 45 mph!
I'm not sure they will.
I remember when Nav systems were $3600 and terrible.
I remember the first one I witnessed. We were driving to a wedding in the woods and the thing kept yelling "Return to the mapped territory" in increasingly shrill tones haha
My parents had one with "points of interest" pre-programmed into it. Tried to go to a casino, ended up at an abandoned barn.