WEBVTT - Are Stick Shifts Going Extinct?

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<v Speaker 1>Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of I Heart Radio,

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<v Speaker 1>Hey brain Stuff Lauren Bolgabam. Here, only around one percent

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<v Speaker 1>of new cars sold in the US came with three

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<v Speaker 1>pedals and a stick shift. Whole generations of American drivers

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<v Speaker 1>have been able to get by without learning to drive

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<v Speaker 1>stick at all. At the same time that sales of

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<v Speaker 1>these manual transmissions were dwindling, the market became saturated with SUVs, crossovers,

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<v Speaker 1>and luxury pickup trucks. It all comes in stark contrast

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<v Speaker 1>to the buying patterns in Europe and Asia, where small

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<v Speaker 1>manual hatchbacks practically run the streets. Of cars on the

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<v Speaker 1>roads there have manual transmissions. But even on those continents,

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<v Speaker 1>trends are changing. So why is that. First a look

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<v Speaker 1>at the US, it seems like an inherently American trait

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<v Speaker 1>to make everything as big and cushy as possible, including cars.

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<v Speaker 1>Investors began engineering the predecessors to today's automatic transmissions as

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<v Speaker 1>early as the turn of the twentieth century, but it

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<v Speaker 1>wasn't until the nineteen forties that efficient hydraulic transmissions came around,

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<v Speaker 1>and it wasn't until the nineteen fifties that they became

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<v Speaker 1>an option for consumer vehicles, albeit a premium one, but

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<v Speaker 1>customers were liable to take that option because they didn't

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<v Speaker 1>want to deal with shifting through their commute and because

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<v Speaker 1>they could easily cover the additional cost. By nine fifty seven,

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<v Speaker 1>automatic gearboxes had already taken over of the US market.

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<v Speaker 1>Around the same time, American cars ballooned to much greater

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<v Speaker 1>sizes than their European and Japanese counterparts, a trend that

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<v Speaker 1>wouldn't be interrupted until the oil crisis of the nineteen seventies.

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<v Speaker 1>But in the post World War Two era, those other

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<v Speaker 1>places stuck with small, manual cars because they were more

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<v Speaker 1>fuel efficient and cheaper to produce. Inexpensive cars were a

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<v Speaker 1>necessity in the countries that saw their land and factories

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<v Speaker 1>ravaged by the war. Meanwhile, the US was oil rich

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<v Speaker 1>and shielded from the economic fallout of the conflict, so

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<v Speaker 1>frugality was less of a concern. Americans back then and

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<v Speaker 1>today take significantly longer commutes by car, while Europeans are

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<v Speaker 1>more likely to take shorter road trips and rely more

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<v Speaker 1>on public transit. It's another big reason that Americans so

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<v Speaker 1>quickly latched onto the automatic one segment, where manual transmissions

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<v Speaker 1>were able to maintain a foothold in the US was

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<v Speaker 1>the dedicated sports car market. Many of these cars, from

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<v Speaker 1>makers like Porsche, Ferrari, and Datson were foreign imports. They

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<v Speaker 1>usually had no automatic option at all. If they did,

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<v Speaker 1>it offered subpar performance and driving feel. The cars like

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<v Speaker 1>these cemented in American minds the notion that shifting your

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<v Speaker 1>own gears was a rite of passage for real car enthusiasts.

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<v Speaker 1>In the modern day, however, even sports cars are shedding

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<v Speaker 1>their three pedal options. Modern automated gearboxes, be they torque

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<v Speaker 1>converter or dual clutch, can now match or surpass the

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<v Speaker 1>performance offered by old stick shifts. Worldwide, Ferrari and Lamborghini

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<v Speaker 1>have no manual transmissions, and the Corvette just got rid

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<v Speaker 1>of its manual option a few years ago. Toyota came

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<v Speaker 1>out with their much anticipated sports car revival, the Supra,

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<v Speaker 1>also with no manual afford until recently offered manual only

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<v Speaker 1>performance packages like the Focus R S, Fiesta ST and

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<v Speaker 1>Mustang GT three fifty. They've all been canceled in the

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<v Speaker 1>last few years. Cheap compacts across the globe were also

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<v Speaker 1>seeing automatic options because things like continuously variable transmissions or

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<v Speaker 1>cvt s and dual clutches are now rivaling the efficiency

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<v Speaker 1>offered by a stick shift. There are signs that even

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<v Speaker 1>in Europe, automatic cars are taking over. For instance, Ford

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<v Speaker 1>Motor Company reported that automatics accounted for just ten percent

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<v Speaker 1>of the cars it's sold in Europe, but it was

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<v Speaker 1>The company attributed the growth to some new features like

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<v Speaker 1>cruise control and park assist that aren't compatible with manual transmissions.

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<v Speaker 1>The USA Today reported that in the UK, automatic cars

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<v Speaker 1>outsold manuals for the first time in sighting statistics from

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<v Speaker 1>the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders. The technologies we

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<v Speaker 1>mentioned earlier, like dual clutches and cbt s, which use

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<v Speaker 1>computerized systems to shift the transmission into the right gear,

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<v Speaker 1>have made automatics more efficient and economical to drive. A

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<v Speaker 1>few automakers today do still offer new manual cars. It

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<v Speaker 1>may depend a year to year, but this category currently

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<v Speaker 1>includes entries from Porsche, Honda, Toyota, Chevrolet, Hondai and Jeep.

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<v Speaker 1>As manual options decline, a subset of enthusiasts have caused

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<v Speaker 1>second hand manual prices to trend upwards significantly. In the

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<v Speaker 1>case of Ferraris from around the year two thousand. Their

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<v Speaker 1>last manual cars can go for nearly double the sale

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<v Speaker 1>price of a comparable car with an automated gearbox. Some

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<v Speaker 1>custom shops have even taken to outfitting formerly auto equipped

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<v Speaker 1>car ours with stick shifts in order to introduce new

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<v Speaker 1>stock and cash in on the trend. Just as the

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<v Speaker 1>supply of three pedal cars is dwindling, the height for

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<v Speaker 1>them is through the roof, quickly turning them into a

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<v Speaker 1>speculative asset of ballooning value. Today's episode is based on

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<v Speaker 1>the article why the stick shift is going Extinct on

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<v Speaker 1>how stuff works dot com, written by talent Homer. Brain

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<v Speaker 1>Stuff is production of I Heart Radio in partnership with

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<v Speaker 1>how stuff works dot Com, and it's produced by Tyler Clang.

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