Manuals are naff

COMMENT

Ask yourself this: What do WRC drivers, drag racers and V8 Supercars and F1 drivers all have in common?

They don't use a clutch pedal to change gear.

In every case, sequential-shift dual-clutch transmissions or epicyclic automatics can change gear faster and more efficiently than a traditional single-clutch gearbox with a pedal to be stomped on for each and every gear shift.

There's no sentiment in that choice; new means of multiplying torque and transferring it to the drive wheels simply show up the manual gearbox as we know it for what it is – out of step with modern times.

It's headed the way of the dodo, along with manual chokes and paisley vinyl roofs.

Other than some oft-expressed view that it helps users feel at one with the car, and a purchase price advantage, there is no reason left to opt for a manual transmission over an automatic of some kind. In fact, in some cases, automatic transmissions are the same price, or cheaper than manuals.

Our attachment to manuals comes at a cost. And that cost – the development of a new car for both automatic and manual drivers – has to be amortised in the purchase price new-car buyers pay.

In effect, automatic buyers are subsidising new-car purchases for the minority of buyers who prefer manuals. If there was no manual option available – an increasingly frequent situation – the basic price of an auto-only car would be lower than it is, in theory at least.

It's hard for some to face, but manuals do not necessarily give you any more control than a modern auto of some kind or another. If you want engine braking, automatics can deliver that; if you want engine braking at a specific moment in time – for trailing throttle oversteer, for instance – a properly calibrated automatic can do that too.

Automatics can get you out of trouble off-road, when changing gear in a manual could bring you to a grinding halt. They lend themselves easier to hybrid-drive applications – due to manufacturing economies of scale as much as anything else – and they can keep turbo boost high while changing gears in diesel applications.

Quite simply, automatics have the potential – according to the specific needs of the purchaser and his or her buying decision – to provide higher performance, better economy and even improved control in motorsport environments.

The car industry recognises all this. And with a steady migration to electrically-propelled vehicles, either battery/electrics or fuel cells, the manual gearbox will be relegated to the same category of utility as pockets for undies at some point in the future, no matter how much a small number of buyers resist the inevitable.

There's one consolation for manual buyers; half the automatic transmission choices available now will be made entirely redundant once we're all driving electric vehicles.

Here's a tip: find a car that's really nice to drive, with a slick-shifting manual gearbox – and buy it/keep it/cherish it – if that's important to you.

I love the feeling of a slick gear change through a dogleg – from second to third, for instance -- and the tactile sensation of a snick as two new gears mesh – but so few original equipment gearboxes deliver that delightful shifting these days, and those few that do are highly prized.

But really, for all the satisfaction I enjoy from that one moment of ideal shifting, I'm pragmatic enough to recognise I can get from points A to B faster with an auto.

For someone who places a priority on performance, that's all that matters.