PREVIEW

The Manual Transmission Is Nearing Extinction. Manual transmissions are rapidly disappearing from the global car market. Once dominant in Europe, stick shifts have fallen from 91 percent of new car registrations in 2001 to just 29 percent last year across Germany, the UK, France, Italy, and Spain - According Motor1.com. Premium brands show the sharpest drop, with automatics now making up 97 percent of their sales. The U.S., birthplace of the first mass-produced automatic back in 1939, has shifted even further. In 2001, nearly a third of new light vehicles sold were manuals. Today, that number has collapsed to less than 1 percent. Industry experts point to rising traffic, falling development costs, and changing driver habits as key reasons for the decline. Outside a few niche sports cars, the manual transmission is on the verge of becoming a relic of the past.
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