Is The Manual Transmission Dead?

Is The Manual Transmission Dead?: "

There was a story a while back in one of the automotive trade journals, that hand cranked windows would soon be going the way of the crank starter. Everyone opts for powered windows, so most manufacturers were simply moving to make power windows standard, even on the cheapest of econo-boxes.

And now, there are disturbing reports to traditionalists from two high profile auto manufacturers that might be pointing to the death of the manual transmission.

It started a few weeks ago when our friends over at AutoBlog flatly stated: “The California is slated to be the last Ferrari available with a traditional manual transmission.” Not only do very few people order their Ferraris with old-style, traditional manual gearboxes any more, there is also a performance penalty to be paid. The Ferrari California equipped with the company’s semi-automatic gear change can do zero to 60 in the sub-four second range, and returns with a 17.8-mpg fuel economy rating. Opting for the traditional way to change cogs will net you a 4.2 second sprint to 60 MPH and your fuel economy will drop to 15.8 miles per gallon.

And then came word from Maurizio Reggiani, the director of research and development for a small Italian car maker based out of Sant’Agata Bolognese, Lamborghini. Reggiani told Car and Driver Magazine that manual transmissions are fitted to less than five percent of Lamborghini’s cars. He also added, somewhat defensively, that dual-clutch automated manuals with seven speeds or more, like Porsche’s PDK unit, are not automatically better than Lambo’s six-speed single-clutch unit. Reggiani says Lamborghini is opposed to unequal gear steps, and also makes note that the Porsche gearbox is roughly 50 pounds heavier than the Lambo six-speed.

Now, we could say that this is just a case of Lambo, yet again, copying their rivals up the road (which the Bolognese have been want to do). But there is also no denying the fact that semi-automatic gearboxes offer both performance and fuel economy benefits, not to mention they also greatly enhance overall reliability.

Also, look no further than marques like Porsche, Audi, Volkswagen, Bugatti, Maserati, Mercedes, BMW and a host of others that all go with semi-auto boxes of one stripe or another.

So now the question becomes: Is the manual transmission dead?

Photo from Flickr user by Daquella manera

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