No Civic SI for 2027

Everyone I know who drives a manual transmission car is in their 20s or 30s.
Everyone in my extended family drives manual transmission cars. 12 drivers, age 21-81. I have never owned an automatic (nor CVT) vehicle. Taught my daughter to use 3 pedals from the start. She hated it at first but she passed her driving test in the 6sp Vibe GT on first try and has stuck with 3 pedals to this day. She's now looking to buy her first new car and is frustrated with the lack of availability of manual options.
 
It was impossible to get a Sentra manual transmission (outside of the higher end performance one they offered for a bit), even though they were on the website and built in the same Mexican Factory with manual versions for the Mexican Market. Same argument - CVT did better on the CAFE tests. 🤷‍♂️
Bingo. The epa tests punish anything with a manual transmissionmission.
 
The idea that almost no younger drivers can handle a manual transmission doesn't pass the smell test. All the millions of motorcyclists that operate a clutch with one hand, throttle with the other and shifter with a foot certainly can drive a drive a stick shift car.
Everyone I know dumped their motorcycles, because of too many close calls of cell phone car/truck drivers. I know of one person who actively rides. I also don't see group of older guys riding like I use to either. Taking in to account motocross/enduro as the feeder to younger drivers in their very young age, finding land to ride is very hard these days, as an owner of land, I sure don't want anyone riding on my land with such a litigious society we have now.

I live on a semi busy street, I rarely hear or see motorcycles, where 25 years ago I did daily. It is surprising rare now, almost to the point vanishing. I would pull way back on the word "millions".:)
 
The rev-hang and emissions are tied together. Abrupt closures of the throttle cause spikes in emissions which happen all the time if the throttle isn't damped, which causes rev-hang. You get on and off the throttle many times accelerating and decelerating in a manual. That steady pedal position in an automatic allows for reduced emissions.
 
The idea that almost no younger drivers can handle a manual transmission doesn't pass the smell test. All the millions of motorcyclists that operate a clutch with one hand, throttle with the other and shifter with a foot certainly can drive a drive a stick shift car.
Anyone who already knows how to drive can easily be taught to drive a manual. It’s far more difficult to teach a new driver to drive (with an automatic) for the first time than is it to teach a seasoned driver to drive a manual for the first time.
 
Learning to drive a car with a stick was a snap since I had been driving an off-road vehicle like this for three years.

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YouTube
 
I think you have some sort of revisionist fondness. The first couple generations were pretty light but they had old smogged 4 cylinders making almost no power. I don't think many made it to N. America.

The last couple generations (before this one) were closer to 3000lbs. A couple of the more well off kids in my high school had them.

They weren't what anyone would really consider a "Sports Car" IMHO.

Either way there is no market for such a car anymore really.
I think you just remember cars being faster than they really were at the time. The 2000 Prelude had 200hp and a roughly 7 second 0-60 times. Pretty similar to a BMW Z3 4 cylinder or a Mustang V6, or a Camaro V6.
I would say it was competitive amongst its "sporty" segment peers. Something the current prelude cannot claim. It's just sporty looking, that's it.
 
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