Audi Will No Longer Sell A Manual Transmission In The US

[Quattro Pete]

In most cases today, if you want a manual trans equipped car, you have to order it from scratch as dealers typically don't stock them. Well, we live in the world of instant gratification, so most people don't want to wait 8 weeks to get their car, so they settle for an automatic on the lot, even if manual was really their first preference. And then the sales numbers come in and the manufacturer concludes that "manuals don't sell", so they discontinue them altogether. Ehh...

 

[Burt]

You really think that 0.1 second reported difference is significant and reproducible? It could be 5.14 and 5.16 and they round down and up. Buy a manual and figure out what you’re going to do with the extra time after you floor it driving around town.

 

[Vuflanovsky]

Originally Posted By: Rand
Originally Posted By: Kamele0N
Originally Posted By: rollinpete
Seems to me it's not just Audi,
Look around all domestic manufacturers are making less manuals.


Audi only adapts to the IQ level of local users...

Seems that Yenks are unable to drive sticks...

Question what is a Yenk?


I've been advised on good authority that a "Yenk" is either a "Yank" for English as a Second Language practitioners and / or the lack of spell check usage adapts to the IQ of the local poster.

 

[JHZR2]

Originally Posted By: Reddy45
It seems like most Audi buyers want luxury over anything else so this doesn’t surprise me.



I’d suspect most are leases and so it’s good business to keep products that can be resold easily.

The thing that stinks is that they can’t even be ordered, though likely broadly sold in Europe and elsewhere. Thank our EPA and the cost for fuel economy tests for that.

 

[DONWATERS]

I have a 69 Camaro ss 396 manual, and tj wrangler manual, both rarely used. They are so much more fun than if they were automatic, and the manual trans is much better for any sporting driving. But never a daily driver manual. I had one once, its a pain in stop and go, drive thru, and trying to eat and drive.

 

[HangFire]

Originally Posted By: wemay
https://carbuzz.com/news/say-it-ain-t-so-audi-a4-losing-manual-option-for-2019

Car and Driver reports that only 5% of customers in the US opted for the manual,


Correction, only 5% of cars ordered by Audi dealers were ordered with a manual.

This BS keeps happening. Another car rag reported the last year of Honda CR/V's with V6's, new car buyers only opted for 10% with the V6 option. BS. Only 10% were available with a V6 and every single one of them sold. If they had made 15% or 20% with V6's, every single one of them would have sold. In that case it wasn't dealers ordering. It was manufacturer cutting back for CAFE. Buy an Acura if you want some real power, and pay $10K more. But the news rags blame the consumer. What a crock.

 

[fdcg27]

If the demand were there, dealers across the broad range of makes and models available here would be stocking plenty of sticks. Dealers are, after all, in the business of offering what moves and that's no longer anything with three pedals.
There was a time when many models had well under 100 bhp and really needed to be sticks to have anything like decent acceleration and the manuals also offered better fuel economy.
I'm thinking of things like the first few generations of Civics, VW vans and old Benz 4 cyl diesels just to name a few that we've actually owned. The Civics were pretty spirited with a stick and would have been dogs with automatics while the Benz diesels and the Vanagon that could barely get out of their own way with a four speed manual would have been hopeless with automatics. I found the Gen 5 and 6 Accords that we owned far more satisfactory with manuals then they were with automatics and we had both in each. My old BMW isn't fast with a stick and would be pathetic with an automatic.
Today, almost everything on offer has ample power and automatic and CVT transmissions offer a wide range of gearing suitable for hard acceleration as well as relaxed highway cruising.
Throw in the aging population as well as the fact that the younger couple of generations of drivers have had no exposure to manual transmissions and the demand for them just isn't there.
To reiterate, if manuals are a dying breed it's only because few want them anymore.
While this may be a pity, it isn't a conspiracy.

 

[Mr Nice]

I was looking at Mazda3 hatchbacks and most are automatic. The color combo is hard to find with a manual.

Manual trans are quickly becoming a thing of the past, people are too lazy to even want to learn how to drive a manual.

 

[CKN]

Originally Posted By: Quattro Pete
In most cases today, if you want a manual trans equipped car, you have to order it from scratch as dealers typically don't stock them. Well, we live in the world of instant gratification, so most people don't want to wait 8 weeks to get their car, so they settle for an automatic on the lot, even if manual was really their first preference. And then the sales numbers come in and the manufacturer concludes that "manuals don't sell", so they discontinue them altogether. Ehh...



The "take rate" on manuals would still be very low-even if they had more in stock. The majority under 50 years of age don't even know how to drive one.

 

[fdcg27]

Originally Posted By: Mr Nice
I was looking at Mazda3 hatchbacks and most are automatic. The color combo is hard to find with a manual.

Manual trans are quickly becoming a thing of the past, people are too lazy to even want to learn how to drive a manual.


Lazy or merely sensible?
Back in the day, a stick offered real advantages in both acceleration and fuel economy.
That is no longer the case.
Today, the automatic version of any model where a stick is offered typically shows better mileage numbers and acceleration is often also stronger with an automatic, although the kind of clutch and synchro abuse that no owner over the age of eighteen would engage in may give some minor advantage to the stick in a standing start sprint.
The only reason to buy a stick these days is for the entertainment value, which is substantial.
By any objective measure, manual transmissions are a thing of the past and I write this having had eight manual cars in the family fleet over the past thirty five years.
I do enjoy driving a stick and traffic is usually not too awful if you understand gear selection and keeping off the clutch while using the pedal on the right to modulate speed and following distance.

 

[joekingcorvette]

No surprise to me. The new Corvettes are about 75% automatics, 25% manuals. It's about resale too.

 

[BMWTurboDzl]

Originally Posted By: wemay
https://carbuzz.com/news/say-it-ain-t-so-audi-a4-losing-manual-option-for-2019


Car and Driver reports that only 5% of customers in the US opted for the manual, which is why Audi decided to stop offering it. This is a shame because the manual A4 was actually a tenth of a second quicker to 60 mph at 5.1 seconds. Manuals are typically slower than dual-clutches, but the A4 managed to be quicker and likely more engaging than its automatic counterpart. Now drivers will lose the engaging feel of driving a manual as well as a tenth off their 0-60 times.


Ya I'm sure Audi is lamenting over the loss of all 10 of those customers.

Note: IIRC BMW is going to same route on some of their non-M models.

 

[RooflessVW]

Originally Posted By: BMWTurboDzl
Ya I'm sure Audi is lamenting over the loss of all 10 of those customers.

Note: IIRC BMW is going to same route on some of their non-M models.

They're going that way for their ///M models too.

Jalopnik

 

[Snagglefoot]

Smart phones have made manual trannies obsolete. One hand on the wheel, one on the smart phone.

 

[RooflessVW]

Originally Posted By: Snagglefoot
Smart phones have made manual trannies obsolete. One hand on the wheel, one on the smart phone.

Correlation =/= causation.