Drivers in the U.S. prefer to drive automatics rather than cars with manual transmissions. Only 3 percent of newly registered vehicles have a manual transmission, and manufacturers are increasingly removing cars with manual transmissions from their offerings, such as Audi, which will do so with its A4 and A5 models, writes Autoklub.
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In the United Kingdom, 506,720 cars with automatic transmissions were registered in 2012, while last year that number grew to as much as 1,016,516 units. In terms of total sales, in 2012, 24.7 percent of new cars had automatic transmissions, while in 2017, that figure was 37.7 percent. It is expected that with the increase in the number of electric and hybrid cars using automatic transmissions, this percentage will only continue to rise.
Some manufacturers still rely on manual transmission enthusiasts; for example, Renault, after the Clio RS, which came exclusively with an EDC transmission, decided to offer a manual transmission option on the new Megane RS, and the same applies to the Hyundai i30N.
