Once upon a time, learning to drive a ““four on the floor’’ was a rite of passage. The Beach Boys even used to sing about it. But today, those old-fashioned manuals are going the way of whitewalls and fuzzy dice. After decades of decline, just one new car in nine comes with a stick shift; most of them are sportscars and ultra-economy compacts. Automatics are catching on even in Europe, where most drivers still prefer manual transmissions. Driving the trend, both here and abroad: a new generation of higher-tech, smoother-shifting and more fuel-efficient automatics–not to mention the congested roadways that make frequent shifting a lurching and all too frustrating hassle for today’s drivers. As manuals continue slipping in popularity, car enthusiasts decry what they see as a terribly sad trend. ““The physical, tactile motion of moving a lever through the gears is a satisfying ex- perience,’’ says Automobile Magazine editor David E. Davis, more than a little nostalgically. Amen.
The stick shift may not entirely disappear. Carmakers insist they’ll always offer standard transmissions on a few especially sporty models, such as Mustangs and Corvettes. But they’re moving quickly into the post-stick world. Last fall Chrysler introduced AutoStick, a split-personality transmission that’s part automatic, part manual. There’s no clutch, but with AutoStick a driver can drop the shifter out of automatic and change gears himself, simulating a traditional standard. Chrysler has turned that hybrid feature into a market- ing pitch. Use the automatic during your bumper-to-bumper commute, the carmaker advises, then switch to AutoShift for rec- reational, pretend-you’re-Andretti-style cruising. Two European auto giants, Saab and Renault, are peddling new manual transmissions that also do away with the clutch. More surprisingly, so are Porsche and BMW, while Ford reportedly has one under development. Says Bill Visnic, editor of an industry newsletter specializing in transmissions: ““Within five years, just about every carmaker will have one.''
There is a wild card in all this: gas prices. Since manuals are still more fuel-efficient than even the best automatic, a price spike could bring the standards back into fashion–as they were in the 1970s. But technology appears to be eroding even that slender advantage, too. This fall Honda introduces a Civic equipped with what engineers call a ““continuously variable transmission,’’ a new kind of automatic that eliminates the gears found in an ordinary transmission. Drivers say there are no more awkward gear changes, no bursts of speed from downshifts: just silky-smooth acceleration. Honda claims that the car will get 39 miles per gallon, better than many manuals. Those numbers made a buyer out of 20-year-old Alfred Louie, a student at the University of California, Davis, who wanted a car that was stingy on fuel. Why not opt for a stick? Too low-tech. ““The manual is for the past,’’ he says dismissively.
Oh, well. That hasn’t stopped some automakers from trying to recast their old-fashioned standards as something cool and adventurous. In August BMW mounted an ad campaign in magazines such as Car & Driver featuring a close-up shot of a sleek-black shifter imprinted with the word YEEEHA! The tag line: ““Nothing is so invigorating as driving a manual transmission.’’ The ad’s purpose, explains marketing vice president James McDowell, is to differentiate BMW from stickless competitors such as Lexus, Infiniti, Mercedes and Volvo. Toyota, by contrast, takes the opposite approach. Instead of pitching its manuals to a high-end market, it appeals to the low end. It expects to sell some 17,000 of its manual Camry sedans this year, mostly to bargain-hunters who want to save the $800 an automatic transmission adds to the car’s sticker price. Those family five-speeds may not excite drivers who fondly recall the days of the souped-up four on the floor, with lots of chrome and maybe a raccoon tail flying from the antenna. But as today’s stick shifts take their final laps into histo- ry, you can bet on one thing: nostalgic car buffs will get in as many whining downshifts and pedal-to-the-metal accelerations as they possibly can.
