From our other sites
The story
As new cars with manual transmission (MT) options dwindle year after year, an article exploring where the value in “deliberately choosing” one still lies drew reactions on 5ch’s Breaking News+ board. The original article acknowledges that automatic (AT) cars now beat MTs on fuel economy and acceleration, but points to the “dialogue with the car” that comes from operating the clutch yourself, the growing rarity of MTs as electrification advances, and cases where used prices now exceed those of new cars. On the thread, cynical voices saying “I’ve never seen a rational reason” mixed with others citing lower price and durability as practical benefits, plus calls to make MT mandatory for elderly drivers to prevent pedal-mix-up accidents — and rebuttals to that — with no consensus reached.
As electrification advances, the number of new manual transmission (MT) cars available on the market keeps shrinking year by year. So why is there still value in “deliberately choosing” one? Here we introduce it alongside six domestic MT sports cars currently available new.
●The “joy of driving” that can’t be measured in numbers
In terms of fuel economy and acceleration, AT cars already outperform MT cars. Even so, the reason MT cars are still chosen lies in the “dialogue with the car” — pressing the clutch and selecting gears yourself. Even everyday driving, like commuting or running errands, changes in character with an MT car depending on how you handle it. Moreover, the more electrification advances, the rarer MT cars become, and for sports cars in particular, it’s not unusual for used prices to exceed those of new cars.
Source: news.yahoo.co.jp / Original article here
What people said
Same deal, right down to nobody actually using them lol
MT bros are basically the squat toilet of cars lmao
It's fun though. I rode a moped (原付, a 50cc scooter) and it was fun.
AT scooters are easy. If it's your hobby, whether it's a car or a bike, do whatever you like — but for most people it's just a way to get around. Easier is obviously better.
・MT car → pedal mix-up → engine stalls
They should at least make MT mandatory for elderly drivers.
If driving itself isn't fun, people end up looking at their phones or doing other unnecessary things.
If cars in this world existed purely as a means of transportation, sports cars wouldn't exist, and neither would car enthusiasts.
In racing games it's mostly auto-shift though.
MT in racing games has no concept of a clutch.
Isn't that basically the same as an AT's manual mode?
That's hilarious.
That's exactly the manual car experience lol
It's so bad it's funny lmao
When I stop in an AT, I downshift gradually to save on brake pad wear, but even in an MT, in an emergency I just use the foot brake.
Since I haven't pressed the clutch after stopping, it usually stalls out anyway lol
You probably don't even have an MT license.
having an AT-only license gets you seen as a loser —
and that extends beyond just driving, to your work and character too.
These days, the ones who insist on MT are the real weirdos with a strong quirk.
Does anyone actually exist who says something that nonsensical?
Well, I guess that's just how it is.
My post literally lists reasons to choose MT.
For a regular passenger car, MT basically has zero merit lol
Unless it's something you push hard like a kei truck or a large vehicle, it's just an unconvincing hobby lol
It's also strong on icy roads, and good for climbing forest roads and rough terrain.
Forestry workers, hunters, and surveyors tend to like it.
I think MT's biggest strength is durability.
Even at hundreds of thousands of kilometers, a clutch replacement keeps it going.
The CVT I used to drive died at 100,000 km.
Even if you don't think about it, driving MT forces you to gain that advantage automatically.
That's exactly what's being rejected though.
It's not about rejecting it —
you can't drive an MT without doing that.
Nobody wants to, except the 1% who are weirdos.
Most people don't want to drive MT badly enough to go that far.
Wasn't this supposed to be about rationality?
Re: #255
It's not that I don't want to drive MT —
I'm explaining that MT has these particular effects.
That kind of effect doesn't matter to most people.
Background and key points of this discussion
The decline of MT cars is a structural trend driven by the rise in AT-only license holders and increasingly sophisticated automatic transmission technology, with MT cars said to already account for only a small share of new car sales in Japan. What divided the thread was how to define “rationality” — those citing driving enjoyment and rarity talked past those who argued the case falls apart when measured by fuel economy and practicality. There were also calls to mandate MT as a way to prevent pedal-mix-up accidents among elderly drivers, but it was also pointed out that drivers can just as easily confuse the clutch and brake, so whether switching to MT would actually reduce accidents was never settled in the thread. Low price and high durability drew relatively strong support as practical arguments, but whether that’s enough to count as a reason to “deliberately choose” MT was never agreed upon to the end.
※This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Breaking News+) thread “[Automobiles] Manual Transmission Cars Keep Declining — Why They’re Still Chosen.”
Leave a Reply