Its not really though, my brand new 2020 that I purchased with a manual determined that was a lie lol. Its still gonna be a minute yet before no new cars are sold with a manual option, and even longer still before all the used options are trashed and gone
True, but unfortunately that'd be kind of tough on retirement income without burning through all of the next few years' RMDs.
This probably getting far off-topic, but you can find low mileage used Porsches at decent prices. They are very reliable, last a long time and hold their value. You just have to know what to look for and be willing to take your time looking. I sold mine because I picked the wrong model for me. But, I'll be selling my Mustang and BMW and going back to a Porsche as soon as I find the one I want. There is really nothing that quite compares.
I imagine I could find a P-car as a replacement for the Mustang, but I'm not seeing anything there with a MT to fill the "family sedan" function. It's not just me who doesn't care to drive anything with an automatic; she doesn't either (did I get lucky or what?).
Well, since you are pretty close to my age (76), you probably won't have to worry about manual transmissions disappearing in your lifetime. Threads like this are fun on an academic level, but have no real world significance to me, nor to a lot of Mustang owners (average age is over 50).
I want a manual but I don't care for turbos and certainly don't want awd, fwd, or 4 bangers. Not much left once you remove those from the list, sadly.
Probably not, at least not if the MT take rate for Subaru's WRX/STi remains anywhere near as high as it has (88%, by one recent report, the highest in the automotive industry).
I find myself looking at it either of two ways. I can either look at the situation a bit selfishly and tell myself that I'll probably get out of it without having to buy an automatic, or I can look into my kids' future. Though more recently it's become more about the grandkids. Two of the three cars our oldest granddaughter has owned have been MT, including her current one, and she doesn't want another automatic.
Honestly, I'm not crazy about any of those things either. But as far as the family sedan function is concerned, I've found turbo-4's with awd and V6's with FWD fit us a whole lot better than an AT (no matter what kind of engine it might be bolted up to). It's been over 40 years since we owned a normally-aspirated 4-banger, but even something powered that way that would be easier for us to drop back to as long as it had a clutch and a MT behind it..