More and more young drivers want to learn how to drive with a manual transmission and are buying cars with a manual transmission – of all places in the USA, the country with automatic transmissions.
What do Michael Myers and the manual transmission have in common?
You just don't want to die.
The serial killer from "Halloween" and the manual gearbox in the car may be thought dead so many times, they always rise again.
Manufacturers such as Mercedes and VW rely entirely on automatic transmissions (while BMW would also like to offer manual models in the future).
Electric cars no longer need a gearbox anyway - but that doesn't prevent Lexus from developing virtual gears for Stromer.
Jeep is also planning a manual electric model.
Shifting gears is cool: young drivers like manual transmissions
Because even if vehicles with a modern automatic or double-clutch transmission are faster, more economical and sportier than manual transmissions: For some drivers, "stir the petrol" (switch mockery from automatic fans) is simply part of it.
And these are not only older semesters, who have been used to this for decades, but apparently also younger people.
+
Manual transmission is still popular, especially in sporty cars, such as the M models from BMW.
© Martin Vogt/Imago
At least that's what the Wall Street Journal
reports
.
The well-known newspaper quotes several novice drivers and young drivers who have discovered manual shifting for themselves - and also attach importance to learning it in driving school training.
A 17-year-old from Ohio reports that he took the practical driving test on a jeep with a manual transmission: “I thought it would be cool to learn how to drive with a stick shift.
Just so I can tell my friends I'm a better driver than them."
A 22-year-old computer technician from Miami tells of hard learning and frequent stalls before finally mastering his used 2008 Infiniti G37.
To make the transition easier, BMW subsidiary Mini operates a manual transmission school in California.
Switching is cool: trend in millions on TikTok
Under the hashtag #savethemanuals, self-confessed switching fans meet on TikTok, the posts collected there have already been viewed more than 440 million times.
However, one also has to limit that the new love for the old technology is primarily an American phenomenon - and the boom is taking place at a rather low level.
The Wall Street Journal
reports
that sales of manual cars in the US have already risen sharply in 2023: namely to 1.7 percent, from 1.2 in the previous year and 0.9 percent in 2021.
You can find even more exciting car topics in the free newsletter from our partner 24auto.de.
In the automatic country USA, driving with a manual transmission is and will remain something special – unlike in Germany.
In this country, almost all learner drivers learn with automatic and manual transmissions, if only because of the high proportion of switches on the used car market.
Later, they operate the gearshift as a matter of course, if it is there - without making such a fuss about it like their American contemporaries.
List of rubrics: © Martin Vogt/Imago
