Heres a reality check. They sell nice colored cars in Japan. They sell low K cars in Japan. They sell MANUAL cars in Japan. WHY aren't we getting manuals here so much.! Several reasons. 1) The kiwi "red shed" mentality.People hereare not prepared to pay more for a manual than for auto. 2) despite the kiwi view Jap second hand cars are being purchased all over the world. ForManuals we are competing with countries who have very high car prices. Russia,SA,some into auzzie,UK and that doesn't even concider the strong Jap domestic market.
unbeatabull,
Sep 21, 11:20pm
I have to agree here.
I've always been a fan of manuals being more of a "Drivers Car". But these days with the advancements in Autos, I'd much rather drive an Auto in any situation other then the race track. 99% of modern autos have selective gears or tiptronic so you can't argue you have less control over the gear selected. And in a lot of cases these days in more performance orientated cars, the Autos shift faster then 90% of manual drivers can anyway, you'd have to be working a manual pretty hard to keep up!
gunhand,
Sep 21, 11:35pm
Especially the a falcodore manuals, half an hour to push clutch in, an hour to pull it out the gear you were in, another hour to find where the next one should be and an hour to actaully get to slot in, then release clutch. Hell in ya sludgy you would be through all 45 or 6by the time you done one.
ema1,
Sep 21, 11:54pm
Probably because there is a big "#8" wire mentality here!
ema1,
Sep 22, 12:12am
I've driven trucks with far superior manual boxes and lighter clutch action compared to manual Falcons/Holdens and other "big" car mainly "Yank" type manual boxes. Heck I can remember way way back driving manual Valiants and the like, there gear shifts were so chronic you had to almost be a weight lifter to operate the clutch and often it was a guess search when "trying" to select a gear often any gear. I can remember untangling shift linkages often on call outs, on cars where their owners didn't have a clue why they couldn't get them into or out of particular gears. In the case of the Valiants my folks had AP5 and then VC, the very first AP5 my Dad had was a manual and it was absolute trash in the gearbox department so he dropped it a few months after and got another AP5 TorqueFlite ( Worst manual to virtually the best automatic of the time) then a few years laterhe got a VC 273 V8 which only came as TorqueFlite auto. God I remember that manual Valiant horrible gear shift, actually the AP5 gearbox blew up in it while towing a caravan and that did it for him, traded it for the auto model AP5 and never bought another manual after that. All 4 of my cars I presently have are automatics and a big percentage of the vehicles I've owned apart from the early days of my car ownership when manuals were the norm over nearly 45 years now, the first 20 odd years have been a mix of manual & auto, probably all over the last 25 years have been auto's actually .
elect70,
Sep 22, 2:53am
Its amost impossible to buy a newlarge carwith manual box. Even BMWonly offer it on theMseries cars , or SMGwhich is for wannabe rallydrivers
vtecintegra,
Sep 22, 2:56am
Depends on market.
In Europe you still have a lot more choice for manuals
village.green,
Sep 22, 3:03am
Most young people with a drivers licence have no idea how to operate a manual! A friend of mine works in a business with a work van and she is the only one who can drive it as the others have never learnt manual transmission! I would like my son when he turns 16 or 17 to learn in a manual but I doubt that will happen unless the driving school owns one! (no we are not going to teach him, would rather leave it to the experts as I did 30 years ago)
village.green,
Sep 22, 3:03am
Maybe I am just old fashioned!
mottly,
Sep 22, 3:04am
Because people can't multitask enough to 'drive' a car anymore, they can only handle 'steering' one. Wouldn't own an auto.ever.In England you're hard pushed to find an auto according to my pommy mates.
vtecintegra,
Sep 22, 3:07am
While manuals are still much more common there than here, autos are becoming increasingly common in the UK too
pebbles61,
Sep 22, 3:18am
Because some people dislike driving automatics!
mottly,
Sep 22, 3:20am
auto's were always for old ladies.bit sad if other age groups/sexes are using them nowdays.They're ok for v8s, but that's about it imo
franc123,
Sep 22, 3:25am
Lol exhibited by whom! Thats a thing of the past, many motorists now are either too scared to or don't know how to get the bonnet open ,let alone do anything meaningful under there.Its call roadside assist when something goes wrong and then whinge about the slow service.
gunhand,
Sep 22, 3:47am
Awsome.ly stupid.
patiki1,
Sep 22, 4:03am
Cause thats what most women can only drive
bwg11,
Sep 22, 4:12am
I would guess from some of the comments, some of the posters have not driven a newer automatic. Comments like "only good for V8's" date back 20 or 30 years. Yes, I remember the two-speed ToyoGlide on 1100cc Corollas, the Tri-matic on HQ's. Things have changed, six or eight speeders, DSG's and decent CVT's. IMHO the only place for a manual is possibly a sports car used for track-days. I never thought I would say it, but I prefer an auto even for rugged off-road use too.
pebbles61,
Sep 22, 4:55am
The other reason I prefer manual is that I have more chance of actually doing my own work on it, when refering to the haynes book of lies under the 'Auto' section it says 'if it goes wrong, take it to the workshop'.as opposed to telling me how to actually fix it lol
kiwi_fisherman,
Sep 22, 5:19am
Because more and more people are becoming lazy sebastions and naturally expect to have to do less to achieve the same result. I always drove manuals when autos were few and far between. I remeber when the first Jap assembled mitzi sigmas arrived mid/ late 80s All lined up. Only red or white. Only available that weekend to dealers via auction. Price was 500 more for a red one than a white one. I remember marvelling at all the buttons plus automatic plus electric windows. What we hoped for in a car the Japs expected back then.
murph2068594,
Sep 22, 6:30am
Yes i agree, not much stop-start on that Japanese Freeway, yet Auckland motorways anyone! Stop-start usually means heavy traffic in the actual city itself, where the lights change and you're just going from one city block to the next. I have driven in Sydney, Melbourne and Adeliade, like most cities around the world, it is just an "ocean" of traffic, broken up into "waves" by the traffic lights. If you were driving a manual there, your left leg would be stuffed by the end of the day
NZ use to have manuals as a default, yet as the car manufacturers make what people are buying, that's what they'll keep selling. You want a Automatic, Semi-Auto, TipTronic, we'll make it and sell it.
It used to be a novelty to find an automatic in NZ, today the manual vehicle has swapped places with the automatic.
mugenb20b,
Sep 22, 6:45am
Yep, me too.
shakespeare6,
Sep 22, 6:48am
You find the Modern Autos even down shift on braking at speed. and when slowing down to a stop. End of the day theres equally shit drivers driving auto's and manuals. I couldnt care how the gears are changed Ill adapt to anythingand own both. a bad rides better then a good walk!
ema1,
Sep 22, 7:25am
Probably because a manual if it stops for any reason like flattish battery etc can be got going again in a fair % of cases where as auto's not so easy , particularly if you end up having trouble in the woop woops or the back of no-where kind of thing when a degree of Kiwi Ingenuity once apon a time came into play. I'm of the age now that when I was lots younger and in my parents time too when that was all too common and hence my #8 wire comment. Agreed lots nowadays wouldn't know " A bee from a bulls foot !". when it comes to cars and maintenance etc. Lots just drive blissfully unaware mores the pity.
studio1,
Sep 22, 11:23am
True, highways are just like that - but the last time I was there (not long ago) we sat in bumper to bumper CITY traffic, barely moving.
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