In 2013, a story ran in the Democrat-Gazette's Homestyle section about cars with manual transmissions. I had written it about a cute little Fiat 500 that occupied my carport at the time.
The piece ended with this declaration: As long as they're on the market, I'll keep driving a car with a manual transmission.
It looks like the time has come to give up on stick shifts. Not because I don't love them still, but because they're really difficult to get.
I did OK for a while; when the Fiat began to stall, buck, and have electrical distress that the dealer couldn't seem to fix, I traded it for a handsome 2016 six-speed Dodge Dart. It was a nice car (with great tech), but it wasn't the right fit for me. Six months later I leased the automotive love of my life, a six-speed 2016 Mini Cooper S. The lease is about to expire, and the options for replacing the Mini with another stick shift look grim, especially since Little Rock's Mini-Cooper dealership closed earlier this year.
Manual transmissions used to be everywhere. I learned to drive on my dad's flashy copper-colored 1959 Chevrolet Bel Air with a three-on-the-tree transmission--tricky to shift when trying to steer at the same time, as it didn't have power steering and was a big, heavy ride.
Much more fun was my first car, a used 1968 two-seater Fiat 850 Spider convertible (not a great choice in rainy, often chilly Cleveland), followed by my first brand-new car, a lively four-speed German-made Opel.
Subsequent rides--all with manual transmissions--included a mousy Chevy Monza, a mediocre Mazda GLC, a mechanically challenged Datsun 240Z, a Hyundai Excel (the first one sold in Arkansas), a Nissan Sentra, an under-powered Jeep Eagle Summit wagon, a feisty Subaru Impreza, a lumbering rear-wheel drive Mustang, and a ferocious 170-hp six-speed Ford SVT Focus that could blow the doors off cars with far more imposing physiques.
When gasoline prices increased and hybrids became available, I was dismayed to discover that none came with manual transmissions. Why not? I asked in an email to Dan Neil, the Pulitzer Prize-winning automotive writer who was then at the Los Angeles Times (he now writes a car column for The Wall Street Journal). To my shock, he answered me, explaining that most hybrids use continuously variable transmissions (CVTs) that provide better fuel economy and a smoother driving experience than stick shifts or traditional automatics. Being a Dan Neil groupie, I saved that email for years.
My brother's passion for muscle cars culminated in a four-speed Oldsmobile 442 that he kept immaculate; his dates learned quickly not to drop a cigarette ash or French fry on its spotless carpeting. Curiously, my sister, who is married to a man enamored of his four vintage Corvettes, never learned to drive a stick, at least not properly.
She doesn't have to--her Chevy Avalanche is available only as an automatic.
What to do when the Mini Cooper heads to the barn? Not sure yet.
The Feb. 19 issue of Car and Driver reports that although manuals are "difficult to find on dealer lots, tougher to resell to the masses of lazy commuters, and no longer necessarily cheaper or more efficient than their self-shifting counterparts, cars with manual transmissions nonetheless continue to stave off extinction."
It goes on to list 40 new vehicles offered with sticks, among them some BMWs, Cadillac's ATS-V Coupe, Chevy's Camaro, Corvette, Sonic and Spark, Dodge Challenger, Fiat 500, Ford's Fiesta and Mustang, Honda's Accord, Civic, and Fit, Hyundai's Accent, Elantra, and Veloster, Kia Forte, Mazda Miata, Mitsubishi Mirage, Nissan's 370Z, Versa, and Sentra, several Porsches, Subaru's Impreza and WRX, Toyota's Corolla and Yaris, and Volkswagen's Golf, GTI and Jetta.
But just because these models are available with manual transmissions doesn't mean your area dealer will have one. New-car dealers are doled out allotments by whatever car brand they carry, and if the local market won't support sales of stick shifts, it's unlikely that any will show up.
Scanning online inventories of local dealerships is a frustrating task as information on them is assembled differently from site to site, and it's difficult to figure out an individual vehicle's characteristics. I thought I was onto something when I found a manual 2019 Toyota Corolla hatchback in North Little Rock, but soon discovered that unless I jumped on it a month before my lease is up, it would likely be gone, because it's the only manual transmission Corolla in a multi-state area.
We'll see if it's still around in mid-September.
If not, my preference is a Honda Fit, but there aren't any manuals hereabouts. I might be able to track down a Hyundai Elantra or Veloster with a six-speed. It appears that a 2019 Volkswagen GTI is on offer, but it's hard to get enthusiastic over Volkswagens after that public-relations fiasco last year in which the Environmental Protection Agency found that many VWs being sold in America had software in diesel engines that could detect when being tested and could change their performance to improve carbon dioxide emissions levels.
Being optimistic, I'm going to look forward to the arrival of all 2020 models this fall. One of them might be a manual. In the meantime, my bicycle--and Rock Region Metro--can haul me around.
Karen Martin is senior editor of Perspective.
kmartin@arkansasonline.com
Editorial on 09/01/2019