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Comment by quantified | Hacker News Reader

It's be higher if they offered it more. You can't buy what isn't sold.

The issue isn't consumer demand but rather dealer demand. US franchise new car dealers live and die by inventory turn rates. Due to the way that floorplan financing works they can't afford to have a car sit on the lot for months. Most customers who would prefer a manual transmission will take an automatic for a good price, but customers who want an automatic won't take a manual at any price. Thus except for a few sports cars, dealers are almost never willing to order manuals from the manufacturer.

In some other countries the new car sales system is a little different with more consumers wanting to custom order the car they want, then wait for it to be built. In the US, many mainstream brands won't even take custom orders anymore.

For new cars I believe it is nearly 100% consumer demand. I’m a manual fanatic (currently shopping for my dream 93/94 Supra) but the tech for automatics is just too good now. Assistive cruise control doesn’t even work with manual transmissions and I don’t know anyone that wants to buy a new car that doesn’t have that technology. Also, the gas mileage is better, the wear-and-tear on the transmission is less and, as fun as shifting is, unless you’re a hobbyist with multiple cars the incentive of getting to shift just doesn’t outweigh the objective benefits of not having to. Heck, I clearly remember that even in the mid-90s when I was starting to drive manual transmissions were already falling out of style with kids my age buying their first cars.

I sold cars for a decade. I love manuals. My brand offered some cars still in manual at that time. I convinced the owner to spec more of our cars as manuals from the factory.

They sat and sat. I made it my personal goal to sell them because I felt bad. I would present them while walking past them no matter what car you came for. I eventually sold them all, even though there were 6 other salespeople working there. I was top 1% in the country so it wasn't a skill issue.

Tldr; manufacturers have been tracking 'average days to sale' for decades. They saw the trends even when the cars were in stock. They took way longer to sell, thus they are gone.

Why wouldn't automobile companies build more if people were willing to buy them? Is there some sort of environmental, safety, or other regulation pushing manufacturers away from manuals? Are EVs displacing the demand for manual transmissions?

You can get people who want a manual to compromise on buying an automatic, but the opposite is rarely true. So economies of scales dictates that you're better off just making automatics exclusively. This is all the more true since many of the key advantages to manuals (cost, fuel economy, reliability) have been greatly reduced by technology improvements.

I'm sure its more complicated in practice but I imagine that's the core issue.

> Why wouldn't automobile companies build more if people were willing to buy them?

They would and I'm sure they produce just as many as they can reliably sell.

I always end up with a manual as they are cheaper (presumably) due to less demand. Hell, my current car they strait-up lied that it was an automatic on Carvana and when it showed up I was, like, whatever. Wasn't really worth the effort to go through whatever Kafkaesque dispute resolution system they crafted and I needed a car so now I have one of those elusive 5-speeds.

It won't majority of the people are not car or driving enthusiasts they just want a vehicle to get from A to B. And even car enthusiasts are more into classic cars and sports cars.

you must be living in China or something… american business will sell whatever people are willing to buy. no one wants to drive manual and hence they are not being made anymore, not the other way around in USA :)

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