Yes, I'm talking to you, dear reader. You need to hear this. In fact, as car enthusiasts, this is a wake-up call we all need to hear.
It's almost cliché at this point. Enthusiasts lobby brands to add a manual gearbox to their sporty cars. A brand obliges. Not enough people buy it because the car 'looks weird' or is 'too expensive'. An automatic version gets added to the range. The manual slowly fades away. The vicious cycle repeats itself.
The latest case in point is the Toyota GR Corolla. I've heard the complaints from keyboard warriors about the three-pot engine, limited Australian allocation, and of course the price tag. Never mind that this was a manual-only, all-wheel drive hot hatch that was an absolute hoot to drive – this lot of eternal pessimists wouldn't know a good thing if it hit them in the face.
Now, an automatic transmission is set to be fitted to the GR Corolla when the updated version lands in Q4 2024. It's not even a dual-clutch, but rather a torque converter-type, which is a positive or a negative depending on who you ask.
Sure, the manual will still be on offer, but just watch as no one buys it anymore. All three of the people who desperately wanted a three-pot Japanese all-wheel drive hot hatch with a manual gearbox have bought theirs. It's now time for the normies to have their turn.
There is no doubt in my mind that the automatic GR Corolla will be fantastic. Against a crop of DCT alternatives, a torque converter will make it more reliable and better to drive in traffic. Since that's where most people spend their days, not on race tracks, it will only make it a more enticing proposition to most.
To me, however, it's a great shame to see the market trend this way. It was once unthinkable to buy a sporty car with an auto – after all, most were four-speed slushboxes back then – but today's numbers game makes it an inevitability.
It can be a challenge to get the manual GR Corolla to hit its claimed 5.3-second 0-100km/h sprint. You'd need to be a driving savant in order to achieve it every time. I guarantee the automatic will be faster and will match its claimed sprint time even in the hands of a trained puppy dog. I believe the Kiwis have already taught one to do such a thing.
Yet this is missing the point. Sure, if your house is at one end of a drag strip and work is at the other, this might matter, but it's simply for pub bragging rights otherwise. The manual might be trickier and slower, but when you do get it right, it feels twice as rewarding. I could have used ChatGPT to write this op-ed, but then it wouldn't mean anything to me. You catch my drift?
Toyota isn't alone. Hyundai first introduced the i30 N as a hardcore, manual-only, rough around the edges skunkworks project. Since then, it's been toned down and made easier to live with over the years courtesy of its refined dual-clutch transmission. Volkswagen was still offering manual Mk8 Golf GTIs and Rs in auto-loving America, but the stick-shift option is being dropped at the end of 2024. And so the list goes on.
It's official: the NPCs have won.
The catch? It's right that they have.
As a business, you have to be ruthless sometimes. Upsetting a vocal minority of manual die-hards who don't have the cash to splash in the first place is an obvious cross to bear when you have plenty of auto-only drivers with credit cards at the ready.
I'm big enough to admit that I'm part of the problem. I'm part of that vocal minority. I've owned two manual hot hatches myself, including one currently, but both were made in the year 2003. I'm not buying new cars, let alone ones with manual gearboxes. I'm just as guilty as you are.
The inconvenient truth is that car companies are right to start turning their back on the manual and embracing self-shifters because it's impossible to keep everyone happy. Cars aren't built for people to buy them used in 10 years after they've depreciated – they're built to be sold to willing buyers today.
In this economy, businesses don't stay afloat on hopes and dreams. Money talks.
