Audi Pulls All Manual Trans From U.S. For 2019+ Model Year

[John]

As it is looking increasingly like the 2020 ME Corvette will only come with a DCT transmission, the angst among the 22% of Corvette buyers who order one, has been growing.

We saw two weeks ago, that of every vehicle bought in the United States in 2018, only 2% had a manual transmission.

Even some sporty cars are losing them, in this case no longer will Audi bring a single manual trans car into the U.S. for the 2019 model year. The last two, the A4 and the A5 had takes rates around 5%, and Audi said, not enough, e.g., no more of them...

No more manual Audis in the US? Ah, shift.

Audi will ditch the manual-transmission options in the 2019 A4 and A5, Car and Driver reports. Those were the last vestiges of Audi's manual transmissions in the US, so every single new Audi that traverses our amber waves of grain from here on out will swap its own cogs. That's a ***mer.

But behind (most) every business decision is a good reason, and Audi's got one. You see, nobody bought the darn things. According to Car and Driver, the manual-transmission take rate on the A4 was a paltry 5 percent. Thus, it was probably costing the company more money to import the cars than it made back by selling them. So it goes.

While the 2019 models might not carry the manual transmissions, C/D points out that the 2018s still have them, and there are still plenty of 2018s on dealer lots. If you want to snag up a stick-shift Audi before they disappear entirely, there should be some solid end-of-model-year sales kicking off in the next month or two, so not only will you get one of the last manual Audis in the US, you'll get it for a song (hopefully).

https://www.cnet.com/roadshow/news/a...tag=MSFf70f0e2

[Ssscooter66]

This is something I unfortunately see to be the way most cars sold in this country will be very soon .....

[JB]

So how many manual audis A4 s did they sell lasr year in the USA..? Or the year before?

5 percent take rate is quite a bit less than the 22percent of manual corvettes sold last year ...

my opinion is the audi A4isnt even really a sports car so gm will more probably follow ferraris model to eliminate manuals which was single digits in the final year...

or at the very least follow porsches model ...for eventually cancelling or keeping manuals around for enthusiasts.

[JB]

Audi sold 34000 A4 s in 2017...

ten percent would be 3400

so five percent is 1700 manual transmissions and even then it was two years later before the manual was cancelled for 2019.

ive been driving manuals for 40 years and my next corvette will have the dct without question..

i still think the c8 will offer a manual for years to come.

if porsche can offer a manual in the boxster 718 then so can chevrolet.

Of course ive been wrong many times in life before so who knows

[John]

Miight GM, similar to Porsche, introduce a manual trans down the road a few years? Right now there are so many “things on their plate” to get the ME done with testing and on the production line, they might have said, “let’s see how this grand ME change works out, and if all goes the way we would hope, we could introduce it as a $X,XXX option in year 3 or 4.”

Many of us remember Tadge asking those of us in attendance at the BASH, “how many of you are willing to pay more for a manual transmission Corvette?”

Think our having no choices other than a DCT, could be an interim, but several year, development. At least many of us hope so.

[Fasttoys]

Great thread John. I have always owned manuals until many of the exotic cars I purchased stopped production of manuals. Reason I purchased my C7 Z51 & Z06 was for the manual. I have owned many DCT which is automated manual and they are super quick and fun to drive if the software is spot on. Porsche told me on Saturday manuals are only offered in the new 911-T, GTS,GT2,3,4 performance cars, all others are gone in 2018. A gear box engineer said less manufactures request manuals the cost go up for the remaining that do (tooling cost that cant be spread out since low volume and less buyers). If you like your manuals best get them while you can.

[John]

Thank you Fasttoys. That is very interesting info.

[JB]

There is history for automatic only in the last few years of the c3?

you might be right..,i wouldnt be upset with just a dct but the faithful who are really into this control thing will bemoan the lack of a manual.

i still think its a sales trick to sell off as many previous generation corvettes before the release of the latest and greatest.

id imagine manual transmission suppliers would make gm a deal on manual transmissions that they cant ignore...

of course i could be wrong.. what do i know?

just that 7000 corvette buyers a year want manual transmissions..

for a c8 i wouldnt be one of them..i want to get a dct corvette..

should be pretty awesome..

still what manufacturer walks away from seven thousand sales a year

especially after what american enthusasts showed bmw, porsche and even ferrari...

todays manual ferraris in preowned form are bringing in signifigantly higher pricing...

do i think dct s are superior? Yes...but as i followed the traditionalists on the various forums...and in the news.....i cant imagine gm isnt watching and learning as well.

Could be a second or third year release to get those on the sidelines in their manual older generation corvettes off the sidelines to purchase a new corvette c8...

takes a lot of guts to turn off 22 percent of your buyer customer base for two or three years not offering a manual transmission and then release a manual option to grab their attention and their wallets...(at around the same time new models begin to lose some of their luster and peak demand)

offering a manual at that time just as the sales peak is slowing could motivate enough to really pump sales back up..

it would be a very gutsey move and one for the record books on new sales and marketing techniques to extend model lifecycles.

interesting and entirely possible,,

who would corvette potiential buyers go to?

porsche? Bmw? Camaro? Mustang?

i dont think so..i think corvette owners would hold their present corvettes...and those shopping would hunt down low mileage c7 s ...lifting their residuals ..

really a fun retrospective of what could happen with the hypothesis of no manual for 2or 3years.

[John]

Maybe the value of my C7 Z06 manual will be better because of no ME manuals. I can hope.

[JB]

I actually believe you are correct...no manual in the c8 for at least the first 2or 3years and your c7z06 manual will hold a higher residual...


GMs plan as described by many on the forums if it holds back manual transmissions for 2or 3years could build demand for when sales tend to begin to trend downard a bit..

much like gm brings out a z06 in the second or third year in previous generations to boost media coverage and sales..then follows with a grand sport...

adding a manual in the second or third year would get tons of press and there certainly would be pent up demand by previous corvette generation owners who are truly that faithful to manual transmissions...

i love driving my manual corvette but even i would take the leap of faith that the rear mid engine corvette with a dct would be the one to own this time around

[Fasttoys]

Maybe the value of my C7 Z06 manual will be better because of no ME manuals. I can hope.

John that will happen, only negative there are a lot of Z06 produced so the % increase won’t be as crazy as P cars but still will increase or flatten out. Those Porsche buyers are crazy.

[ABorC]

My current '17 GS is an automatic, and the first automatic sports car that I've owned in my life. I was a huge proponent that all sports cars should be manual, you couldn't change my mind. And then, some old sports injuries caught up with me, and my '15 Stingray with an M7 became too painful to drive at times. It was a difficult decision and one that I went back and forth on many many times, until I decided that if I wanted to keep driving a Vette, I had to go A8. So I called Mike and traded in the 15 M7 on a 17 A8 GS.

At first I hated it. I felt like I was a missing out on the fun of driving a sports car with a manual, and then, over time, keeping it in M and using the paddles, I found the shift points, and I found myself liking the auto more and more. I can honestly say that I have the same gear control as a manual, I always know what gear i'm in and can control what gear i'm going to it's definitely faster shifting than a manual, and I get the convenience of putting it in drive especially in NJ/NY traffic.

I'm actually at the point now where I'm wondering if I'll ever own another car with a manual, and that's saying a lot because my knees and back are now fixed and driving a manual won't cause the same pain.

I highly recommend to everyone that if they haven't driven a sports car with paddles and a fast shifting transmission, give it a shot, you might not dislike it as much as you think you will.

Because of this situation that I've just gone through, I understand now why GM/Chevy might not offer a manual in the ME, and I don't think i'll be upset if that's how it pans out.

Love
A recently converted M7 to A8 guy

[John]

Thanks for that thoughtful post, with very good reasoning and examples. After 53 manuals in a row, I am going to embrace a DCT in the ME — give it is fair chance, and give it time to win me over. From friends who have made the same transition from being manual purists to DCT lovers, they say I will be “good,” so I am going into this sea change for me with a postive and open mind.

Times change, and while I am 71 years old (and approaching middle age), I am still flexible, am not yet a dinosaur.

[JB]

Thanks for that thoughtful post, with very good reasoning and examples. After 53 manuals in a row, I am going to embrace a DCT in the ME — give it is fair chance, and give it time to win me over. From friends who have made the same transition from being manual purists to DCT lovers, they say I will be “good,” so I am going into this sea change for me with a postive and open mind.

Times change, and while I am 71 years old (and approaching middle age), I am still flexible, am not yet a dinosaur.

You are a young and vibrant 71 year old...congrats to you John.

At sixty next year ...i feel like im 30...ive been driving manuals for forty years or more..still im like you...I’m Willing to give this new technology a shot..

i believe ill be pleased based off my experience test driving many dct models from bmw and porsche..

[John]

Fasttoys, who has had many DCTs, many manuals, many FE and ME sports cars, said that a critical key in the DCT ME’s success or not, will be getting the millions of software califbrations right, so that the shifts are perfectly timed, with outstanding and exact throttle mapping at those moments.

Tadge knows this too, in fact he was in 2013 highly critical of many DCT’s then on the market for “clunky/jerky shiftingespecially at low RPM and low speeds.” He is aware that getting the mating of the DCT’s software with all other powertrain/electronic/computer components will be paramount in the ME being successfully compared to DCT’s in European exotics, and that if he fails in this area, he and the car will be “media panned,” and later when we get our cars, being “customer panned.” He knows it is all riding on the DCT integration with the rest of the car being seemless.