A delightful defence of the manual
A great new piece here from Wheels magazine editor Andy Enright, who's always had a lovely way with words, on three of the last three-pedal fun cars you can buy in Australia.
Check it out here 👇
Michael Pickering
The whole story deserves a read, and a long stare at Alastair Brook's photography, but it's the closing paragraphs that are the most stirring.
"If we are talking about pure competence, you wouldn’t buy any of these particular coupes. The autos are faster, more economical, and just, well, better in most objective regards."
This, not incidentally, is a version of the point that Hyundai N's Tyrone Johnson makes when he described petrol performance cars as disappointing in recent comments.
Enright continues:
We choose manual gearboxes for entirely esoteric reasons. We want to feel a connection, a purely mechanical reward. We want to feel part of the machine. That’s not predicated on ultimate pace or anything quite so measurable. There’s something deeply subjective about how you engage with cars such as these.
He's spot on. And it’s this subjectivity that car company product planners, focused on spreadsheets and clinic data, struggle to quantify. They see a low take-rate and extra line items that don't add up to profit, and the decision to axe the manual becomes simple maths.
It's a reminder that while car brands stoke emotion and loyalty in their marketing, they're not our friends and the loyalty was never going to be repaid. They're just businesses like any other, and the remaining few of us that prefer manuals aren't of much interest to a business.
We're lucky, at least, that a few brands with long legacies of driving enjoyment and an appreciation for the image it gives them are still prepared to look after us a little longer.
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