Detroit Steel

Make no mistake about it, Corvette buyers still crave a lot of the hard-core traditional performance stuff that has always defined the sports car, even when opting for the new Corvette Stingray. Amid the growing trend among carmakers to do away with the traditional stick shift in sports cars, GM says 40 percent of new Stingray buyers are opting for the manual transmission.

More on the blog.

RidgebackKing

IMO, it's not a sports car if it's not a manual

KenHorse

Woohoo! I'm part of the 40%!

Supersonic 427

Me too....would not have a Corvette any other way!

Sin City

I have a manual but this is the last Vette with one. Mark my words.

$$$frumnuttin'

Me too...part of the 40%....it's a blast to drive no doubt.

KenHorse

You mean generation or model year?

Sin City

The C8 will not have a manual. Between a shrinking market base of people who want them or even know how to use one added to fuel and emissions regulations will kill the manual forever.

The new auto 8 speed coming next year will really cut into manual sales.

The manual is being squeezed into a smaller and smaller pocket. Nothing coming on the horizon will change that. No one is going to buy a manual Corvette if it's their first manual car ever in their life. Where else can you find a manual in a car today?

M3GUY01

Only reason I choose Manual was because the current A6 auto does not come close to a PDK or DCT transmission in upshift/downshift responsiveness performance wise. Hopefully the new 8 speed gets it right.

bimmerborn

I remember manual transmission was $1,000 extra on C5.

golfbone

Ferrari no longer offers manuals. Porsche pushes PDK so hard that manual is almost sniffed at when when you go to a dealership. The new automatics get better fuel economy, go faster, take less effort and do everything better than any of us could with a stick.

Well.....except for one thing.

A manual is a blast to drive and an automatic transmission is just one step closer to being in the passenger seat.

There's something to be said for the non measurable intangibles that put a smile on your face. Technology's contribution to the quality of human life is vastly over rated. Automatic transmissions are for minivans and mobile homes and Mercury's and Maybachs. Corvettes are best when you mate with the machinery and stir your own.

3GenVettes

My reason for the manual is simply that I find it more fun. We have both a paddle shift and a manual, and the paddle shift is nice but doesn't give me the same feeling of being as much fun to drive. No matter how many speeds they add to the auto, without the clutch it's just not the same.

LIStingray

I would have thought that this being year 1 of the C7, and with a lot of enthusiasts buying that it would be about 50%. 40% is only a little better than the average for the C6.

brentano

I just assumed from this forum that automatics were in the minority.

Sin City

Older drivers prefer manuals. Some 20 year old today isn't going to want a manual when they are 10 years older and wants to buy a sports car in the year 2025. He's going to want this.


The manual is a dying dinosaur.

ssidekickbp

I'm 28 and bought a manual. That's all I'll buy actually.... But I do see many guys my age thinking the paddles are cool. All depends on the person...

laborsmith

$995 if I remember right.

Laborsmith

aaronfro17

29 with a 7-speed. But I'd say less than half of folks my age can drive a stick, my younger brother can't. Heck it's a built in security device!

Sin City

Then you better get used to owning the last new car you'll ever buy.

The ONLY reason GM puts in a manual box is because they still can design the car to do both economically. Soon, new technology, fuel regulations, and emission standards will make that obsolete. A shrinking market base of new manual owners will continue to get smaller, making it economically unfeasible to continue.

When Porsche announces acceleration numbers of their models, they announce them in PDK. The reason? It's faster. When the new auto 8 comes out, my suspicion will be it also will be faster than the manual. I also suspect manual owners who don't like the old auto box will jump to the new quick change auto because it's faster, easier to drive everyday, has less maintenance, and in fact a new and different version of what "fun" is.

b4i4getit

I agree with you. I really hope the A8 is as good as the advertising. If it is I may consider it for my next Z06.