The archetypal hot hatch, the Volkswagen Golf GTI, will no longer be available with a manual gearbox come 2025. Sky, meet pavement. An angel is taking off its halo. To commemorate more than four decades of shift-it-yourself enjoyment, Wolfsburg is doing something mildly special and trotting out the 2024 Volkswagen Golf GTI 380. Every single manual 2024 GTI will be a 380 model, and that number has a special meaning. Just like how the Mk4 Golf GTI 337 referenced the original GTI’s project number, the name of the 2024 Volkswagen Golf GTI 380 references the Mk8 GTI’s internal project number. It’s a nerdy little runout car for those in the know that comes wearing the effects of a gym routine and eyeliner.
So what makes the Golf GTI 380 special? First on the list, a set of 19-inch alloy wheels borrowed from the Golf R and painted black. They comes wrapped in summer tires, Hankook Ventus S1 Evo3s that will probably serve owners fine for a few thousand miles and can then be replaced with stickier stuff. In the Golf GTI 380’s 235/35R19 tire sizing, off-the-shelf versions of the Hankooks sport a treadwear rating of 340, which seems reasonably competitive. Helping those tires stay in contact with the road is Volkswagen’s DCC adaptive damping system, variable dampers with a wide range of stiffness that never truly grows harsh.
Of course, those alloy wheels aren’t the only gloss black accents on tap. The mirror caps and roof on every Golf GTI 380 will be painted black, contrasting the brighter and lighter exterior colors on offer. Sure, you can still order it in Deep Black Pearl for a monochrome look, but colors like Kings Red Metallic and Atlantic Blue Metallic stand out from the greyscale sea of today’s roadscape. There is an exclusive color for the GTI 380, but I’m afraid it’s not particularly exciting. Whose heart races when they hear the words “Graphite Gray Metallic”? Actually, don’t answer.
Volkswagen has also revealed that 2024 will be the last model year in which a manual Golf R is ever offered, meaning this is the end of the line for stick-shift German hatchbacks in America. The shifter in the current Golf certainly isn’t the greatest Volkswagen has ever offered, but thanks to manual shifters being mechanical linkages, aftermarket companies like Deutsche Auto Parts and Boomba are there to fix it. Clutch bite upon swift re-engagement isn’t immediate, but you can pull the clutch delay valve implemented to smooth out shifts. You can tweak a manual gearbox yourself to better suit your tastes with a basic set of hand tools, something most people can’t do with an automatic.
Likewise, the nature of manual transmissions is malleable. You are the transmission control module, you decide when and how to shift. A manual gearbox adds that last little bit of engagement that makes you want to pick a hot hatch up by the scruff of its neck and see what’s what. Volkswagen’s DSG is one of the best automatic gearboxes on the planet, but a manual is something different. Something special. Something more.
The number of new manual cars is dwindling drastically, so if you’re in the position to buy a new car and enjoy driving stick, tick the box for three pedals. We won’t truly appreciate what we’re losing until it’s finally gone, revealing a new frontier of performance that seemingly puts headline figures over driving engagement. California is banning new combustion-powered cars in 2035, which means we have a few months more than 11 years, or not quite two seven-year model cycles, until a considerable chunk of the country loses the option for new combustion-powered cars altogether. I have a suspicion that an incredibly small number of manual cars will hold on until that date.
Knowing the gravitas of the situation, the Volkswagen Golf GTI 380 almost seems mildly disappointing. Volkswagen could’ve gone ballistic with a U.S.-market manual-only 296-horsepower GTI Clubsport, or even rummaged around the parts bin and factory paint offerings to make the 380 feel a bit more special. However, it feels like we should be glad for getting a last crack at a manual GTI at all, and summer tires are a solid bonus. Welcome to the end of the world we grew up in. Savor it while it lasts.
(Photo credits: Volkswagen)
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Two colors are better that no colors, but the 1957 Dodge was available in 417 color combinations.
“Clutch bite upon swift re-engagement isn’t immediate, but you can pull the clutch delay valve implemented to smooth out shifts.”
Clutch delay valves are there to improve transmission durability. The smoothing of the shifts isn’t for comfort, it’s for the gear teeth or driveshafts.
Don’t these manufacturers realize that the people who buy manual transmission cars are not going to buy an automatic? They are basically just saying “screw you”, go buy from another manufacturer. I’ve found very nice condition used VWs for sale anyway. No need to buy new if they aren’t going to offer a manual anymore. I’m 99% on a motorcycle anyway. No way in hell any motorcycle manufacturer will start offering automatics. A couple have tried and failed massively.
Honda have been offering automatic (DCT) transmissions on several of their bikes for 13 years now and from what I can find of sales figures, in Europe 55% of the bikes available with the DCT were bought with it.
Honda’s DCT seems to be reasonably successful in the Africa twin and the Goldwing.
I was an early adopter of the 2015 mark VII GTI S MT. My first VW has been reliable and fun to drive for 150000 problem free miles. Been thinking about a replacement, and was hoping VW would roll back some of the interior mistakes made on the recent models. This kills that dream.
I’m going to miss being able to haul things like a 50 gallon water heater, or my easy up canopy in the back with the hatch closed.
It’s such a practical and efficient car.
Honda Civic Si here I come.
That leaves…Civic & Integra as the only manual hatch options, right? Outside of something like the GR Corolla. I don’t expect Honda to stick (sad pun) around in that game for the non Type-R/S much longer either though. (edit: remembered Mazda still offers it on the 3 hatch but they’ve got to be close to dropping it too.) At this rate the last remaining manually shifted 4-door vehicle at all, much less with a turbocharged four-cylinder, will be the Toyota Tacoma. I think I said something like that when that was introduced, but really, who would have thought that 10 years ago?
One nice thing I don’t think I saw mentioned here but was in VW’s press release is the adaptive dampers come on the 380s, whereas I think they’re still Autobahn-only save for one-offs like the 40th anniversary edition.
Glad I haven’t been motivated by the Mk8 to feel the need to trade into one. They can look good in person I’ve found, but otherwise doesn’t improve enough in things that matter for my use case – and goes backwards in others – while also costing nearly 20% more for a similar trim (not that that’s exclusive to the GTI now, to be fair). But even more glad I was able to buy at least one new manual car that was what I wanted and not just what was available, before they all fell away.
JK on the DCC. Missed the abbrev on it on first read.
Basically an S 380 seems like a 40th anniversary edition without some of the 40th-specific trimmings for a couple hundred less, which isn’t so bad. Can’t say the same about the wheels though and not just because they’re painted black (sigh).
Or perhaps the Wrangler.
I have been a VW fanboy since I was 2 years old. I have owned 30 some odd vws, nearly all sticks or ones I swapped over. This news kills me and my interest in the brand. I get the times they are a changing but so is my desire to buy anything the company makes. It waned heavily when they killed the unicorn gsw in 19 and now is officially dead.
I fail to see why anyone would buy a VW product now, their reliability is garbage, and every single one of their models sold in the states has a competitor that is better in the same price bracket. I hope this kills the brand because it will at least have some dignity in death.
-your resident VW apologist
I feel the same way, ever since I saw the Herbie movies as a small child I’ve been a VW person. Only owned four myself, but then I’ve only ever owned four cars.
It is truly depressing how dull their US lineup is. The Jetta is bloated and lacks the more upscale feel that used to set VWs apart. Three SUVs that look identical save for size, and nothing special about any of them. The GTI and Golf R are still good cars, but at this point they’re VWs halo cars in the US. The ID.4 is so boring I almost forgot to mention it. I haven’t recommended anyone buy a VW in years.
You used to be able to buy a Passat with a 1.8t, a VR6, a diesel, or a W8, in sedan or wagon form. You could pair any of those with a manual transmission and any combo of interior trims, along with 4motion. I know that times change, but it’s sad to see how far they’ve fallen in the US (I can’t speak to the rest of the world).
I was a fan since Herbie was well, wore out the vhs tapes multiple times.
You are absolutely right, their us lineup is awful, it kills me because I know how good they can be when they stop trying to chase sales and just make good honest cars like they did prior to 99. The last VW I recommended was to my mum earlier this year but she didn’t want a used car so no gsw for her, ended up in the last manual crosstrek instead. Sadly the rest of the world isn’t far behind now.
I was at l’oe show for the reveal of the 380, I was there last year for the golfr reveal. It was night and day difference in crowd excitement. Something new, cool and manual made enthusiasts flock and take pics for nearly an hour. The last gasping breath of a cultural mainstay was met with anger sadness and apathy.
They have treated the US like their redheaded stepchild (I say this as an actual redheaded stepchild) for ~2 decades now, invest nearly nothing of any value into the market and look around at all of us wondering why we no longer pander to the brand. The only thing they’ve done for the US is ruin the B7 Passat (essentially a VW Camry here) and made the Atlas (essentially a Highlander). Who is going to pick the VW over the Toyota given their reliability issues?
In the past, it was easy. VW were more fun, higher quality cars, kinda like what Mazda is chasing today, a step up from mass market, but not as expensive as highline. Nowadays, they’re poorly built, have godawful interiors and controls and aren’t a value prop either (ahem, beetle, golf.. the cars that built the brand). It’s so sad to have watched this happen as a deeply masochistic VW fan boy, but it’s even more sad to have watched it play out over 20 years with no real strategy in mind to mitigate it (minus making a Russian nesting doll lineup of meh CUVs).
I am still a huuuge fan of the VW Group, but I have no interest in the actual company at all. You want a quality car, you buy an Audi (although, I’m falling out of love with them more and more) but you pay the price. You want fun? Get rich and buy a Porsche. Those are about your only options to be a fan of VW in the US anymore. They became the biggest in the world by being the best in the world, now they’re chasing profit trying to out-Toyota Toyota. It’s just sad.
See also, my username. 🙁
Are you my alt account? I am a ginger step child as well.
I feel like piech was the start of VW chasing numbers and losing the plot. It’s not only VW, I feel like Subaru and others have forgotten they were made popular by enthusiasts and if you don’t make cars for those people anymore you are not going to ever (as you say) out-Toyota Toyota. The dieselgate era seems to have been the real catalyst as they needed to sell tons of cars to get back into black and didn’t have the qc or brand appeal to actually get there. I dare someone to get fahrvergnügen from their ea888 as they sit on the side of the highway waiting for a tow truck. I can’t even go Audi as it is too rich for my blood now.
Gingers represent!
I don’t really see it that way. I think they had quality issues, but I dont think it was a measure of cost cutting, but the absolutely bonkers amount of innovation and technology they were cramming into cars, and trying to merge 12 brands under one umbrella. A lot of the quality issues from the early 00s were electrical, and that was shared by all the Germans, because they thought wiring harnesses should be biodegradable and made from foodstuffs (real). Other issues generally came from new technology probably coming out a bit earlier than it should have, but someone had to do it, and they were happy to carry that torch.
During Piechs tenure, he turned Porsche around from certain death to the most profitable lux car company in the world, basically created an image for Audi, and gave them a performance sub-brand (whose formula has been poorly copied by everyone now), revived Bentley, Lamborghini, literally brought Bugatti back from the dead and made VW the largest and most profitable car company in the world.
He outright said multiple times in his career, “were going to make the best car in the world” and went out and did it. The D platform, PL71 platform, 42 platform, the Veyron. Piech singlehandedly moved the entire car industry forward more than anyone in history. The reason modern cars are so much better in every way, faster, more comfortable, better materials, less emmitive *cough*. VWs money and supplier connections had more to do with that than any other company and I’ll die by that. Audi is known for the highest quality interiors, Lamborghinis became the first true supercars built well enough you weren’t afraid to daily drive them, Porsche, well, just look at em now.
This is the man who told the entire body team they had 6 weeks to make panel gaps on every single car in every single factory 3mm or less or every single one of them were fired. and they did it. When Michelin said the tires he wanted for the Veyron were impossible to produce, he told them to make it happen or he would cancel every tire order for the entire VW group (I’m sure that was the largest tire order in the world). They did it.
He was a huuuge car enthusiast (started his career by turning Porsche into the winningest marque ever to go racing), and a brilliant engineer. I don’t think he directly caused the cost cutting, but he knew he had to hit certain price points and everything couldn’t be exactly as he wanted. I think the reliability issues were more a product of throwing so many new things at so many new cars at once. VW started losing their innovative edge once he moved from chairman to head of the advisory board, and the cost cutting has only become deeply obvious since his death.
I definitely don’t think he’s perfect, and I’m sure he was a nightmare to work for.. how else would dieselgate have happened? Everyone was so afraid of him, their only solution was lying, which ironically lead to the accelerated death of ICE, which is sad.
I’ll hop of the soap box now, but aside from Karl Benz and Henry Ford, he was the most influential person in the car industry absolutely ever, and the group truly thrived under his leadership. Also I love his absolutely insane moonshot cars (phaeton, w8, v10/w12 touareg, veyron) those cars could have only been produced by someone like Piech and will never exist again.
But I agree, most brands have totally forgotten enthusiasts are what made them. They can make record money overcharging for mediocre crossovers and that’s all they care about. It’s a very shortsighted cash grab, and I’m sure a few legacy brands are going to die off or be absorbed in the EV transition, and it’ll be because they forgot or stopped caring about the people who love(d) them. We went from the best cars ever made to humdrum garbage in a decade.
Sad, sad times
sorry for the wall of text lol.
tldr, Piech good, new cars bad. (my opinion)
It has taken me a while to read it, sorry. I agree piech was a great innovator but someone needed to tell the dude K.I.S.S. and make him understand why.
I agree with almost everything you say, but I would counter that pushing the envelope at that particular time was a bad call. The Asian brands made bank and became leaders because their shit just would not quit. A 2001 Camry is gonna outlast the heat death of the universe. An 01 b5 Passat is not going to make it to the next service interval, even if it is a low production number w8 manual wagon awd (I know of one locally).
He was super influential and important in cars but I can’t help but feel he took the simple honest mk2/3 era vw and tried to make it something it wasn’t ready to be.
🙁
I got one of these when they first came out (couldn’t find a Civic Si at MSRP early in the pandemic) and despite some of the shortfalls in regards to the infotainment it’s still a remarkable and fun daily to drive. With how hard VW pushed for the Golf R to have a manual in the U.S and with the take rate on the GTI, I’m shocked that they’re killing it so early in the life cycle. With new regulations it was inevitable, but I really thought the Golf would hold out until it couldn’t no more.
There was one person keeping it alive and they finally told her no.
This is gonna backfire on VW- They think we’ll all bust open our piggy banks to buy the “last” manuals, but reading the comments everybody is so pissed they’ll never buy VW again!
VW is dead to me now. Not that it mattered because after the Mk7, they took the GTI and hit it with the ugly stick until it had stupid LED eyelashes and a busy/incoherent design. Mk7 was glorious. Newer ones suck.
Don’t forget the haptic hell world interior either. As I said in my original comment…my conspiracy theory is that VW has been actively trying to kill the performance Golfs for years
Well, all the more reason for me to keep my manual Sportwagen TDI as long as I can. As I’ve said before, the diesel is just one tune away from matching the performance of my departed 09 GTI. Something about that MKV/VI platform (they’re almost identical) feels special to me. I had a 2012 CC, also a manual, and it was fine. But from the moment I took the Sportwagen on a test drive, I was grinning from ear to ear. Like seeing an old friend again. Probably helps that the Sportwagen was already lowered, like my GTI was. My old Beetle is my “forever car” for sure…but I feel like the Sportwagen might be approaching that status for me too.
Same, I’m keeping my gsw for life and will be buying all of them up when they hit a low enough price point.
Ah so bummed, I really like the looks of this new GTi too, if they’d fixed the UX problems with the midcycle refresh I was thinking I might shop these. The DSG works fine as a sporty automatic but it doesn’t have the engagement of driving a stick and at least the one I’ve driven has some quirks (like hill rollback) vs an automatic. IDK about others but I’d gladly take less horsepower with a stick if that got emissions under control.
It’s fitting that the car that introduced the DCT to the masses would one day be killed by it.
The DSG is a wonderful gearbox once you get used to its…..eccentricities. If I were to replace my Mk6 GLI I wouldn’t hesitate to check the DSG box again.
Oof. This one hurts.
Graphite grey yawn. I mean, whose heart races when they see another Golf? Not that there’s anything better. They stopped being exciting when the other GTIs stopped being made. It’s really sad that the NA market never even saw those other marques’ GTIs and GTEs and Turbo models. So many fond memories.
Man, fuck this noise. I thought the GTI, along with the Mini Cooper and MX-5 would be the last hold-outs on the manual front.
Zero chance the last one will be a cheap car.
Only expensive stuff is going to have a chance to hide development and certification costs in a higher MSRP.
Correct. It’s probably going to either be a supercar or a 911.
I’ve been telling myself that, when the time comes for my ’19 AllTrack (manual, obv), I’d still be able to get a GTI with a stick. This really does hurt.
That’s a sweet car. Last of the manual awd wagons.
One of us.
I spent years monitoring the market to make sure there’d be one available when the time came for our old Passat (also a manual AWD wagon), and then spent almost 6 months checking dealers anywhere near me to get one that wasn’t black, white, or white over black. Ended up going from Pittsburgh to Muskegon to get blue over tan, and it still looks great. Four years, 28k miles, so it should have plenty of life ahead of it.
I’m guessing Mazda will keep offering a stick in the MX-5 until they go electric with it. They only offer the automatic in the Grand Touring and RF now, basically saying the simplest models are for enthusiasts and someone looking for more of a touring convertible can also pay up for the extra comfort features like leather seats. At least that’s how it comes across to me.
Does anyone know if the Jetta GLI manual will suffer the same fate?
I’d bet money it’s gone as well. They’re not going to spend development dollars on one model to cover the homologation costs, and it frees up engineer time for other things.
I’m not so sure though. The GLI is built on the last generation platform and engine. They gave the EA888 a significant power boost in the GTI to separate it from the GLI when the MK8 was introduced. It’s still making the old 228/258 or whatever it is in the GLI.
That may be safe until the Jetta gets a full redesign, and I don’t think that’s due for a few years. Apparently VW also nerfed the DSG in the GLI to the point that it essentially behaves like a normal torque converter but jerkier (again, they don’t care about enthusiasts anymore) so the stick is absolutely the transmission to get.
Take rate for the manual in the GLI was 30% back in 2017.
Since 2017, even the take rate in 911s have dropped, GT3 included. It’s dropped even faster in the EU (from 50% to sub-30% for the GT3!) than it has in NA.
I really wouldn’t count on it. You still have suppliers to deal with, production line logistics impact, warranty and parts inventory, etc. That’s money that could be allocated for swipe-to-steer and gesture-based braking on the next VW ID.
I’m not sure if I should laugh or cry at swipe to steer and gesture braking….
I’m not even whelmed. We need to start a legal regulatory body that decides what truly is a special edition. As punishment for VW’s sins, Oliver Schmidt needs to return to German prison
Damn. I’d like to give VW (and every other carmaker) the end of a stick.
No surprise here.
My old co-driver had her Mk5 GTI rear-ended hard about 2 years ago to where insurance totaled it out. She decided to order a Mk8 instead of getting one of the last Mk7.5s.
The manual feels phoned in on the Mk8. It feels as if you’re just moving it through pancake batter. Granted, this is the case with a lot of manufacturers over the past decade or so. For the manuals that survived, most of them don’t feel like they once did. The development money isn’t there, and is spent on the automatics and fancy features instead.
Hilariously her biggest criticism is that she ends up accidentally activating one of the haptic buttons on the steering wheel when she’s on b-roads. She tells me she’s wondering why her hands feel warm, to find out she might’ve brushed the heated steering wheel button when she was hand-over-hand during a downhill mountain hairpin.
There goes one of the few reasons I would ever roll the dice on a VW product.
My GTI was a DSG and even I find this sad. VW’s emissions excuse is flimsy as hell. They could easily change a couple engine parameters and make the manual car compliant if they wanted to. To me this screams of the shareholders frothing at the mouth for more of the line going up. The emissions excuse is an easy scapegoat that we can all see through.
Second of all, holy shit VW. This is the laziest goddamn edition I’ve seen in recent memory, and VW is already infamous for lazy ass cash grab special editions. Black wheels?! Are you kidding me?! The special color is….a slightly different gray than the one the car is already offered in? Every single performance Golf SpEcIaL eDiTiOn in the last few years has essentially been different (usually black) wheels, painted mirrors, a decal or two, and giving a lower spec car a feature or two from the higher spec model. Wash, rinse, repeat. I mean their fanboys still show up and pay over sticker so I guess if it ain’t broke don’t fix it?
I get that Germany is an exceedingly serious and clinical place but their car manufacturers are some of the worst culprits of the worst trends in the industry that we see today. Grayscale all the things? Check. Loading cars with proprietary, confusing tech that no one wants? Check. Manufacturing cars that won’t last beyond their lease or warranty? Check. Do any of you know how to have fun anymore? (NEIN NEIN NEIN NEIN!)
Does VW even care about enthusiasts in this day and age?
…that’s a rhetorical question. VW doesn’t give a rats ass about enthusiast cars and it shows. They’ve been nerfing their fun cars more and more every model year. My conspiracy theory has always been that they’ve been trying to kneecap the MK8s so they have an excuse to officially kill the GTI/R at the end of this cycle….and by all accounts they’re doing a bang up job.
My GTI absolutely tortured me and VW products have haunted my family for years….but even I have the utmost respect for the GTI as an institution and think it deserves so much better than this.
VW isn’t the people’s car any more. Seat, Skoda maybe. VW is becoming to Audi what the Polo became to the Golf.
It was always my intention to buy a manual MK8.5 GTI but it looks like those plans have been kiboshed. Guess I can make due with one of these fellas (the infotainment is not the best but not a deal breaker for me either).
Even I find this sad, and mourning a VW product going away is not something I do lightly.
I have told my teenage daughter (budding anutopian) and anyone who would listen that my Focus RS was the last of its kind that Ford would ever make. Sad to see the other automakers making the entire species die out.
The Japanese will literally never give up manual transmissions until regulators show up at their doors with cease and desists and the Elantra N still offers a manual as of right now. I wouldn’t say the species is dying so much as who’s keeping it alive has shifted. And as someone who’s owned a GTI, driven an R, and currently owns an N car, I’ll say that the performance Golfs really haven’t crossed my mind again since I made the switch to an N.
I used to daily my wife’s manual 2017 Elantra. That manual left lots to desired, standard econobox fair. I thought the Elantra N lost its manual in 24 but I could be mistaken. I don’t think the N is really in the same category as the RS or the Golf R. GTI and ST(rip) sure, but It’s down on power and grip compared to the next power level up.
My RS I’m planning to keep until I’m in the grave. Literally have the money budgeted for the eventual engine swap either due to too much boost or the head gasket issue.
Maybe not, but the GR Corolla and CTR/Integra Type S are and none of those even offer an automatic.
Hey do you have a source on the Elantra N losing its stick for 2024?
Not to mention the Veloster N, which the other site really loved.
Unfortunately the Veloster N died. The last new ones were 2022s. If you want one I’d start looking sooner rather than later because a lot of them are destined to be lost in the tuner wars. In the end it was too weird to live with the 3 door set up and only 2 back seats. The Kona N is dead now as well, although we’re talking stick and the Kona N was DCT only anyway.
Oh, I didn’t realize it was deceased. I owned an original-flavour Veloster Turbo but by the time the N came around my needs had, alas, moved beyond hatchback. Loved that car though.
I dont’ know man, clearly Subaru is trying to kill off the stick-the top level WRX only comes with an auto and worse yet a CVT. Honda and Toyota are holding out but even Toyota made the stupid gamble of releasing the Supra without a stick to see how it would do.
I think the Supra stick thing was because the manual wasn’t really ready yet. They said fairly early on that there was going to be a manual for that car, especially considering they wanted to put their own touches on it and not just go straight BMW (who isn’t known for good manuals anyway) parts bin.
The ZF8 was plug and play so that’s what they started with. I think they also knew that withholding the manual for a little while would allow them and their dealerships to charge more for it/get the hype machine revved up. It’s the ole Taco Bell technique…take something people like away, make them beg for it, then bask in all the goodwill and sales when you bring it back.
When it comes to the WRX does anyone actually buy them with the CVT? I want to say the manual take rate on them is way above average and I’ve only encountered a small handful of automatic ones in the wild. Buying an automatic fun car is still something a lot of folks turn up their noses at and a CVT adds insult to injury.
I think if any of the Japanese companies wanted to force people into autos they’d have developed a decent one by now, but they haven’t. Toyota uses Aisin stuff that’s absolutely ancient and Honda has their 10 speed which is okay but no where near the ZF8 or comparable transmissions. They also refuse to offer it in any of the performance Civic variants, including the Integra…which is an exceedingly peculiar choice for a luxury car. Toyota also refuses to offer an auto in the GR Corolla and has no plans to.
If anything I think they nerf the autos to get more people in manuals, and Toyota’s come out and said they’re trying to develop a stick shift for EVs that literally stalls out the cars if you mess up. Driving stick is just such a massive part of Japanese car culture that I don’t think it’s going to die at Honda or Toyota until ICE is fully gone. They really, deeply care about the manual transmission.
RE: the Supra it seems to me that you have the most hype at launch and having the car available then with a popular drivetrain option – a deal breaker for many makes more sense than waiting but I’m no marketing guru.
As for the WRX, agreed they sell a way above average number with sticks, but my point is that it really feels like Subaru is trying to change folks behavior by offering some desirable options only with the CVT.
And not sure I 100% agree on the last point-likely for Japanese enthusiasts what you’re saying is true, but the general Japanese public is almost entirely buying autos from what I saw when I was there a few years ago. I’d say nearly every (90%+) of the econoboxes I peeped in the window of there had an auto; I had expected them almost all be manuals similar to Europe. And not saying the Japanese are trying to nerf autos in performance cars just that I don’t have as much faith as you do that they’ll stick with them long term-I would love to be wrong and I agree I’m impressed the extent to which Honda and Toyota have stuck by offering manuals in their performance offerings. Also fwiw my DD ’08 Cayenne has an Aisin manufactured auto and it’s great imo (as autos go) though maybe that’s the Porsche programming and tuning. Certainly though anyone who thinks they’re going to tempt enthusiasts with CVTs is kidding themselves I’d rather drive an EV at that point.
I just bought a MK7.5 GTI Autobahn w/ DSG rather than a Japanese hatch w/ a CVT (my wife will be driving it [mostly] and insisted on an automatic). I am disappointed in the features compared to other, similarly priced cars (and even the domestic (European) market models. No memory seats or mirrors and the UI seems designed to frustrate the driver.
Yeah not saying there should be no automatic option, my wife wouldnt’ daily a stick shift either. I think that’s been the low end german car thing for a long time-less creature comforts than comparably priced japanese and american cars in exchange for being more fun to drive. IMO the only company that typically has bridged this gap is Mazda-and I haven’t driven anything of theirs newer than about 2014.