It looks like the ol’ manual could be on the same path as vinyl records and point-and-shoot cameras.
The Wall Street Journal reported a “modest but real resurgence” in manual car sales already this year after data analytics company J.D. Power revealed manuals accounted for 1.7% of total new vehicle sales in 2023, up from 1.2% last year and a low of 0.9% in 2021.
The US Autotrader also apparently reported a 13% rise in online page views for new manual cars in 2023 compared with this time last year.
Mini, which has its own manual driving school, found that out of 1000 drivers, two-thirds of drivers between 18 and 34-years-old were keen to learn how to drive one.
Over on TikTok, #manualcar and #stickshift hashtags are super popular, I mean, this ‘how to drive a manual’ clip alone has clocked more than 15 million views.
@pushingpistons Reply to @felipe8274 I’ve never stalled in my life 🤥 #howtodrive #manual #cadillac #cartok ♬ Love You So – The King Khan & BBQ Show
The reason for the uptick in interest hasn’t got anything to do with cost or performance but, The Journal put simply: driving them was more fun. Particularly in an ever-increasing automated world, these drivers were keen for a more connected, analogue driving experience.
