For decades, manual gearboxes had a performance advantage over those without a clutch pedal, but today we have cars with dual-clutch gearboxes that shift faster than a human leg and arm working together and the need for a manual gearbox has diminished and erased the advantage of a quick shift short ratio manual gearbox.
Dual clutch gearboxes shift faster, and they help car marketers persuade showroom customers with its promise of better fuel consumption and easier driving in ever increasing traffic.
Supercar manufacturer, Ferrari is not alone in discarding the manual gearbox and leaving behind the dog-leg shifter. Lamborghini and McLaren no longer have a single manual gearbox in their product range and Lotus is not far behind with the Evora using an automatic.
Porsche has made the dual-clutch PDK gearbox mandatory on the highest-performance versions of its 911 and the last hope of a manual Porsche was the Cayman GT4. Aston Martin however still offers them throughout its range.
Manual driven car are now only found in less-expensive cars like the basic Perodua and Proton and some car brands, Like Ford with the Fiesta and Focus ST and Kia with their Picanto to entertain a very small group of car buyers with their manual offerings.
It looks like the manual gearbox is headed for the endangered species list, but it is and will not be entirely extinct as long as real drivers keep buying cars with manual shifting gearboxes.
