Not sure what "audi" (a German company) has to do with America but what ever.
For my own tastes, once my 2000 Ford mustang's automatic tranny started acting funny sometimes (after 15 years and 200k miles), I bought a used manual tranny, flywheel, and clutch pedal set from a wrecked mustang of the same year and did a swap. Much happier now. I also feel more "invincible". If my starter goes out, I won't be stranded, I can just do a push start! Heck even if your battery is dead you can normally still push start. Nothing can stop me! Heck it even has a spare tire unlike all these "modern" cars. Truly nothing can stop me!
Supposedly, it's newsworthy because Audi was going to discontinue manuals much sooner, but one of their execs pushed for continued offering because of "demand in the US".
Porsche got a lot of backlash in the US when they discontinued manuals, to the point where they engineered a brand new manual gearbox with parts sharing with their PDK just because of US demand for the latest generation.
Audi thought there was also demand for Audis with manuals, apparently there wasn't.
Audi may have been confronted with the lesson that BMW already learned to its chagrin: there's no demand for crappy manuals in the US.
That said, the only reason cars have a transmission at all is because of a serious flaw in the way internal combustion engines work. That means that the best transmission would be no transmission at all... and the transmission that best approximates that state of affairs is, more or less inarguably, PDK.
> Audi sells cars. Cars are sold in America. Audi sells cars in America
When my first child was born, I went over to the local Audi dealership with plans to buy an A4 Avant Quattro with a manual transmission. No dice. Audi was only willing to sell Americans a manual transmission if it came in a sedan.
For a long time, there we so many artificial limitations, like you couldn't buy the upgraded radio or get leather seats if you wanted the manual transmission. A few years ago, BMW even limited the paint colors if you bought a 3-series with a manual. These days you can order any option you want on the 3-series with the manual - as long as you get the largest engine.
For my own tastes, once my 2000 Ford mustang's automatic tranny started acting funny sometimes (after 15 years and 200k miles), I bought a used manual tranny, flywheel, and clutch pedal set from a wrecked mustang of the same year and did a swap. Much happier now. I also feel more "invincible". If my starter goes out, I won't be stranded, I can just do a push start! Heck even if your battery is dead you can normally still push start. Nothing can stop me! Heck it even has a spare tire unlike all these "modern" cars. Truly nothing can stop me!