We’ll car companies are making it harder and harder to buy manuals so of course it’s disappearing. Can’t speak to American brands but the Toyota 4Runner stopped making a manual trim 20 years ago and the Tacoma while it has one, only 5% of them produced are manual on limited trims making it really hard for people who want one to actually get it without a lot of effort. How much is it people don’t want it/never learned/car companies reducing trim numbers and cost pushing automatics?
Automatic gearboxes (whether torque converters, CVT or dual-clutch) have just gotten much better to the point where they're better for both performance and fuel economy.
Manual transmissions are much, much harder to integrate with any kind of hybrid system, stop-start system, power-off coasting etc. which help with fuel economy too.
But you are right in that as cars electrify manuals will be less and less common. Not to mention emission regulations are pushing manufacturers to only produce autos
Manuals are still better in some rare situations imho like off-roading where just not having to worry about trans temps is a win
> Manual transmissions are much, much harder to integrate with any kind of hybrid system, stop-start system, power-off coasting etc. which help with fuel economy too.
Not necessarily disagreeing, but just wanted to say that it certainly is possible. I rented a manual Renault (don't remember the model) a couple of years ago and was surprised how it had a stop-start system power off when coasting system.