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#1
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Large stick-shift in US?
Are any large American sedans available with a manual transmission?
I like my Crown Victoria, but none of them seem to! -- Mark |
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#2
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Mark Carroll > writes:
> Are any large American sedans available with a manual transmission? Nope. > I like my Crown Victoria, but none of them seem to! Well, the last I knew the Grand Marquis/Crown Vic sold something between 150,000 and 200,000 units a year. If even 10% of the owners opted for a manual, that would mean calibration and certification for <20,000 units a year. Not really practical, since most of those buyers could be persuaded to buy an automatic instead, i.e. not all of those sales would be lost. It's sad, but true: Americans really don't want manual transmissions. At least not enough to make economic sense to cater to them. -- -Stephen H. Westin Any information or opinions in this message are mine: they do not represent the position of Cornell University or any of its sponsors. |
#3
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Stephen H. Westin > writes: > It's sad, but true: Americans really don't want manual > transmissions. It'd be more precise to say that Americans of the demographic that prefers full-size sedans don't want manual transmissions. Which shouldn't really come as any surprise. These people tend to (note: tend to) skew toward the elderly end of the age spectrum, and so they're of a generation that grew up thinking of the automatic transmission as an advance, a luxury that freed them of the chore of shifting gears. My grandmother brought this to my attention one time, when she expressed her incredulty that "you kids" all want stick shifts. She said we had no idea what a big deal the auto- matic transmission was when it started becoming common, and was surprised that we didn't appreciate it more than we did. There's also the fact that large sedans like the Crown Vic and the Grand Marquis are, if not actual luxury cars in the same vein as Lincolns and Cadillacs, at least more luxurious than mid-level sedans like, say, Camrys and Accords. And upmarket sedans tend to be equipped with automatic trans- missions because automatics are considered a convenience item. Geoff -- "When life hands you a lemon, pull out a gun and start shooting." |
#4
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