BOOHOO
Can’t your right-click on the link, save the article, read your local copy? I can. I have read, literally, more than a million articles from nytimes.com without having a subscription.
mandatory option?
@weekend-warrior Thanks for the full article
@RandomTroll The right click didn’t work for me
Maybe I should subscribe anyway, living in CA but visit New England once or twice a yr as we used to live here. Love Manhattan and sitting in a hotel in the East Village as I type this.
On the manual car topic, one of the recent editions of motor trend was essentially saying that the DCT’s are so much better now that having a manual option is only for the stubborn like me and serves no other functional benefit.
My kids have zero interest in the third pedal, they say that was a problem that technology solved.
IMO, yes. Anyone with that much power should have training to use it. It also gives the new owner an opportunity to get his ya-yas out at delivery, then drive home in a safe manner.
The Corvette Museum has a track for such a purpose, could be part of the museum delivery experience.
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Yep, with a discount for new corvette owners for the 2 day course.
Sports cars maybe, but for old car enthusiasts, they are all getting older and like automatics. On the way to the great car show, my BIL stopped by with his newly restored 56 Ford Pick-up. Original engine but replaced the stick with a 4 speed automatic. His buddy too with his 57 Chevy with Corvette engine with a 4 speed automatic. But I’m not going to read all this and I didn’t think people in New York drove cars or knew anything about them. OTOH over this past year, money has been accumulating and people with money have driven up lots of items being collected. It may be a temporary blip as people look for collecting opportunities and a place to put their money.
Signing off.
New York is a big state. most of it is not NY city. if you believed that, you would be shocked at all the cruise nights and car shows their are on Long Island. you could find a cruise night just about every night and weekend day…
Yeah I’ve been to both outstate and NYC but the NYT is NYC. Agree they have cars outstate-lots of them.
NYC is more than Manhattan. There’s room for cars in the other boroughs.
Well sure but some of our members here are proud of not wanting or needing a car in the big city. We’ve had the discussion years ago. I guess I was just implying that the writers at the NYT may not be the best folks when it comes to collector cars, unless exotics.
The NY Times has people working all over the world, not just in Manhattan.
Off the top of my head (like my late, lamented hair) there are still the Dodge Challenger, the Ford Mustang and the Chevrolet Camaro, all available with a 6 speed manual. The only thing really approaching a sports car that I can think of with a manual transmission is the Fiat 124 Sport; the Alfa Romeo 4C Spider is only available with a dual-clutch automatic.
The Challenger is technically available with a manual but there’s some question about when you can actually order one.
Because so many local lay offs for the last year and people living on unemployment, the dealers have reduced their inventory to minimum, some claim the low inventory is due to the computer chip shortage.
One dealer has only 7 Challengers, all automatics as those far out sell manual transmissions.
A closer dealer has 4 Challengers, 3 of them with manual transmissions, those are the most difficult to sell.
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There are a few R/T’s with the manual around but the manuals are thin on the ground nationally compared to the Auto.
Three years ago when I needed a new car I wanted something cheap but reliable. The automatics, particularly CVTs didn’t fit the bill so the search for a cheap car with a manual transmission began. I finally found one for a killer deal because few people want them. After 50+ years, driving manuals is second nature for me. It’s kind of sad to see them being phased out.
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In my immediate area (within 25 miles) there are 82 Challenger R/Ts available. I’m not going to take the time to search each one to see how many (if any) are manual trans. cars. However, to Nevada_545’s point, my understanding is the computer chip shortage is in fact a real thing.
Mazda Miata has a manual… the car upon which the Fiat 124 is based.
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The reason we’re seeing few new stick shifts is because for good reason, people don’t want 'em.
“Back in the day” when engines were smaller, automatics were 2 or 3 speed and sluggish, having tight 4 speed made a real performance difference. Today when you can get a faster shifting, accelerating and better fuel economy with a 9 speed automatic, why bother with a stick?
And while a manual may be potentially more durable than an automatic on a manual the clutch, throwout bearings and synchronizers all regularly wear out anyway, an expensive repair.
I actually have a stick, great for play, but for the real world always an automatic.
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