"In the North American market, stick is not for economy, it is for sport."
Up until this year very few people in the North American market purchased for economy ... so I'm not sure if the above is true.
But now people are buying many vehicles expressly for economy (pardon the ironic pun). So far, I'd guess they are buying based on over-all size and dumbed-down EPA numbers. It will take a couple years of data and some historical perspective to see if the economy-minded driver in this hemisphere equates a manual tranny with economy any more.
