Quote:
Originally Posted by Clev
The reason that people don't buy manuals is that you can't get anything but the base car in a manual. In Europe, you can buy a fully loaded Kia Soul with a manual, but in the US, you can only buy the stripper model, and if you want even cruise control added to that, you have to get the auto even though it's the same damn engine.
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It's somewhat of a cultural issue. Even some Europeans who wanted the comfort of getting rid of the clutch pedal would often get an automatic clutch such as the ancient Saxomat system and call it a day. By the way, a friend who moved to Portugal in late 2017 told me manuals are still a strong seller there, while here in Brazil they're losing market share for the automatics in many segments. Surprisingly, while the Corolla retains the manual transmission option in Argentina, it became avaliable only with the automatic in Brazil before this move was implemented in the USA.