Pedal-operated parking brakes might influence the low demand for manual transmission?

[cRiPpLe_rOoStEr]

Originally Posted by redpoint5

I've never used the brake to assist with hills.

I use it quite often. Last time I had to not use it was when I took my driving license test. Since my knees become quite painful sometimes, it feels quite discomfortable not being able to use the handbrake to assist on hill starts.

Even large hills, I'll roll back no more than a few centimeters. Just rev the engine and quickly let out the clutch to the point that at least the car isn't rolling backwards.

Wasting more fuel and increasing clutch wear? I prefer to avoid that. Unfortunately, when I have to drive my dad's currently vehicle, I have no choice. It's an old Nissan XTerra with a regionally-sourced Diesel engine and 5-speed manual transmission.

Originally Posted by Fat Charlie

The handbrake takes up valuable cupholder real estate- and the transmission itself takes up (apparently) valuable mental real estate, forcing people to pay attention to the vehicle they're allegedly operating, plan more than half a second ahead and other non-Facebooky type things.

And it's often easier to implement some "space-saving" shifter, either a rotary-dial one which has been more common on newer models or a traditional collumn-shifter. OK, I know there were vehicles with manual transmission that had collumn-shifters, but the amount of gears in the newer ones would render this feature unpractical and harder to operate than a floor-shifter.

Originally Posted by Old Tele man

Our '14 Prius has a small, hanging, pedal...like european 'small' manual tranny pedals.

It was quite surprising to me when I figured out the Prius and the Lexus CT200h have a pedal-operated parking brake, a feature which I saw more often on trucks.

[freebeard]

My first car was a 1950 Studebaker. It had a hill holder:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hill-holder

[cRiPpLe_rOoStEr]

Those bullet-nose Studebakers seem to be far more advanced than I thought they were. Hill holders are becoming widespread in my country only recently.

[jamesqf]

Originally Posted by cRiPpLe_rOoStEr

...a traditional collumn-shifter

Traditional? Another thing I can't remember having seen since the '60s - except, oddly enough, on the U-Haul truck my neigbor rented for moving. Took me a while to figure out where the shift lever was.

[cRiPpLe_rOoStEr]

Originally Posted by jamesqf

Another thing I can't remember having seen since the '60s - except, oddly enough, on the U-Haul truck my neigbor rented for moving. Took me a while to figure out where the shift lever was.

Well, even though nowadays its use has been pretty much restricted to full-size GM trucks, it used to be quite common even for some passenger cars (mostly full-sizes and fleet cars) until the early 2000s.

[jamesqf]

Originally Posted by cRiPpLe_rOoStEr

...it used to be quite common even for some passenger cars (mostly full-sizes and fleet cars) until the early 2000s.

That explains why I've never encountered it - I don't do "full-size" vehicles :-)

[freebeard]

Another thing the 1950 Studebaker had. That, and a deeply recessed dash — like a Tucker. They were competing with Nash, and it's reclining seats, for the drive-in movie-goers.

Note also the suicide rear doors on the four-door.

[gone-ot]

My parents had a 1951 four door which they bought while in Panama. It was a made-in-Canada 6-cylinder model with 3-speed column shifter...and NO heater. When we moved from Panama back to the USA and settled in San Francisco, CA, Dad and I had to order and install the Studebaker "heater kit" which sat right under the front passenger seat, blowing air forward and backward into cabin areas.

Both my Dad and I referred to it as 'Old Bullet Nose.'

[freebeard]

Mine said 'Snake Pit' right on the rear fender.

My grandmother had a 1951 2-door sedan; she traded it for a Ford Falcon without giving me a shot at it. I was driving a 1953 Plymouth convertible at the time.

[cRiPpLe_rOoStEr]

IIRC my dad learned how to drive on a Brazilian Chevrolet C-10 with that local 2-door double-cab and 3-on-the-tree. Similar to this blue one, but that was white, issued to my grandpa by the governmental agency where he worked. IIRC those were fitted from the factory with an under-dash parking brake lever.

Subsequent square-bodied Chevy trucks turned to the pedal-controlled parking brake, which IMO are a PITA when fitted to a vehicle with manual transmission for anyone who can't do the punta-tacco (or heel-toe).

Dad currently owns a Nissan XTerra fitted with a locally-sourced Diesel engine and a 5-speed manual transmission, and sometimes it does become a PITA to start uphill. Sometimes I actually consider converting its parking brake from pedal-controlled to hand-controlled.