Fun fact.

"not for canada - australian in disguise" (for-canada) 08/29/2017 at 22:01 • Filed to: None

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Canada and Australia buy three times as many manuals as the US. However, this statistic becomes slightly less impressive when you realise that standards account for only 3% of US car sales, compared to 9% in Canada and Australia (and possibly NZ as well but I can’t find statistics). This also pales in comparison to other fellow English-speaking friends, the UK, where 75% of cars are manual.

Eric @ opposite-lock.com > not for canada - australian in disguise 08/29/2017 at 22:04

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I didn’t realize Canada bought so many, it must be mostly cheap cars bought in eastern Canada. Then again, where I live (Seattle area) also seems to have an outsized number of manual cars compared to the US average.

I did know about Europe - I remember renting cars there and many fleets had few to no automatics at all. In a small place in northern England I remember asking out of curiosity and the clerk told me in a thick accent that there probably isn’t an automatic rental car that side of Liverpool/Manchester. Luckily, I have daily-driven a manual in the US for a very long time and I’m left-handed, so it actually felt more natural than driving an LHD manual car.

E90M3 > not for canada - australian in disguise 08/29/2017 at 22:08

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Walking around downtown Savannah, I’m always impressed by the number of manual cars here. I mean it’s not Europe, but it seems better than average.

HammerheadFistpunch > not for canada - australian in disguise 08/29/2017 at 22:10

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lets also remember that it works out to 526,500 manuals in the US sold to only 175,500 in Canada.

HFV has no HFV. But somehow has 2 motorcycles > HammerheadFistpunch 08/29/2017 at 22:23

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Yeah take that less populated countries

not for canada - australian in disguise > HammerheadFistpunch 08/29/2017 at 22:27

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Canada’s also got 35 million compared to 300 some odd million in the States. Proportion is the key.

not for canada - australian in disguise > Eric @ opposite-lock.com 08/29/2017 at 22:29

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Quebec especially is very big on subcompacts with standard transmissions. Really, throughout the country, most cars smaller than a Sentra have standard transmissions, but most things bigger are automatic.

wafflesnfalafel > not for canada - australian in disguise 08/29/2017 at 23:23

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the UK is really 75%?

not for canada - australian in disguise > wafflesnfalafel 08/29/2017 at 23:25

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Thereabouts.

  > not for canada - australian in disguise 08/29/2017 at 23:45

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That statistic means nothing given the volume difference if you’re actually trying to buy a manual car here in Australia.

I’m searching for a manual facelift E92 325i and there is — exactly one — for sale in the entire country.

dsigned001 - O.R.C. hunter > not for canada - australian in disguise 08/30/2017 at 00:56

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I will say that driving a 10 speed manual on a semi isn’t quite the thrill that my six speed Matrix is.

Chinny Raccoon > wafflesnfalafel 08/30/2017 at 02:26

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Used to be a lot more, but it’s started to change in the last few years.

duurtlang > wafflesnfalafel 08/30/2017 at 03:02

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Seems low, I know. The percentage of automatics in Europe has gone up dramatically in the last decade or so, with the introduction of dual clutch and other actually competent automatics. In the 90s automatics used to be mostly restricted to barges like the S-Class and cars for the elderly and physically disabled.

ateamfan42 > dsigned001 - O.R.C. hunter 08/30/2017 at 08:26

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I will say that driving a 10 speed manual on a semi isn’t quite the thrill that my six speed Matrix is.

That’s a power-to-weight ratio problem, not a transmission problem :)

Milky > not for canada - australian in disguise 08/30/2017 at 09:48

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I’m just going to be a biased American and assume all of those manuals are in Micras, Mirages, Versas, etc. I don’t know many Canadians, but quite a few of them have cheap “standard” hatchbacks.