Quote:
Originally Posted by Dadhawk
Well, the problem really is 99% of the purchasers of those cars want and expect AT so from a supply/demand prospective it doesn't make any sense to offer the MT. If you sell it, you have to stock parts for it, stock spares, train people to support it, etc., etc. Easier and cheaper to lose the 1% of buyers.
Also, I suspect that a large % of the 1% that would buy a MT would not pay a premium for it as a line item since they expect the AT to be the premium item. That is why when you do see a MT show up in a high end car it shows up in a model like the ATS-V that already has a premium price built in.
Mind you, this is all just theory on my part, I don't have any inside knowledge.
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If the general sales of all cars is at 3% then I suspect that in the luxury SUV category the demand for an MT would be well under 1%. Probably more like .001% (with most of those guys on forums such as this).
What really floors me is the almost total disappearance of MT in pick up trucks. There was a day not that long ago when getting an AT pickup was hard to do but now there are almost none with MT even as an option. A buddy went looking for a half ton truck with a MT last year and they simply are no longer available in any make. There is only one heavy duty and the rest are all midsize. Even then they are very few.