Opinion

From the Editor: How Car of the Year 2021 forged ahead

COTY 2021 will forever go down as the One That Almost Didn’t Happen

By Dylan Campbell

Editorial Wheels Car of the Year 2021

Opinion: The car industry is turning away from beautiful designs

Opinion Mark Skaife Supercars Gen3

Opinion: The 2020s must be the time for sensible climate action

Ash Westerman on new cars

You may well have seen figures showing that electric vehicles are now more popular than cars with manual gearboxes, in the US at least. Here things are often a bit different but, in five months of 2019, the Tesla Model 3 sold more than 3500 units. That’s more than the combined manual registrations for Ford Mustang, BMW 2 Series, Toyota 86, Mazda MX-5, Chevrolet Camaro and Porsche 911 for the same period– ie, the very cars you might well buy equipped with three pedals and a stick. To make matters worse for those who like to change gear themselves, in a reversal of common practice, BMW has announced that the base price for its sports coupes would be for the automatic model, with its low-volume manuals being cost-plus options on cars like the M2, M3 and M4. So things are certainly looking grim for the manual, and have for some time. Mercedes doesn’t offer a manual model. Now that the base Giulietta has been shuffled out to pasture, we get no manual Alfas. Roll that thought round in your head for a while. There haven’t been manual Ferraris or Lamborghinis for years. The gated metal gearchange that was for so long an icon of the Italian supercar somewhat ironically hit the evolutionary buffers with the Audi R8 in mid-2018. A whole generation of drivers are going to miss that deliberate clack through the H-pattern. They’ll never know the tactile delight of a heel-and-toe downshift in a Honda S2000, the one-pause-two cadence of a Viper’s box, the liquid metal feel of second to third in an E30 M3, or the full-arm pool-ball break of a C6 Vette’s Tremec, surely Mexico’s finest export after the three-bean burrito. Porsche tried to kill off the three-pedal 911 GT3 back in 2013 when it launched the 991 generation without a manual option. The 911 model chief August Achleitner underestimated the depth of feeling among purists when he breezily claimed: “When we launched the 911 Turbo S, we did not offer a manual, but we have not had a single complaint.” The gripes certainly came thick and fast with the PDK-only 991 GT3 and kept coming until a dramatic corporate U-turn with the manual 991.2 GT3 in 2017. That sort of response is rare. Once manuals are gone, they tend to stay gone. That’s largely due to the fact that as soon as the human is taken out of the loop, the transmission can be relied on to do some quite clever things. Eight-, nine- or 10-gear ratios, which would clearly be impossible to marshal by hand, can deliver the sort of torque response and economy we once thought the preserve of the ‘efficient manual’. Those gains are hard for a manufacturer to concede. If General Motors can write off entire right-hand-drive markets as marginal, you can be sure that car makers can forgo tooling up for a transmission that might make up two percent of their sales figures. It will be interesting to see the sales numbers of the Hyundai i30 N, previously only offered as manual, when its twin-clutch ’box arrives within a year. I love a good auto but have come to believe I’d miss the manual. It rankles if I ever see an MX-5, an 86 or a Mustang furnished with a mere pair of pedals. That’s because the car can be a toy, something that we buy purely for joy and tactility. A road car doesn’t need to chase lap times and it doesn’t always have to be the acme of efficiency. When car makers are looking to shave costs and lower group emissions numbers, the manual is an easy casualty but the way to save it is simple: Put your money where your mouth is.

Farewell from Wheels editor Alex Inwood

By Alex Inwood25 Oct 2020

There is change at the top for Wheels, with Alex Inwood stepping down from the editor role

Why Maserati needs cars worthy of its iconic badge

By Alex Inwood09 Sep 2020

Think Maserati and you’ll imagine Fangio sliding a red 250F. The brand is strong, but I can’t remember the last time Maserati made a class-leading car.

Modern cars can be improved with old technology

By Alex Inwood23 Aug 2020

“Resto-mods are hideously expensive. So here’s an idea. Instead of an old car with modern bits, imagine a modern car with old bits.”

What made HSV so special

By Cameron Kirby10 Jul 2020

The end of the line for HSV is a sad day for all Australian car enthusiasts

Here's why we need the Ineos Grenadier in Australia

By Andy Enright02 Jul 2020

At last - an all-new live-axled 'proper' 4x4. So why all the whinging?

Why half the population is more likely to die in a car crash

By Stephen Corby25 Jun 2020

The way we use crash test dummies means half the population is 17 percent more likely to die in a vehicle accident

Ferrari's 'Rendez-vous' tribute is a dumpster-fire of epic proportions

By Andy Enright15 Jun 2020

We knew it would be bad. We just didn't think it would be this bad

If virtual racing is the future, unplug my TV

By Alex Inwood26 May 2020

E-sports is a billion-dollar industry, but it can’t replace the thrill of real motorsport

All the fun car projects are being killed

By Cameron Kirby17 May 2020

Budget restrictions mean projects loved by enthusiasts are under threat

Opinion: Our obsession with dual-cabs is a problem

By Byron Mathioudakis11 May 2020

Byron has an axe to grind when it comes to Australia’s love of the dual-cab ute

Your car’s scent isn’t by chance

By John Carey09 May 2020

Carey finds himself in a ‘Gingery Mood’ with a Mercedes-Benz – and he likes it

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