Honda, Subaru Turn Heads With New Manual Transmission Cars

It is no secret the manual transmission segment of vehicles is slowly dying a painful death in the United States. More and more automakers are giving up on the stick-shift and transitioning to producing automatic vehicles.

However, there are two players in the game seemingly going against the grain.

Honda and Subaru recently launched their respective models equipped with a manual transmission: the 2022 Honda Civic prototype and the 2022 Subaru BRZ. These two cars, along with the Ford Mustang and Mazda Miata, join the ranks of the few remaining three-pedaled models in the market.

Honda has a reputation for attracting enthusiasts rather than going for popularity and higher sales numbers. This explains why the automaker opted to officially launch the 11th-generation of the long-running model through live-streaming platform Twitch.

More than its choice of platform, it is more interesting to note that Honda, as well as Subaru, does not have plans of abandoning the manual transmission.

“For us, it’s basically an enthusiast thing, and it has become such a big part of our DNA as a company over time. I think it’s fair to say that we have a reputation for having one of the best manuals out there,” Honda’s Assistant Vice President of Automobile Product Planning Gary Robinson told online publication Car and Driver.

While vehicles with automatic transmissions prove to be more efficient and easier to maneuver, especially in heavy traffic, a lot of people still think this does not give drivers the full experience brought by having to step on a clutch and shift gears. Although for some automakers, this driver-vehicle connection is not nearly enough for them to keep investing millions of dollars without return.

With manufacturers like Honda and Subaru keeping their mindset toward manual transmissions, there will always be this option available for their loyal customers.