ctk1

Love my 2008 Sahara manual

Kerberos

Just another step away from the heritage of the classic Wrangler...

Although Chrysler has responded to owner outcry in the past (I'm looking at you, manual t-case shifter)

Maybe if enough people contact them; they'll hang onto a manual option...

You'd think the Italian's would appreciate a manual transmission.

What's Italian for "keep the manual trans" anyway???

mr72

Although not a direct translation, I think what you want is "trasferimento in Italia".

mr72

Americans in general have stopped buying manual transmissions. In Europe and elsewhere around the world they are far more common, so much so that even today if you rent a car in Europe, chances are it will be a manual.

I think it's pretty clear that the expansion of the market of the Wrangler beyond the traditional narrow segment of users with legitimate off-road needs includes drivers who prefer automatics by overwhelming margin, probably nearly 100%. And more importantly to FCA is new/young buyers also generally cannot drive a manual transmission, so going forward, there is little future in building manual gearbox cars in general unless they are marketed into a very narrow niche where the majority of buyers happen to prefer manuals. For example, Miatas will still be almost exclusively manual for the foreseeable future.

Now, FCA is uniquely anti-manual-gearbox and it's mystifying to people like me. The Alfa 4C, for example, is not available with a "proper manual gearbox", even though the segment where it is marketed is dominated by manual-gearbox cars. It would be unthinkable for Lotus next generation Elise to not include a manual, or even to include any other option besides a manual, and that's a direct competitor to the 4C. And Porsche has never been so foolish as to eliminate the manual from their cars' lineup even though they maintain that the PDK cars are faster. Sports car buyers prefer manual gearboxes, but FCA seems to be blind to this fact. Either that, or they are intentionally avoiding marketing to enthusiasts and presenting a semi-exotic sports car that they fully expect to be mostly driven by wealthy housewives or trust-fund millennials, which then makes you wonder why they don't deck it out with cup holders, heated seats, or, you know, A MUFFLER.

Cutman

It seems that with the expansion of the Wrangler into the 4 door market and the brand appeal to non-offroaders, Jeep is slowly turning its own vehicles into mall crawlers. Or maybe eventually owners will bail bc of the market saturation. I would never own a Prius bc of the douchey stereotype that goes along with it. That, and it looks like a doorstop. Apple finally ran it's product line into the ground by sacrificing user needs and wants in exchange for trying to put as many products in every household. It's become more of a "brand" than a line of desireable products. Hope Jeep isn't following their business model. You know, like doubling their productivity in the next few years. Which is one of their goals.

goaterguy

Sadly it's not only FCA that is anti-manual, Porsche stopped offering the track focused GT3 with a manual because it's slower, Ferrari nor Lamborghini have offered a manual in many years, basically no supercar comes with a manual transmission, even as an option, McLaren, Koenigsegg, Maserati, etc. None. Car and Driver reported that by 2011, Mazda was reporting that manual transmissions still dominated, but more than a third of softtop Miatas (37 percent) and more than half of the retractable-hardtop cars (59 percent) were sold without a clutch pedal. I'm sure it's even closer to 50% total now.

All manufacturers have a business case they have to follow, and offering something that almost nobody buys makes no business sense.

mr72

I forgot about that.

I'm not sure that trend continued in that direction, but it would be interesting to see the data on the NDs. Note the difference in soft top vs. PRHT... almost twice as many (as a percentage) of the PRHT were sold with autos vs. the soft top cars. The ND is not offered with a PRHT. The NC was physically larger and noticeably heavier than the NBs, and it seems that entire product line was moved more towards the mainstream and it's not surprising that the take rate on automatic transmissions was much higher than in the lighter, smaller, simpler cars. The new ND returns to lighter, smaller and simpler, and I would think it would begin to exclude some of the buyers who prefer an auto along with a PRHT, power seats, etc.

BTW I would also point out that sales numbers of the NCs was also way down compared with the previous generations. So while the percentage of autos may be up, overall sales of the car were way down. I expect a return to a more true form of roadster might result in improved sales numbers and also more percentage manual transmission.

Well it's not offering something that almost nobody buys. Even if manuals are only 10% of the Wrangler sales, that's still a huge number (I don't know the number). But the point is there is a big cost to offering it as an option and they are more likely to take the hit on sales once those sales numbers get small enough to not offset the cost. Looking at it the other way, if Mazda only sold 10% manual transmission Miatas like they did in the 90s, then it may very well make sense to drop the automatic as an option... Lotus never even offered an automatic of any kind in the Elise because their numbers are so low that the marginal demand for an automatic transmission is not worth the engineering, inventory, etc. cost.

JK forum frequents seem to be opposed to FCA making good business decisions if it disagrees with their personal vehicle preferences. I have a manual Jeep and I wouldn't have bought one if they only made automatics. No big deal, and I wouldn't fault FCA for dropping the manual if there is only marginal market for it, but I just have to buy something else. I won't get mad at FCA as if they are "ruining" Jeep. They are keeping Jeep alive by letting it adapt to the market. If they still made 4.0L 2-door manual TJs as the only option, then Jeep would have gone out of business as a brand a long time ago.

This is a good article: http://www.roadandtrack.com/car-cult...l-transmisson/

And the point here I think might apply to the Wrangler as well is about the GTI, they point out that when the clutchless version was first offered, the sales of the car doubled, but the number of manual transmission cars stayed the same and actually grew. Now, the real question is, has the number of manual transmission Wranglers sold actually gone down? Or is it just that since so many more Wranglers have sold, most of the new-segment buyers choose the automatic so as a percentage the number of manuals is down, but as a raw number is it down? Maybe not? I don't know and I don't have the time to research the numbers.

Cutman

Great article. You just have to know where to look. I'm glad I looked for, and found mine 2 years ago. Because in another 2 years, I'd have to look somewhere else. I love my Jeep more than I like most of the people I know. Just wouldn't be the same if it was a "point and go".

WHT_JKUR

At least Apple still makes good products (for now) . LOL...

I agree with your comments about saturation. IMO...FCA is churning out a lot of crap and is looking at Jeep purely as a quick and easy cash cow. They are slapping the logo and grill on as many cars they can and and are getting away from what the brand is about.

Kerberos

+1 to this...

That's what conclusion I came to the first time I saw a new Renegade...

Take a POS vehicle, slap JEEP all over it, and it's automatically more capable right?

Yeah, we've seen how that worked out in the past...

I'm looking at you Compass.