i highly disagree with your comments. Even though the autobox
has reached its maturity stage long ago, and the flaws are mostly
ironed out the technology wil never be cheaper then the
conventional manual transmission.
Gone are the days when people relied on the normal P, R, N, D, 1, 2
and so on and so forth. Now car manufacturers are building upon
this to include clutchless manuals, selespeed, steptronic,
multitronic, easytronic etc and the latest is DSG and SMG II. These
form of technology will almost certain to cost more than producing
the conventional manual gearboxes.
Furthermore they will not phase out manual gearboxes because
singapore is one of the few countries that have high demand for
autoboxes. In the majority of europe customers still rely on manual
as they are much cheaper to maintain and the FC is definately less.
Plus, manuals work better in mountainous regions which are found
mostly in the northern parts of europe. The demand for manual cars
will always be there as the experience of driving a manual, even
though coupled with the inconvenience of having to massage your
left thighs during trafic jams.
