Why you can’t get your hands on a stickshift this year
Jul 16, 2025, 8:00 PM
Generic shifter. (Brian Champagne/KSL NewsRadio)
(Brian Champagne/KSL NewsRadio)
SALT LAKE CITY — Wednesday is National Stickshift Day. This year, you can only buy 25 models with a manual transmission option, down from 32 last year.
What is killing the manuals?
Volkswagen killed off two more manuals for 2025, including the driver’s car, the Golf GTI. You can now shift your own only in the Jetta GLI.
“Once every other month, when we have a manual, someone will buy it. But not super often,” said Ethan Coombs, who sells Volkswagens at Murdock in Logan. “The GLI we had sold really fast to someone far away, I think Las Vegas.”
2025 is the first year that Volkswagen is not offering the GTi with a manual transmission. (Volkswagen)
You can’t blame the manufacturers; they’re giving us what we ask for.
Cars with clutches used to be faster and got better mileage. Not anymore. Even Ferrari dumped the third pedal in the name of speed. You can’t shift faster than it can.
Ferrari California, the last Ferrari to offer a manual transmission. Legend has it that two people ordered it with that option. (Ferrari)
So, who would bother with shifting themselves?
Ahmed Raza knows a few.
“As cars have added more and more convenience, the pendulum has swung back where there’s a subset of people that are like, ‘You know what? I actually want to get in this vehicle and shift the gears. I want to drive the vehicle instead of having it drive me around,” he said.
When Raza bought a Miata, he taught himself to drive stick, but it wasn’t easy. Then he thought, “Maybe there are other people out there that want to learn.”
So he started his Houston-based Manual Driving Academy, where you can book a lesson with a local. He said he has four to five instructors in Utah. They’ll teach you in a parking lot for $200 to $500, depending on whether you want to just move a manual or know how to race one. Raza said people also learn before European vacations.
“I’ve had customers that are 75 years old, had a 24-year-old woman, pretty much all over the scale.”
The Mazda MX-5 Miata shows its gear shifter. Ahmed Raza of Manual Driving Academy suggests getting one with the manual, if at all possible. (Mazda)
The new electric Lexus RZ will let you fake the shifting experience, and a rumor floated by Motor Trend is that Ferrari has not sworn off manuals forever. Although the last time they offered one, two people bought it.
Read more: After public comments, Fairview City Council votes 4-1 to end operation of neighborhood motocross track by December 2025
