There is a prejudice that Americans in general do not know how to drive cars with a manual transmission. However, a recent study on this topic showed that 66% of US residents do not have problems driving a car with "mechanics", and 55% once even owned such a car.
Among people who previously owned a manual car (or rented one), 30% are “very interested” in driving a manual car. If you look at all Americans who know how to handle a manual transmission, then 27% of them would not refuse to buy such a vehicle.
Overall, among all drivers, 60% responded that they had "some" interest in driving a car with a manual transmission.
But there is an even more interesting finding: Americans with family incomes over $100,000 a year are more likely to buy a car with a manual gearbox.
However, optimism about the “stick” is weakly extrapolated to sales statistics. Thus, the share of cars with a manual transmission in the volume of deliveries in the US market fell from 7% in 2014 to 2% in 2019. As a result, for many models on the local market, it is not offered even in the most basic trim levels.
The US driver preference study was conducted with the support of Cadillac: the company wanted to know the potential market size for the new charged CT4-V and CT5-V Blackwing sedans, which will also be available with “mechanics”.
Study reveals how many Americans know how to drive a manual
