I just got back from Vietnam last night, the only automatics and clutchless manuals there were mopeds and scooters. Not a single automatic vehicle could be found even though all the auto companies offer them as options there. We drove in many 7 and 8 passenger vans (modern/new Toyotas, Mitsubishis) with manual transmission, my uncle has a Hyundai Santa Fe V6 fully loaded with manual (with 7 seats, we only get 5 seats here). Even saw a G35 and BMW M5. There were some automatics, the new Camry only comes in automatic there, and the Venza (imported from the US) is surprisingly popular there, but owning a vehicle is very much a luxury there, over 90% of Vietnamese still just own a moped or scooter, some can't afford anything more than a bicycle. There is a luxury tax, a Corolla Altis starts at $35,000 there. You can get a small Daewoo (that's the Chevy Aveo) or Kia New Morning (smaller than the Rio here) for about $19,000, and when you're considerring that a lot of Vietnamese earn $120 to $600 a month, even a subcompact is a luxury there.

Toyotas are very dominant there, followed by Hyundai, Kia, Daewoo, and Honda. The hottest car in Vietnam has to be the new Kia Forte, I saw lots of them there. One car that made me envious was the Euro spec Ford Focus, saw quite a few and drooled every time.

...so let me get this strait, instead of dropping bombs on them, we could have got them all on the side of capitalism by giving them Dodge Darts w/slant sixes and torqueflite transmissions?

They have cars there now? I was there about 10 years ago, and cars were so rare. And the ones I saw moved so slow cause the motorcycles are riding all over the place like lunatics

India is the same way as far as manuals vs. automatics. Interesting fact about the Indian auto market is that they have a 100% tariff on imported cars. And yes, it is priced accordingly. For example, a Toyota Camry costs around $42,000 (equivalent). That's about exactly twice what you'd buy one here for.

IT's one of the reasons the Indian auto market lagged so far behind for many years. It's only within the last 5-10 years that things have exploded and the market has really put out some much more modern products. For a long time, if you wanted a car in India, this is all you had to choose from:



The Hindustan Ambassador. I've even been in an older model of these (they never changed much) that had three on the tree. Interesting. It came in any color you wanted, as long as it was that white color. If you were special, like a politician or police "inspector," you could get a black one.

Now it seems almost everyone in India has their own car. The once booming taxi industry is really dying quite fast.

off topic, but a picture I found on the image search from some Indian tuning enthusiast site? I didn't even know there was a car "scene" over there

ambassador "revival"

North America as a whole loves their lazy-ass automatics. The rest of the world is 90% manuals. In Europe it's not even a second thought. Rental cars and everything come with a manual.

I've been going to a lot of car lots lately (see thread about my car giving up) and it's hard to find a car with a manual transmission, new or used. And sometimes a manual is a costly option *cough* Challenger *cough*.

I think the European market will influence the NA market and we'll start to see more manuals. It seems as if we already are. The new Buick Regal is supposed to have a 6 speed manual available (I know it's an Opel but that's not the point).

I hate the fact that a lot of cars here only get the manual with the low end economy model. I think only 10% of cars here are manual. I haven't gotten that weird look yet when I tell people I drive a 5 speed. They just seem really surprised about......

paul34, picture hotlink fail. I tried to load one manually and the site says bandwidth exceeded.

They probably don't know what you're talking about, or think you're talking about a 5 speed automatic (and then they wonder why you don't have a 6 speed automatic).

"Stick shift" and "manual transmission" are the only definitive ways I know to say you drive a 3 pedal car, and I bet some people think an automatic is a "stick shift" if it doesn't have an ultra-modern button interface a la Prius.

Japanese are sluts for slushboxes as well. I think that is the name of one of their political parties.

I really don't see North America converting back to the Amish way of life - ever.

We've lost critical mass - the vast preponderance of drivers wouldn't even be able to drive an Amish car home from the dealership.

People are proud to be ignorant here - The guy working the drive-through at Mickey-Dee's sez "Hey, it's not rocket science", the rocket scientist sez "Hey, it's not brane sugary", and the brane sturgeon sez "Hey, it's not driving Amish"

There are no clear-cut performance or fuel economy benefits associated with going Amish - slushboxes have improved. Remember what you never knew: Two-speed slushboxes used to be very common until the '70s. EPA fuel economy testing shows little to no advantage for the Amish vs slushbox - sometimes even shows a disadvantage (but your mileage may vary).

From a manufacturing side, the tipping point was passed a long time ago - slushbox production volumes are so much higher than Amish production volumes that they are cheaper to produce by hunnertz of dollars per vehicle.

Although the % vehicles being leased vs purchased has dropped, leasing, which always has an eye cast toward turn-ins and residual values, favors slushboxes, since leased vehicles are A) rarely custom ordered, but rather purchased from dealer inventory; B) resold to folks that need to know how to drive them home after the sale.

Gotta have it now - just like leasing, most new vehicle purchases are from dealer inventories. Dealers are not much interested in carrying finance charges on vehicles that less than 10% of their customers seem to want.

Automatic transmission is not that uncommon in Europe in these days.

I think Finland will be one of the last bastions of manual transmission in Europe. New cars are so expensive that the average age of our cars is pretty much the same as that of some third world countries.

You've probably got a better handle on the situation than I do. I just never see Europeans driving automatics.

I don't recall seeing many cars with automatic transmission during my travels in the Southeast Asia, but I did see one with an automatic seatbelt. That was retarded.


+1. My grandpa used to have a slushie Mondeo, the only car with automatic transmission I've ever driven, but he had his reasons, my cousin has one in his Outlander because it's a taxi, my friend's family has an Avensis with a slushbox for no apparent reason,one of my friends in high school had an older Volvo with a slushbox for some reason (his gf who borrowed it every now and then said that it was sooo sloooow) and another had two (Chrysler Sebring and Jeep Something) in his family because they were filthy rich, but that's about it. I think the Cadillac my dad had for a while when he was younger was a slushie, but we've never had anything but standards during my lifetime. Also, a friend of mine has owned a dozen or so cars during the past seven years and none of them had automatic transmission (although he has dreamed of getting one of those ancient American ones).

Still, it is true that in Europe more and more new cars are sold with automatic transmission, partly because the price has come down and their fuel economy, availability (you don't need to get a Merc to have one) etc. have gone up.

What is a "Merc"?

Mercedes-Benz, I believe.

I was thinking that was a special license or insurance or something, for driving automatics.

Sorry, I've just gotten used to saying "Mersu" in Finnish, so I thought "Merc" would be more or less how an American would shorten "Mercedes-Benz". I think I've seen it elsewhere. "M-B"? "Benz"?

Anyway, as I might've explained before, there is a special licence in Finland (and I believe some other European countries as well) for those ret^H^H^Hpeople who have taken the driving exam with a slushbox car, but I don't remember what it is like. Probably just extra notation behind a normal licence in the same place where it usually says that you need glasses while driving.