Years passed with car makers pushing one clear path ahead – packed with self-shifting transmissions, better fuel use, because onboard tech kept getting sharper, taking charge of nearly everything ...

Just 4 percent of new cars sold in the U.S. today come with manual transmissions. But 90 percent of worthwhile cars come with a stick shift (okay, that's an unofficial stat). The decline of the true ...

Manual-transmission vehicles were once the norm in the U.S., with 70% of American cars being stick-shift in 1942, while only 30% shifted automatically. Manual transmissions came with a steep learning ...