Honda saves the manual as Aston Martin tries to kill it

Monday, 17 May 2021

This is the new, safer Honda Civic. Both literally and figuratively.

Honda has confirmed the Civic Type R will continue with the manual transmission while Aston Martin says it will no longer offer a third pedal with its sports cars.

The Japanese manufacturer confirmed its manual would stay during an overview of the eleventh-generation Civic, which is great news for those who like rowing their own gears. It’s even better for those fans when you consider that Honda hasn’t shown any evidence of an appropriate replacement transmission – the rest of its cars use CVTs.

That said, it’s almost a certainty that Honda would sell more Type Rs if it would bundle them with a proper automatic of some description, looking at the sales figures of other performance cars that offer both sides of the gearbox coin.

The Civic Type R will keep its manual transmission for at least one more generation.

It could even give the automatic version a toned-down body kit with the same turbocharged 2.0-litre four-cylinder and dust off the old Type S badge…

**READ MORE:

The AMR version of the V8 Vantage came standard with a seven-speed manual. But not for much longer.

* How Tobias Moers will make Aston Martin great again

* Aston Martin to replace V8 with hybrid V6

* Smallest Aston Martin is also the most exciting

* Aston Martin Vantage goes from old-school to new-gen cool

In any case, those in the know are aware that Honda’s six-speed manual is among the best in the business. The do-it-yourself shifter in Mazda’s MX-5 is another fantastic example but another maker that won’t have its transmission compared to either car soon is Aston Martin.

The British manufacturer championed the manual for a long time, offering its V8 Vantage AMR with a seven-speed version. Former boss Andy Palmer once said that Aston would be the 'last manufacturer in the world to offer a manual sports car,” even despite Porsche selling plenty of manual 911s.

However, new boss Tobias Moers told CarSales during a roundtable interview that people 'have to realise sports cars have changed quite a bit.' As a result, the manual will go the way of the dodo, particularly as electrification becomes more common.

The manual V8 Vantage will be discontinued with the facelift model, due next year, marking the end of the clutch pedal in an Aston Martin. RIP.