Doylestown Auto Repair

Subaru BRZ has higher manual take-rate than 86, and other Subaru manual facts

Audi Repair Shop Doylestown
Call 267 279 9477 to schedule a appointment

Automakers are continuing to give us a peek at the popularity, or lack thereof, of the manual transmission. Our latest information comes from

Subaru

, which kindly shared its manual transmission take-rate numbers for 2018. One of the most interesting tidbits was that 78% of

Subaru BRZ

s sold had a manual. What makes that so curious is its stark contrast to its twin,

the Toyota 86, where only 33% of those sold in 2018 had a manual

. On top of that, the

BRZ

has a stronger manual take-rate than the enthusiast darling

Mazda

Miata;

the soft top had 76% of buyers going for a stick, and the RF had 52%

. If we had to speculate, it seems the

Subaru BRZ

is attracting the hardcore

sports car

fans.

Although the BRZ manual sales are strong, it isn’t the model that sells the most. The

Subaru WRX

tops it with 90% of buyers picking the manual over the CVT option. We of course suspect that plenty of regular

WRX

buyers are opting for the manual, though the number is likely partly boosted by the fact the STI version is only available with a manual.

Things aren’t quite as rosy with Subaru’s more mainstream offerings, but that’s to be expected. The

Impreza

follows the BRZ with 8% of Imprezas selling with a manual. The

Crosstrek

comes in second-to-last at 6%, and the

Forester

comes in last at 3%. And the Forester has now dropped the manual transmission.

One final interesting note to Subaru’s manual take rate. Subaru told us it sold over 47,000 manual-equipped cars. That’s roughly

2,000 more than Honda sold in the same year

. And with Subaru’s total sales numbers being less than

Honda

, that means the percentage of total sales that were manual is larger at 7% versus 2.6% for Honda.

from Autoblog http://bit.ly/2WZ6otx