5 New Cars With Manual Gearboxes!

There are many reasons against the manual gearbox. Automated manuals, or semi-automatics, offer repeatable, reliable and rapid shifts when out on a racetrack, which translates to an overall reduction in lap time. Fully automatic vehicles are easier to live with daily and are generally more fuel efficient as well.

Yet there's something about the humble, and critically endangered, manual gearbox that scratches a primal itch in the temporal lobe of any car enthusiast. Perhaps it's the satisfying mechanical clunk, or the fact that one feels more in control and is thus more subconsciously satisfied with his ability to smoothly operate one's own vehicle. Either way, if the DCTs and CVTs of the world really grinds your gears, consider one of the 5 cars in our shortlist that you can still buy with a manual, and row the literal gears instead!

The Bezza combines a Toyota-sourced 1.3 litre 4 pot with a 5-speed manual box. The powerplant is good for 94bhp, which does sound a tad underwhelming, but with roughly only 900 kilograms to lug around, the car should feel sprightly enough to not struggle with a full complement of passengers onboard. Then again, as an economy car, performance isn't the Bezza's strong suit - instead, Perodua is offering an affordable city car with decent driveability and an excellent 21.7 km/l fuel economy rating.

If you're a fan of the Swift, the good news is that you can still purchase a manual variant, albeit only from parallel importers. The latest Swift Sport combines a 1.4 litre turbocharged 4 pot, which pushes out 138bhp. Power is sent to the front wheels via a 6-speed manual box, with the powertrain combo providing enough go for a 0-100km/h sprint time of 8.1 seconds. As with the Perodua, the Swift's relatively diminutive dimensions mean the car barely weighs anything - slightly under 1000 kilograms, which makes for not only a fun drive, but for good fuel economy of 16.4 km/l too!

The current generation Type-R is a seriously impressive car. Under the bonnet lives a 2-litre turbocharged 4 banger that develops 306bhp. Couple those potent horses with its excellent chassis, and you get a highly capable performance car that has outpaced offerings from the likes of Pagani, Lamborghini and Ferrari (to be fair, said supercars are a generation old!). As is traditional, the Civic Type R is still a practical 4 door saloon, with a respectable fuel consumption figure of 15.6 km/l, and an even more impressive century sprint time of 5.7 seconds.

The M240i offers most of M2's performance but without its price tag. In fact, the M240i presents itself as the lowest barrier of entry if you'd prefer your manual European. It combines an excellent, track-proven chassis, with a 3.0 litre straight-6 that churns out 335bhp, which propels this baby Beemer too 100km/h from a standstill in just 4.3 seconds. Officially, these cars only came with an automatic transmission of some kind, but you can purchase one with a six-speed manual gearbox from a parallel importer, such as F1 Auto Cars!

The i30N is powered by a 2.0litre turbocharged 4-cylinder engine that produces 247bhp. Hyundai has also fitted the i30N with a pseudo anti-lag system of sorts to negate turbo lag. Pops and bangs, satisfying as they are, are a mere, but welcomed, side effect of said system properly functioning. The potent engine is attached to a 6-speed manual gearbox, and if road conditions permit, and you shift quick enough, the i30N will do the century sprint in 6.1 seconds. Performance aside, the i30N looks visually mean, and that combination certainly sends quite a strong message to its competitors!

Credits: Jek Ray Low