Originally Posted by
Arnold
Bye, bye, manual GTI due to low sales.
But it's self-fulfilling prophecy. Most of the inventory is specified by dealers who believe no one wants a manual so they specify a preponderance - 90% - of manuals. Faced with the choice of a DSG or their preferred manual, many buyers can be sold on the DSG, but you can never sell a manual to an auto buyer especially if they cannot drive or are unlicensed to drive a manual.
So the DSG covers all of the auto buyers and some of the manual buyers. But a smart dealer would have cornered the market in manual GTI's and enjoyed the margin from not having to discount to a committed manual buyer.
But no, they have over-ordered DSG's because they know they can sell them and skewed the long-running statistic that GTI buyers were 20% manual. It is a driver-oriented car, after all.
When VW can produce a DSG that is not routinely reported in the press as being "a bit jerky in traffic", is as reliable and engaging to drive as a manual, perhaps VW could consider eliminating manual transmission from that is ostensibly a driver-oriented car.
The day I choose an "auto" will be the day I buy an electric car.