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Visitors to the upcoming Los Angeles Auto Show will see supercars, hoverboards, self-propelling luggage and all manner of new transportation options.
But they'll be hard pressed to find a clutch pedal or a stick shift. Available in nearly half of new models in the U.S. a decade ago, the manual transmission is going the way of the rumble seat, with stick availability falling to about a quarter this year.
Once standard equipment on all motor vehicles, preferred for its dependability, fuel efficiency and sporty characteristics, the four-on-the-floor is disappearing from major car manufacturers' lineups — and subsequently from the sprawling auto show's floors.
Consider, too, that electric vehicles don't even have a transmission.
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The Disappearing Stick Shift: Less Than 3% of Cars Sold in the U.S. Have Manual Transmissions
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sillema sillema nika su
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 18 2016, @02:32AM
Anecdote is not data but... old and small cars, if any, for workers, big and new for rich people. I'm sure their ultra fat SUV are very useful in their daily tarmac adventures. Even saw one of those Italian cars warm up the engine while the guy was putting the jacket in the back seats... yeah, I was soooooo impressed by the need of his car to vroom vroom for a full minute without moving. /s
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 18 2016, @02:38AM
Thank RMS. Give your hero Dick "Bathroom" Stall-Man a blowjob through the glory hole. You'll want to swallow, else you might not eat anything at all today.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 18 2016, @02:42AM
I'm rich and I still buy used.
Well I plan too, I'm still driving my 2001 because its only got 55K miles on it (I work from home).
BTW, median US wages hit an all time high this previous quarter. [stlouisfed.org] Things have been looking up for nearly everybody recently.
Trump's gonna crater it. Because it turns out you did have something to lose.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 18 2016, @05:51AM
median US wages
The page says that it includes salaried positions.
When Satya Nadella walks in, the average income of the room goes up sharply.
The income of the 1 Percent may have been going up nicely but Joe Average keeps getting the short end of the stick.
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 18 2016, @08:21AM
That's why he wrote "median", not "average".
Basically, line up all Americans from lowest to highest income, and pick the person in the middle. Their income is the median (of American income).
The claim is that that has been rising. Note that the median is not affected by the rich getting richer, nor by the poor getting poorer.
FakeBeldin.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 18 2016, @06:53PM
A median makes it easier and quicker to see via a graph on the back of an envelope--without doing any complicated arithmetic:
You have a roomful of guys who make a Blue Collar wage of $50,000.
Their jobs get exported and the new jobs they find pay $30,000.
The graph shows that the median goes down to 60 percent of what it had been.
Now, ONE White Collar guy who is paid[1] $120,000 enters the room.
Inserting that ONE guy DOUBLES the median to $60,000.
Now, make the White Collar guy Satya Nadella whose compensation[1] was $1,692,031. [google.com]
The median now makes a giant jump to ~$846,000.
Suddenly, EVERYONE in the room is rich.
Even calculating a mean is a distortion of the current state of the typical working guy's downward spiral vs the 1 Percent since Dubya's economic crash (due in no small part to Slick Willie and exacerbated by Obama).
[1] Notice that I DIDN'T say that he -earns- that amount.
It appears that you have some schooling and learned a few words but you didn't actually acquire the knowledge.
You should have done the assigned homework.
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 18 2016, @09:10PM
Hey --gweg_, you're babbling like an idiot, again.
YOU are the one who didn't actually acquire the knowledge, and should have done the assigned homework -- then you would know the difference between the median and the mean. I don't know what you think the median is, but you're saying "median" and then making statements that aren't true, and wouldn't be true if you had said "mean" either (for any number of blue-collar guys in the room). In both your examples, the median doesn't change at all, and won't change until you've doubled the number of guys in the room. (Unless your "roomful" is one blue-collar guy, then when you add one white-collar guy, the median is the same as the mean, $75k and $861k respectively.)
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 18 2016, @10:12AM
Did you just admit to not understanding the definition of median?
As in 50% of the population is below and 50% of the population is above.
Man, you keep showing yourself to be dumber and dumber with every post.
And to believe that I once that you were insightful.
Turns out you are just a loud-mouthed innumerate.
Pretty soon I'll be agreeing with frojack and the mighty buttclench.
ALL BECAUSE YOU HAVE NO INTEGRITY.
(Score: 2) by Webweasel on Friday November 18 2016, @09:01AM
Don't we all?
My GT4 is 1996 and 141k Miles. Still does 0-60 in about 4.8 seconds.
Looking after your car isn't hard, it just takes a little time and some knowledge.
Priyom.org Number stations, Russian Military radio. "You are a bad, bad man. Do you have any other virtues?"-Runaway1956
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 18 2016, @04:37AM
Italian cars usually have smaller oil galleries (warmer climate), and require more of a warm-up before the oil is circulating fully.
The more you know, the less you look like an envious ass.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 18 2016, @05:11AM
Yeah, pity that it was in a garage in warm climate place, few Km away from Italy itself... and only happens when someone is looking. Nevermind that modern cars are designed to start moving as soon as possible, or some seconds in the case of diesels.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Friday November 18 2016, @05:56AM
Oh, please, explain that to my wife. Her car is never ready to move for at least two or three minutes.
Me? I stick the key in the ignition, turn it, put the car in gear, and immediately raise a cloud of dust. I'm usually slowing down to go through town before the heater begins to blow warm air. Every minute spent polluting the air in the driveway is a minute of wasted fuel. Not to mention, a minute of wasted time!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 18 2016, @02:47PM
You should really give everything about 15-30 seconds after you start before you beat on the darn thing.
(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Friday November 18 2016, @05:21PM
What is it with women like that? WTF are they doing in there anyway? Messing around with their makeup or something?
(Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Friday November 18 2016, @06:17PM
My folks have Hispanic neighbors who like to warm them up their vehicles for literally a half-hour in the winter.
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"