I was wondering …is the MX-5 the only roadster (classic lay-out; rwd, front engined) with a manual gearbox? Can’t find any other…and this makes the five an even more tempting buy as all the others are sequential …Is this realy the end of an era where you needed three pedals and a shifter? Makes me cry because ; where is the real, old school driving fun these days??
I guess you’re talking about brand new?
If not then,
Z4
Boxster
Audi TT
Roadster is just defined as 2 seater convertible aimed at sporty driving.
The MX5 is a league of it’s own when it comes to price and reliability, I doubt the Germans can get close to that plus when they go wrong it’s catastrophic. Bmw timing chains, Audi piston rings and Porsche seem to have gearbox issues.
Was indeed talking about new, and…traditional layout; engine in the front and rwd. I also believe the Boxster is (still) available with manual but it’s a mid engined car…there is nothing else realy…(beside Caterham, Westfield and similars…).
Lotus Elise, but that is mid engined, Vauxhall VX220, and MGF ,MGTF
I think that you need to accept that driving for fun on the road is in terminal decline. There are many, many factors, from public perception of speed, traffic density, environmental concerns, through to autonomous driving. The concept of going out “just to drive” will suffer from increasing social stigma as the years pass. But all that said, cars are expected to do so much these day, the idea of a small, impractical, 2 seat car, whose purpose goes against just about all the pressures the car industry is under, is hard to make business sense of. SUV’s are the most common new private vehicle these days. It is almost inevitable that the guests we get at Silverstone to drive the supercars will say, when asked if they have driven a flappy paddle car before, “my car has them, but I have never used them.” In a resent “I heard it from a guy down the pub” conversation, I was told that even new learner drivers are being told it is not important to lean manual cars, because going electric, all cars will become 2 pedal.
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I thought it was part of the driving test to drive a manual?
No - answering my own question here - there is an automatic and manual licence, I think you can “upgrade” it but maybe perhaps they mean it wont be necessary, as you said eventually cars will become 2 pedal.
BSM introducing river training using 1 pedal. It will be a different set of skills.
It’s inevitable. I can’t get upset about it. Anymore than non-synchromesh gearboxes ceased being a thing. My dad learnt to drive in the late 50s, and took his test in the Army. The vehicle for the test was a Bedford lorry. He had never riven non-synchromesh. The Sergeant gave him 15 minutes instuction, then with the test. He has never driven a Bedford lorry since (well he drives nothing now, not since he was diagnosed witb Alzheimers).
Thank the Sky Fairy I never grew up in an era where I had to decoke my engine if I wanted more than 10k miles out of it, or set the points myself, or adjust valve clearances.
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That’s me.
But it was so easy, even as a 12 year old, much, much easier on those old crude Vauxhalls Fords and Morrises than working on modern precision overhead-cam engines.
I remember often climbing into the engine compartment because there was so much room. Sit on the wings, put the big wooden orange tray on the front cross member and radiator, undo the head bolts, take the head off and put it in the tray, ten minute job, no back strain.
In 1976 (ish) the head gasket went on my bitsa’s Kent engine on my way to work. With the aid of some more water from a nearby house I managed to buy a head gasket and antifreeze from the Midnight Motorist (open 24/7?) and drive home. I changed the gasket, checked valve clearances, and was only two hours late for work. That evening I also changed the oil and filter.
The Austin Mini was the first car I worked on where suddenly we needed slim arms and small hands with steel fingers.
Modern engine? Impossible to be so quick, and too many “special tools”.
NickD…unfortunately …you’re 100 % right about this . It is the (extremely) painfull truth that in a brief future driving around just for fun will crucify us. It is also true that manual gearboxes will dissapear completely (it almost is…). This is aided by al the actual and upcoming electronical driving aids which …are not very compatible with manual gearboxes. There will be a day where almost nobody will be able to drive a (real) car the right way…Beside the MX-5 there’s only one top-brand (as far as i know) proposing automatic gearboxes…as an option, manual otherwise (Cayman, Boxster and 911). Aston Martin re-introduced (due to large demand from customers) the possibility of having manual gearboxes three years ago but skipped that in 2021. A crying story 
:
Only really a concern for those who insist on a brand new car every few years. Otherwise, I suspect, for those that want them, there will be manual transmission cars available to buy for the rest of our natural lives. The day when the last manual transmission car woud be consigned to the museum exhibit trash bin will be generations after we have become dust.
For some, the good old days, when real drivers advanced their timing on the fly. Isn’t this the “right” way to drive a car?
In 1989, William Wooard (Top Gear) predicted that the then new MX5 would sell like “takeaway pizzas” but predicted that it wouldn’t appeal to the purist because it was “far too refined”. The definition of a “purist” changes with each generation. Because it turned out that in 1989, the then purist quite liked a car which came with RPM sensitive steering, electronic fuel injection, power windows, a one handed folding roof, carpets, remote fuel cap release, 4 wheel assisted disc brakes, air conditioning, factory cd and cassette player, head rest speakers, body sonic bass thumpers, room for golf clubs, a glovebox etc.
Each generation of car drivers loses skills compared to the previous, but gains new skills… So the BSM are going to include in their electric car instruction “regenerative braking” and maximising range. Driving these cars is not like driving a conventional slush box.
There has been a generation od drivers who I suppose have been quite spoilt. We’re the generation who moan about speed cameras (null points me). We have cars that we can zip around on a tracking, acting out a fantasy (fake racing aka trackday) while taking the same car, without missing a beat, to work on a monday.
Maybe there will be the revival of a once popular form of public highway motosport, the navigation rally
How the Driving Schools will cope with 2030 and 2035 (when ICE and hybrid new sales are stopped) is interesting. Driving Schools generally use quite new cars, but the first car for their charges will generally be something 10-15 years old. Withoutn instruction on a manual car, they will not be able to drive such a car. So values of Fiestas and Corsas to collapse?
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Times change. If I were 23 again (I wish ) what the hell would I want to do with a clunky old manual gearbox ? Slow in action , far from foolproof and utterly out of step with virtually every modern race car and performance road car . I enjoy heel and toe , but only because I had to learn how to do it on cars with rubbish synchro . We may as well mourn the loss of carburettors and choke knobs , brakes you could lock up and windows you had to wind up yourself .
I remember my dad asserting for many years in my childhood that car wirelesses (sic) were dangerous distractions - I don’t want to be as out of step as he was . Mind you , he wouldn’t let us watch ITV either - commercial rubbish. Baggage , me ? Just a bit…
*We may as well mourn the loss of carburettors and choke knobs , brakes you could lock up and windows you had to wind up yourself .
…Well , i do …miss those carburettors a lot but i admit it’s pure nostalgy as in this world (these days) carbs stand up against anything actual driving represents . But that sound and throttle response was…
!!!
Beside the lack of carbs i have no servo, power windows, airbags and ABS on my NA (1990) and this was a deliberate choice…but then again it’s my hobby/fun car.I admit i’d like to have more comfort/equipement for my daily .
People who mourn carbs have forgotten how bad they were! Just the thought of the Ford automatic choke should be enough to say enough of the rosy tints!
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Yea… I don’t particularly want to remember the times of carb icing, carb balancing or shim the cams in that matter. As long as it goes bang bang I’m good.
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@NickD indeed the manual transmission is now waining in all cars and this of course going to accelerate in the very near future as most people who buy new decide to transition to electric. Sales of run of the mill new petrol cars will decline What will be interesting is how the government recoup the lost road tax and fuel duty as electric vehicle sales continue to rise
In the short/ medium term there will always be a place for driver focussed manual cars as a lot of people still enjoy driving and don’t see their car as mearly a means of getting from a to b. This is certainly the case even with some younger drivers. My son turns 17 this year and he is really looking forward to driving our MX 5 ! Which is a mint 2007 with only 32000 miles. He is even starting to save up to buy it off us! So that will leave my wife and I with a dilemma. We will either buy a late plate MK4 or the new Mk5 when it comes out and this will then be our last petrol car that we will keep as long as it is economically viable to maintain, with the proviso that fuel is still available at 58 I suspect I should still all being well have a Mazda MX-5 for many years to come.
Lets get real world here, unlike many perhaps on here, urban dwellers who own vehicles , i’m a country man, do we really wish to listen to those lying uninformed politicos who know as much about real life or EV’S as my ■■■ knows about snipe shooting… despite what messages they put out i doubt if we are going to be living in the electric world they envisage, to make it work fully electric might sorta work for urban city and big town habitants but it doesn’t work for those who live in the sticks and probably never will , just think about it, farmers, hauliers, workmen, builders, white van men are they going to buy, lease or finance something that is hard to insure, harder still to sell or warrant used, think battery condition, not permitted to tow, needs charged when its done half a days work, no rural charge points or will there ever be?? hybrids maybe, but derv and petrol will be around for many many years to come, the yanks aren’t sold on it at all…when i want a successful business managed i look for someone who knows every aspect of whats he’s looking after, not some old Etonian who has a degree in something went into politics and making a poor job of anything he turned his useless hands to so far… has told us hundreds of lies and knows as much about running a used to be 1st class country as a collie dog knows about its father… i rest my case… w
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Yeah , it’s not as though the Tesla 3 was the biggest selling car in the UK December . Oh , hold on … And while plenty of us spend our time in the sticks - I do - the UK is a very tame environment compared to Norway . Where the best selling car is … the Tesla 3 .
Change is coming , like it or not . We need a far more robust charging structure - that is the key disincentive to buying an EV at present. But for a daily driver I really couldn’t care less if my car is powered by electricity . Why would I ?
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US sales are lagging due to regulatory decisions taken between 2017-2020. A smaller percentage of the US population (19%) are classified as rural compared to the UK (21%). If the charging network in the US is poorer, its because of decisions, or lack of, taken during that period, rather than a consumer dissatisfaction with the product.
Getting back to the original topic, is the Toyota GT/GR86 not still a manual? I know it cannot strictly be called a roadster but it is a fun sportscar much in the same vein as the MX-5 especially the RF.