The number of new cars available on the UK market with a manual gearbox has dropped to its lowest point in 10 years.
Automatic transmissions have become the go-to choice for carmakers in recent years. While the rise of the electric vehicle means there is no need for a manual gearbox. Therefore, the number of models available has fallen by 57% from 2025, according to CarGurus.
Currently, there are just 82 new models available with a manual garbox across the UK’s most popular manufacturers, compared to 192 a decade ago.
Compared to 2024, available options decreased by 8%, from 89, and are down 25% from 2023 when there were 109 models to choose from.
Automatic options rising
CarGurus also analysed the number of automatic-only models from the top 30 manufacturers, of which there are 196. As such, models available with a manual gearbox make up just 29% of options from the country’s top-selling automakers.
The number of manufacturers that do not offer manual gearboxes across their model range has also increased year-over-year, from five in 2024 compared to six in 2025. Land Rover and MINI shifted in 2025 after having just one model each with a manual in 2024.
Manufacturers that do not provide an option for manual gearboxes in their new models include: Mercedes-Benz, Land Rover, Volvo, Tesla, MINI and Lexus.
These figures mark a stark contrast to just a decade ago, when manual gearboxes were a common feature.
Manual gearbox is missed
Research conducted in 2024 by CarGurus on driver preferences for analogue vs. technological features in cars found that only 28% of the 2,000 people surveyed would miss a manual gearbox, and 28% would miss clutch pedals.
When comparing age groups, those over 65 were most likely to miss manual gearboxes, at 35% of respondents, compared to 26% of 18- to 24-year-olds, and 22% of those aged 25 to 34. These findings underline the decreasing demand for the manual gearbox, leading to less customer choice in the new-car market.
At the current rate of decline, CarGurus predicts that there will likely be no manual gearbox offerings available on new models by 2037. This is based on a rate of seven models a year, the decrease from 2024 to 2025.
Further to this expectation is the fact that many new entrants to the UK automotive market exclusively produce cars with automatic gearboxes. Emerging brands, such as Polestar, BYD, and Leapmotor, have not yet made the list of the nation’s top manufacturers analysed in the but are steadily taking on greater market share.
“With an increasing number of new cars being fully electric, and the market’s general push to larger and more premium vehicles, it is no great surprise to see the decline of the manual gearbox continuing in the 12 months since we last conducted this study,” commented Chris Knapman, CarGurus UK Editorial Director. “Increasingly, an automatic gearbox is no longer a luxury that buyers must pay extra for, but an expected standard feature.
