Bad news for those who enjoyed Aston Martins with manual transmissions: the British automaker intends to stop offering this option by 2022.
While speaking with members of the automotive press in Australia recently, Aston Martin chief executive Tobias Moers indicated that the manual available on the Vantage will be dropped when the car gets a facelift.
“No [we are not committed to the manual gearbox],” Moers said when asked about the manual’s future. “To be honest, it was not a good journey. We did a few assessments about that car [manual] – you don’t need it anymore. And you have to maintain it with the new regulations, year-by-year with the emissions because it’s a bespoke powertrain. It makes no sense,” he added, Motoring reports. Moers explained that there simply aren’t many enthusiasts out there anymore who want a stick shift.
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Aston Martin re-introduced a six-speed manual with the Vantage AMR a couple of years ago and then started offering a stick shift on the regular Vantage. Former chief executive Andy Palmer believed it gave the automaker a unique selling point over many of its rivals that no longer offered manual transmissions. Palmer had wanted Aston Martin to be the last sports car manufacturer to offer a manual. Evidently, Moers didn’t think that was a wise move.
Under Palmer’s leadership, Aston Martin also planned to offer the forthcoming mid-engined Vanquish with a manual transmission. That will no longer happen; moreover, rather than using a six-cylinder engine developed in-house, the next-generation Vanquish will instead use an AMG-sourced hybrid powertrain.
