If you want a new car with a manual gearbox, your slate of options is about to get smaller. A few short years after discontinuing the stick-shift option in the Golf GTI and Golf R, Volkswagen has officially announced that, come the 2027 model year, the Jetta GLI will be going dual-clutch automatic-only. Naturally, the marque’s put out an official statement, and here it is:
As drivers and car enthusiasts, we appreciate manuals too! That’s why our region worked very hard to keep them around—we know it matters to a small but passionate group of drivers who love being fully engaged and rowing their own gears. Even so, global demand continued to narrow to a point where the market can no longer sustain it. As much as it hurts, that reality meant making some tough choices.
Am I mad at Volkswagen? No. As Motor 1 reported, the take rate for the manual gearbox in the Jetta GLI last year stood at 44.9 percent, but with just 54,291 Jettas sold in America last year and a small fraction of those being GLI models, keeping an entire low-volume powertrain configuration alive for essentially just the North American market isn’t something you can do forever – especially now that the Jetta’s getting old and likely due for a replacement. Truthfully, I know enthusiasts within Volkswagen’s North American rank and file have indeed made the case for the manual gearbox as long as they could. At some point, it couldn’t go on any longer.
Just like how I can’t place the entire blame on Volkswagen, I also can’t place the entire blame on enthusiasts. Not only do the numbers above show that a remarkable ratio of people were voting with their wallets and rowing their own gears, but it’s also not like the Jetta GLI was the obvious default answer in the sub-$40,000 sporty car segment. It promises reasonable pace with refinement and bandwidth, but that’s not what everyone’s looking for. Some people wanted a sport compact car locked in a permanent kegstand, and they bought Hyundai Elantra Ns. Some people wanted an outstanding shifter, and they bought Honda Civic Si sedans. Some people wanted rear-wheel-drive balance, so they bought Toyota GR86s and Subaru BRZs. Some people wanted to let the sun in, so they bought Mazda MX-5s.
Instead, I suspect the prime suspect in the death of the six-speed manual Jetta GLI is simply the world we live in. Automatics may be faster on a closed course, more efficient, and have some big advantages in drive-by noise testing, but they’re also incredibly convenient. Especially in the real world. Think morning soup rush hour, or bumper-to-bumper gridlock after a long day at the office. Think the slow arrival of noise cameras that generally dissuade a cheeky heel-toe downshift. Think impatient drivers hustling from light to light, relegating you to the right lane until your gearbox oil warms up enough for your mechanical sympathy. Unless you’re a ride or die, why not go for the automatic? In a daily driver, there’s little reason not to, and that’s bad news for everyone.
The truth is, it’s just tricky to have fun in a performance car in many locales at many times of the day now. It’s not because laws have changed or even really because speed limits are lower; it’s because simply going anywhere at a reasonable pace is more difficult than ever. In most cities, rush hour is no longer an hour in the morning and an hour in the evening. The congestion is simply relentless, and perhaps the slow dwindling of manual gearbox demand is a bellwether of sorts. Even getting out to the countryside or the mountains can take actual ages. Fun is now a bit of a luxury, so it’s not surprising that many people don’t have money or time for it in a daily driver.
Anyway, the timing of this is all rather intriguing because I’ll actually have a six-speed Volkswagen Jetta GLI on test in a few weeks. Is it still a good way of spending $35,000 on a car? We’ll find out soon enough. For now, there are two lessons: This is your last chance to buy a stick-shift Volkswagen in Canada and the United States, and the manual gearbox as a whole won’t be around in affordable performance cars forever.
Top graphic image: Volkswagen
VW is on life support in the US as it is, so who cares. A Civic Si or Elantra N will fulfill the same purpose while being more reliable and cheaper to maintain.
Volkswagen’s descent into irrelevance continues apace.