Who doesn’t love a good manual transmission? I know you, Jalopnik readers, are huge fans. Of course, they’re a dying breed. In this day and age, even some of the sports cars we’d expect to have a stick shift are saddled with automatic transmissions. It could leave a guy wanting more, and that’s what has led me to today’s question.
I want to know what crossover you think deserves a manual transmission. I could sit here and ask you what car — in general — deserves a manual, but there are a couple of reasons I haven’t. First of all, that’s boring. We need to be weirder than that here at Jalopnik. Second, I asked you what car deserves a manual nearly three years ago to the day, and almost nobody thought to mention a single crossover in their answer. It’s time to rectify that. It’s time for you to tell me what dumbass crossover drivers a six-speed.
My choice
My pick for this brilliant question isn’t terribly shocking: it’s the Hyundai Kona N. There’s no reason a car little crossover with the exact same running gear as the Hyundai Elantra N should have to settle for an automatic transmission. Yeah, the DCT auto is faster, but imagine how much more fun it would be if you could row your own gears in a compact hatchback-y thing on stilts? That’s a silliness I can absolutely get behind.
The manual crossover really is a lost art. I mean, there was once a time when manual Porsche Cayennes, BMW X5s and even Honda CR-Vs roamed the world, but those days are gone. Now, the closest thing we’ve got is a couple of manual SUVs like the Jeep Wrangler and Ford Bronco. It’s a damn shame.
In any case, that’s more than enough blabbing out of me. How about you drop down below and let your fellow Jalops know what crossovers deserve a manual transmission. No, I don’t care if it’s stupid. It’s fun. That’s what’s important here.
