I'd like to know the percentage of passenger vehicles (i.e., cars and
light trucks) in the U.S. with automatic versus manual transmission. 
I am interested in registered vehicles (i.e., vehicles on the road),
rather than new vehicles being sold.

Ideally, I'd like this percentage by year, from 1970 to
the present.  However, I realize this may be difficult, and
I'm happy with whatever data are available.

Thanks!

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Request for Question Clarification by hummer-ga on 24 Aug 2006 12:02 PDT

Hi hlg111,

Please let me know if this satisfies your request:

These are total light vehicle sales (in millions of units) of domestic
and import car and trucks broken down by automatic and manual
transmissions:
Year   Automatic     %       Manual      %        Total
1985  10,021,482   77.6%   2,887,171   22.4%   12,908,653
1990  10,141,794   78.7%   2,752,150   21.3%   12,893,944
1995  12,816,559   83.1%   2,602,211   16.9%   15,418,770
2000  15,995,874   90.0%   1,785,377   10.0%   17,781,251
2001  14,898,961   90.6%   1,540,618    9.4%   16,439,579
2003  16,752,979   92.6%   1,335,531    7.3%   18,088,510
*Includes manual/automatic hybrids
Source: Ward's Communications
http://abc26.trb.com/chi-0502110440feb11,0,4821150.story?coll=wgno-home-1
> If that link doesn't work, try this one:
http://72.14.207.104/search?q=cache:tVL3a19cbtoJ:abc26.trb.com/chi-0502110440feb11,0,4821150.story%3Fcoll%3Dwgno-home-1+MODEL+AUTOMATIC+%25*+OF+TOTAL+MANUAL+%25+OF+TOTAL+TOTAL+SALES&hl=en&gl=ca&ct=clnk&cd=1&client=firefox-a

Will look forward to your reply,
hummer

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Clarification of Question by hlg111-ga on 24 Aug 2006 13:32 PDT

Hi hummer,

Thanks for your response.  However, I am looking for this information
for vehicles on the road, rather than new vehicles sold.  Is there any
information out there pertaining to vehicles on the road (which have a
wide distribution of model years)?

Thank you!

BOOOO Automatics!   

Sorry for the unhelpful comment, I'm just putting my name in here so I
can find the question easily later.  I'm very interested in the
answer.

what a great topic! i've been curious to know the percentages as well.
just count me as a motorist who drives manual transmission. i love it!
there are so many advantages to driving stickshift...but that can be
another topic discussed some other time.