Cars I Wish Came With Manual Transmission

Kia Stinger

Manual transmission is a dying breed. But I love driving manual — there's something more involved, more connected about it. The feel of the shifter in your hand, the vibration through the pedal, the moment you nail a perfectly timed heel toe downshift. It's a different experience entirely from pointing an automatic down the road.

There are plenty of articles out there arguing for more sports cars with manual gearboxes. But my mind goes somewhere slightly different. Which cars do I wish had come with a manual — not just sports cars, but any car — that would have genuinely changed my consideration?

Here are three.

Kia Stinger — And It Came Back to Me Through a K-Drama

Kia Stinger in While You Were Sleeping K-drama

I was watching While You Were Sleeping recently — the 2017 K-drama my wife recommended and that I wrote about here. There's an episode with what is clearly a Kia Stinger product placement. The main character is put in a situation where he test drives a red one, and it's handled with enough screen time that it's obvious Kia was involved.

What I didn't expect was how strongly it brought back my memory of when the Stinger first launched.

The Kia Stinger was genuinely exciting when it arrived. It had a muscle car presence that was distinctly non-American — sleek and aggressive in a way that reminded you more of a BMW M car than anything from Detroit. Under the hood was a 3.3L twin-turbo V6 producing 368 horsepower — maybe modest by today's standards, but more than enough to make it feel serious. As a sedan, it could run the quarter mile in the high 12s to low 13s. That's real performance.

And it looked the part. Aggressive front end, sharp rear, low roofline. It was the kind of car that made you look twice in a parking lot.

When it launched, I genuinely considered it. The look and specs were tempting enough to put it in the conversation alongside actual sports cars. But it never came in manual transmission — and for me, that ended the conversation immediately. I moved on and didn't think about it again until that K-drama brought it back.

The Stinger was discontinued in 2023. It deserved better. And it definitely deserved a manual option.

Pontiac Grand Prix GTP — The Sleeper Sedan Nobody Talks About

Pontiac Grand Prix

I know this one is an unusual choice. Bear with me.

In the late 90s and early 2000s — what I consider the golden era of car variety before SUVs swallowed everything — there were genuinely interesting offerings from manufacturers that would never exist today. The Pontiac Grand Prix GTP was one of them.

What I loved about it was the stance. It looked like a sleeper — a wide, aggressive sedan with a lip spoiler that was a fairly unique design detail at the time, paired with dual exhaust that hinted at what was underneath. It was a car that didn't announce itself loudly but had an edge to it.

Under the hood was a supercharged 3.8L V6 putting out 240 horsepower — genuinely impressive for a domestic sedan of that era. The supercharger whine alone made it sound meaner than most people expected.

The problem? It came with a 4-speed automatic. Transmission technology was simply at a different point back then, and the idea of putting a manual in a car like this wasn't really part of the conversation for domestic manufacturers. But if it had — a supercharged V6 sedan with a manual gearbox and that aggressive stance — it would have been a genuinely interesting driver's car.

Instead it remains a what-if.

E38 BMW 7 Series — The Bond Car That Never Got a Manual in North America

BMW 750iL in James Bond

This one hurts a little.

The E38 BMW 7 Series — produced from 1994 to 2001 — was available with a manual transmission in many markets outside North America. Here, we only ever got the automatic. And that's a shame, because this is one of the most compelling large luxury sedans ever built.

I remember seeing it in Tomorrow Never Dies — the James Bond film where a 7 Series is driven remotely from the back seat through a device. It was cool to see a full four-door luxury sedan as the Bond car rather than the usual sports car. It gave the E38 a kind of cinematic credibility that stuck with me.

The E38 oozes old-school BMW luxury — substantial, driver-focused, with that classic bimmer feel that tells you the car was built to be driven, not just ridden in. From what I've read, it's also considered one of the most reliable BMWs ever — a genuinely well-built car that has held up over time.

If it had been available in manual in North America, it would have been an extraordinary thing. A large luxury sedan, Bond-approved, one of the most reliable BMWs ever made — and a clutch pedal. That combination would have been something special.

The 5 Series was available in manual for years, I know. But it wasn't in Tomorrow Never Dies. And that matters 😂

Final Thought

These are just three. The list of cars I wish had come with a manual gearbox is much longer — the Lexus LS, various Mercedes, the Hyundai Sonata N, and plenty of others.

Manual transmission connects you to the car in a way that nothing else replicates. Every car on this list would have been a different proposition entirely with a clutch pedal.

What car do you wish had come in manual? Drop it in the comments — I want to know.