We didn’t believe we’d be telling you this, but it seems that the manual transmissions sales in the US are on the rise, with the main element to be credited for this being the increased interest for affordable sports cars like the Scion FR-S and the Hyundai Genesis Coupe.

Last year, manuals only accounted for for 3 percent of car sales, while the figures for the part of the current year that has passed so far show this has increased to 7 percent. If the situation remains the same, 2012 will be the year with the most manual gearbox sales since 2006.

However, carmakers are offering less manual gearbox options than before, as 64 percent of 2012 models are offered with autos only, while this value stood at 45 percent one decade ago. Many consumers prefer automatics not only for the comfort bonus, but also because the new-generation torque convertor system no longer fall behind manuals in terms of fuel efficiency.

We’ll have to wait and see for how long the manuals are going to keep fighting, but the end, unfortunately, is inevitable for them. Of course, there will always be performance drivers that will choose manuals, but this is a limited category. In fact, the US is well-known for the paradoxical way in which it has convinced carmaker to offer manuals on go-fast models that don't come with such an option in Europe, where manuals are far more popular.

The best example of this is the new F10 BMW M5, which only comes with an optional manual in the US. However, like we said above the end can't be too far for the stick shift, as BMW has announced that this is the last generation of the M5 for which it has gone through the effort of designing a manual that can cope with the massive level of power and torque.

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