Yahoo Autos Aston Martin's CEO Wants to Offer a Manual In Every Future Vantage
The first executive order made by Andy Palmer when he joined Aston Martin as its CEO in 2014 was putting a seven-speed manual in the V12 Vantage S. Palmer is the man tasked with saving Aston Martin from years of turning out pretty, yet old product, and he's a staunch supporter of the Save the Manuals campaign. This is good news if you love cars.
We caught up with Palmer at the Goodwood Festival of Speed this past weekend to talk about the company's upcoming hypercar, and what else the future holds for Aston Martin. The company intends to equip its cars will all the best tech du jour, but Palmer also remains committed to the manual.
"With every generation, my goal isthat there is at least a manual option car in the range," said Palmer. "That translates notjust to this generation of car, but also to the nextgeneration of car, then the generation thereafter."
We won't see a manual in the upcoming a DB11 or any of Aston's future grand tourers, but for sports cars like the Vantage? There will always be a manual even if it becomes more difficult to engineer.
"If you were to ask the poor engineer that needs to deliver that, they'd tell you it was a pain in the ass," said Palmer. "To put a manual in is to take you backwards, but to me, it's worth the trip."
Obviously Palmer advocates for the emotional involvement of a manual, but he makes strong case for why shunning dual-clutch transmissions in favor of manuals and traditional automatics is worthwhile.
"I'm not actually a great advocateof [dual-clutch transmissions] because you have the two bookends–a really, really good auto with quickchanges and paddle shift on the one end, and then a very, very engaging stickshift classical style on the other end–and for me, there's no need for anythingin the middle.
Palmer also makes a strong business case for continuing to offer manuals, even when the competition embraces dual-clutch gearboxes more and more. He predicts that the take rate for manuals in the U.S. will be around 30%, and that Aston will get many new customers frustrated by the lack of manuals elsewhere.
"People who have gone to other brands and want a stick shift, but can't get buy a stick shift anymore come back, and we remind them that we have it."
Essentially, offering an old-fashioned gearbox becomes a competitive advantage in the future, in Palmer's view. Palmer's betting that manual transmission enthusiasts are plentiful enough to help save his company, and as enthusiasts ourselves, we hope he's right. The stick shift V12 Vantage S is one of our favorite cars of the moment, so we hope there are more like it in the future.
