U.S.A. fact of the day

In 1980, some 35% of cars produced in the U.S. were manuals. Today that figure is closer to 1%, and only 3.7% of Carmax sales are for stick shifts—shockingly low considering that 80% of cars sold in Europe have manual transmissions. Some car makers, including Audi, no longer offer manual transmissions in the U.S. market at all…

Only around 18% of American drivers can handle a manual transmission, according to U.S. News and World Report.

What happened?  Here is more from the WSJ.