Manual transmission more expensive than automatic?
12/25/2023
Just a few years ago, we would never have dreamed that we would have to pay extra for a manual gearbox if we had to do without the automatic. It was the other way around. But now car manufacturers charge extra if you want to change gear manually with your foot on the clutch.
Recently? Not quite.
Back in 1960, you paid an extra CHF 1200 if you wanted to order your Facel Vega HK 500 with the Pont-à-Mousson four-speed gearbox, which was 2.7 percent more than the CHF 44,500 you had to pay for the automatic version.
No wonder, then, that most HK 500s were delivered with the Chrysler automatic transmission (pictured above). However, the manual gearbox was praised to the skies at the time. Perhaps also because it was even faster with an additional four-barrel carburetor and another 25 hp of engine power.
And now that we have been able to portray two Facels with automatic transmission, we would give anything to be able to drive a manual version. Maybe this Christmas wish will come true one day ...
P.S. The fact that we like shifting gears by hand was already evident from the main theme of this year's 2024 annual magazine ( "The joy of shifting") ...
