Manual transmissions are practically non-existent. And if new MT are being made, they are usually 5 or 6 speeds, mainly the latter.
At the same, automatic transmissions have been stepping up the gears, going from 4 or 5 speeds 20 years ago, to 8,9,10 etc… speeds.
For the sake of argument, assume manual transmissions were still made en masse. Would it make any practical sense to also step up the gears to 8,9,10 etc… gears for cars? Or would the gains be practically insignificant for practical use of a manual transmission?
My Auris is 6 speed manual. In my opinion, 5 gears would be enough for 1.33L petrol engine with 73kW, since the gear ratios are optimized to get the best gas mileage at around 90km/h. So it was 5 speed manual 2002 AWD Suzuki Swift with 1.3L petrol with 62kW. There I missed the 6th gear at highway speeds.
Your foot and arm would get tired pretty quickly if you had to change gears that many times. I've never driven any car with more than 6 speeds. The fact that an automatic car needs to go through 9 gear changes to get to highway speed would be way too much hassle to pay attention to while driving a manual. You don't really have time to pick the optimum gear when you're driving a standard to make a move, the kick down in an automatic, automatically calculates that based on a dozen parameters.
There's also the consideration of how much space will that shifter contraption take up? Manual gear shifts pivot around a single point when they're moved around. 9 or 10 speeds would almost go horizontal to horizontal. Automatics don't have this limitation.
Would it make any practical sense to also step up the gears to 8,9,10 etc… gears for cars?
Have you considered a 7 speed manual transmission? There are 7 speed manual transmissions available in some cars. C7 Corvette and Ford Bronco with the 2.3 I4 to name a couple. We could see 7 speed manuals in more cars and possibly 8 speed manuals if everyone wants to drive a car with a manual transmission.
But I agree with @justin-shepherd here. It would take up some space and you'd be tired shifting through all those gears.
Would it make any practical sense to also step up the gears to 8,9,10
at that point everyone left who hasn't already, will switch to an automatic
Most 18 wheelers/semis have 10 or more speed manual transmissions, to a great extent because their diesel engines have a very narrow power band. I can vouch for the fact that it's a pain in the a** to shift gears so much, but you can get used to it.
With lock-up torque converters, 8 or more speeds, and electronic control of the transmissions, you really don''t gain much acceleration or gas mileage (if any) with a manual vs a modern automatic.
