2010 and dwindling to approximately 1% by 2021. Consequently, only about 18% of American drivers today know how to operate a manual gearbox, a figure that continues to shrink as automatic systems provide better affordability, speed, and fuel economy. Furthermore, modern vehicles no longer require a “granny gear.” Advances in engine design provide sufficient low-end torque, which makes the extreme 6.0:1 mechanical advantage obsolete for standard road gradients or city driving. Because of these technological shifts, manufacturers have moved away from incorporating ultra-low ratios in modern manual transmissions, leaving the “G” gear as a specialized feature of the past.
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The 2021 Ford Bronco Brought It Back
The 2021 Ford Bronco marked a rare and deliberate return of the granny gear to a production SUV, the first since 1991. The Bronco’s seven-speed manual is effectively a six-speed with a seventh
