It's only a matter of time before the three-pedal car becomes defunct, writes Kyle Fortune.
ARE YOU an automatic or a manual driver? Or don't you know? That might sound ridiculous, but in a recent ownership survey in the US some 20 per cent of respondents ticked the "don't know" box when asked what type of transmission their car had.
The thing is, there are so many different types of transmissions - not to mention the acronyms and the brands naming them - that it is little wonder people are confused.
In the past month we've driven electro-actuated paddle-shifted "manuals", an AMG automatic with a "clutch" inside, Powershifts, Multitronics, S-Tronics, an F1 Superfast, various CVTs and DSGs with six, seven and even eight gears.
Ultimately, the choice remains the same: two pedals or three?
The development of transmissions may be blurring the traditional boundaries between automatics and manuals on the technology side, but customers aren't likely to notice. Or indeed care. Except that the demand for two-pedal systems is growing enormously.
Audi now offers five different automatic transmissions, with various permutations of its twin-clutch S-Tronic autos, CVT Multitronics and conventional torque-converter automatics.
In 2007, over 50 per cent of Audis sold were automatics of some description, up from just over 10 per cent in 1991. That trend is not just limited to high-end luxury models either, with smaller, cheaper car segments also seeing a huge growth in demand for automatics.
That increase can be attributed to a number of factors, primarily location. The world's population is becoming more and more urban, and automatics are a boon on congested streets. An ageing population is another driving force in the growing trend towards automatics.
The automatics traditionally regarded as uneconomical and environmentally unfriendly are also becoming ever greener.
Drive a petrol Volkswagen with a DSG transmission rather than its manual alternative and you'll go further and faster - and with fewer emissions, too. The DSG, or "twin-clutch" transmission, is perhaps the zenith of current gearbox thinking.
Volkswagen and Audi have offered this type of transmission for a while, while Ford recently added one.
Porsche, too, has introduced such a system on its revised 911 range; like Audi, Porsche used such a transmission many years ago for its racing and rallying efforts.
So cleaner and greener cars, thanks to easy, quick-shifting two-pedal transmissions, are the future.
It seems so, but manuals still have the edge on economy - just - and stop-start fuel-saving systems have yet to be developed for automatic models.
It is only a matter of time before that's solved and automatics take over completely.
That third pedal is likely to become an anachronism soon; I might be in the minority but I'll be sad to see it go.