SRM: Nissan's View, Failure to Change the Industry
 

I was just pondering a bit this morning why SRM (syncro rev-match) never really caught on with the rest of the industry. Many times a new technology is quickly adopted by numerous manufacturers at once. Dual-clutch auto transmissions, collision avoiding cruise control, cooled front seats...but not SRM.

While I love my SRM and use it almost 100% of the time, it's surely not a necessity. But then neither are those other technologies mentioned above. I suppose one could argue that the 6 speed manual is going out of favor rather quickly these days, and investing more money in it is a waste of resources. However, plenty of purists still buy their supercars with manual transmissions. I can easily see some 6MT Audi R8 owner paying an additional $3,500 for a 'shift-matching' option in their Technology Package.

So, why do you think Nissan is still the sole company with an SRM manual?

To be honest, I don't think enough people know about it for companies to care about its implementation. I barely ever see any other 370z's on the road. So I'd assume just as well that others don't get a chance to check out the SRM. If you never know how great it is you'll never miss it.

Nissan needs to adopt SRM it's self. It wouldtaele some time for another company to copy it and get it to production. But Nissan has a headstart. But they haven't put in the G37 that uses the same transmission. They haven't put it in the altima coupe. And they haven't even put a manual in the GTR at all.

So what's that tell you. We love it but I think automanuals are the mainstream transmission now and going into the future.

Yeah most high end sport cars only come in auto now...

I have thought about SRM and why other companies have not picked it up, and it comes down to automatic gearboxes winning in the supercar world.
While in the 25-45k price range manual is still very popular, you get much above the 45k price range for a car and you are looking at mostly automatic gearboxes only. Is that bad? No, the auto is quicker than the manual, gives the driver full control, and loses the clutch pedal.
You can already see the technology slowing moving downt he ladder, look at the current 370z 7 speed, it is just as good as the manual in shift times and definitely is no "slush box."

I dont really see a need for it, people, including myself, have been throttle blipping for years and its really a thoughtless maneuver, SRM is kind of unnecessary.

But how is it unneccasry? It helps eliminate you from havinng to think about one thing, the system does it for you, and then you can improve on more important matters while driving/racing. Have you truly driven a Z with SRM for more than a test drive? When I test drove the 370z I thought, "Meh, probably will turn this off after awhile," but after a week or two it grew on me and I love it now.

I dont think when I downshift, its muscle memory, clutch in, blip, release, that simple. I dont feel that I need a computer to blip the throttle for me and I think alot of people in the automotive world feel the same way. Cool feature? sure, necessary for people that have been driving manual transmissions their whole life without it? definitely not. This is why copycats havent emerged, its not imperative to have.

Or because companies view the manual as "end of life" and feel they do not need to invest in new technology and are moving forward with trying to get better automatics. I could bet anything that if SRM was first put into a Porsche (manual) that companies would be scrambling like mad to copy it.

Why do I say that? Because if a company like Porsche views the need to push technology in manual farther then others will follow, but Porsche and others are working on double clutch and other automatic technologies.

SRM has be available for about a year and everyone said it came out of the blue. I think design windows are a bit longer than that for cars so it would be unlikely to see anyone else with it for a bit longer.

The good old Stick Shift is slowly dieing :(

IMHO SRM is an awesome technology that's just too late to appear.

As others have stated above the standard pedal clutch and stick shift system will disappear in the coming years. Maybe even as little as 5.

Auto Tranny/Paddle Shift systems are strong, fast, and precise. There's a lot less wear on the car especially in the transmission but it also effects suspension and driveability. The roads around me are fairly bumpy in places and I've miss-shifted a good amount of times due to them too. An Auto would take that away as well.

Here we go. It's only been about for about a year. It takes car companies years of planning before they put a car out. It's hard to say something hasn't caught on when no new cars have been developed (not released, developed) since it came out.

Automated manuals...with clutches.... not a regular automatic.