Americans lack Stick-to-it-iveness:
Currently, about 10 percent of new cars in the United States have manual transmissions, and this market share has been declining for decades. By contrast, some 85 percent of cars sold in Europe are manual, and throughout much of the world what was traditionally called the “standard” transmission remains in fact the standard.
When I first heard that stat years ago, I was shocked that the US percentage was so low.