Every year the list of new cars with three pedals gets shorter, and every year somebody writes that driving is over. It is a comfortable thing to believe and it is not true.

A modern dual-clutch is faster, smoother and more consistent than any human. That is not in dispute. What is in dispute is whether faster was ever the point.

The manual survives where engagement matters more than lap time: small sports cars, hot hatches, and the enormous secondhand market of everything built before about 2015.

That market is not shrinking. There are more interesting manual cars available today, at more price points, than at any time in history.

The gearbox is not dying. It is moving from the showroom to the classifieds, which for most of us is where we were shopping anyway.