The price of gas is too cheap in this country. If it's $5/gallon, then we'll see more stick shift and more fuel efficient cars, like 'Rollas. My understanding is in Europe and Asia, where gas is expensive, there are lot more stick shift than automatics.
You're only partially correct in that thought. Part of the reason many people in Europe and Asia buy manual transmissions because of the improved fuel economy. The main reasons are because of cost and improved performance.
On a Focus sold in the United Kingdom, an automatic transmission costs 1000 pounds. That is equivalent to 1960 USD. On a US Focus, the automatic transmission option only costs 815 USD. On a lower cost car, paying 1000 extra pounds or 1960 USD for one option is hard for many people to justify when they've grown up with their parents shifting gears. For Americans whose parents had automatics, paying 815 isn't hard to justify.
Also, a Focus here comes with a 2.0L engine standard, the UK version has a 1.4L engine as the standard unit. If my engine was 30% smaller in a similar car, I'd be driving stick too just so the car was not an absolute slug.
In a similar manner, the UK Corolla comes standard with a 5 speed. The automatic version costs 1025 pounds more or almost 2000 USD more. The American Corolla 's automatic costs only 1000 USD. Again, not hard to justify for us, hard to justify for the people of the UK. And again, harder to justify an automatic on their Corolla with a 1.4L engine when we get a 1.8L on a highly similar car.
-the99contour