Anyone who reads what I've written about dual clutch gearboxes on this site in the past will know how much of a fan I am of the genre.

Done well - ie by Porsche, Ferrari, McLaren, Nissan, Volkswagen, Audi et al - the dual clutch gearbox can add to a car's driver appeal hugely, I believe. 

And even when they're not executed quite so well - ie by Mercedes curiously enough - they are still impressive in what they can do technically, even if subjectively they can leave you feeling short changed.

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So much so that you'd have every right to believe that the days of the three pedal 'stick shift' manual gearbox are now well and truly numbered. 

The truth, however, might well surprise you, especially when it comes to the nitty gritty of those numbers in the form of raw data on new car sales.

In 2004, for example, only 17.6 per cent of the 2.55 million new cars that were bought in the UK were fitted with an automatic gearbox. Scroll forwards to 2013, and in an era of flappy paddle this, dual clutch that, and with regular automatics getting better seemingly with every week, you might have expect sales of automatics to sky-rocket. 

If so, what percentage of new cars do you think that were sold in the UK between January and October this year had a regular old gearstick between their front seats? Answer; 75 per cent. The vast majority, in other words.

In the last nine years, since the SMMT has been gathering statistics on such matters, the popularity of the manual gearbox has dropped by only a few per cent.

So when manufacturers like Renault (with its latest RenaultSport Clio 200) and now even Vauxhall - whose next Corsa will be offered with the option of dual clutch transmission from next year - begin marching to the same tune, you can't help but wonder: who has got it right here?

The manufacturers, who are making evermore expensive and sophisticated autos with every day that goes by, or the punters, who aren't actually buying into the technology at anything like the rate you might think?

The truth is probably somewhere in between. Among the high-end sports car market the auto — and specifically the dual clutch auto — is very much a must-have fitment nowadays. Customers no longer want a Jaguar or a Ferrari or even a Porsche 911 GT3, it seems, unless it has a super-fast paddle-shift auto. Which is why the manufacturers of such exotica have pretty much abandoned the idea of building them with three pedals and a gearlever in the first place.