The reason a dealer lowers price to get you to buy on the lot is because it typically is $1000 cheaper for us... Savings we can pass to you. Additionally most customers are liars and its not unheard of for them to shop elsewhere or attempt to renegotiate after we have spent the money to bring them their car. Its risky business. With a healthy deposits most dealers will order you a car which doesn't cost us any more than on the lot. You just have to be patient. Also with Ford if the rebates go up we can pass the new ones on to you.
This looks like the last year for manuals on the f650/750 so mark it as the official last year for Ford US manual trucks.

 

I knew that in some European countries it was OK for the passengers to drink alcohol but no amount of blood alcohol toxicity was tolerated in the driver. It was a major offense if the driver even smelled of booze when stopped by the police.

 

could... not can

Open container laws didn't exist until the 1990s

 

Sorry if I'm late to the party. I just came across the article by Manuel Carrillo III about no more stick shifts. Had to share my two cents. That is/would be a travesty, personally, if no more cars with manual transmission were made. I'm a 44 year old female. My dad taught me to drive when I was 12, on his pickup truck - three on the tree, if you will. I picked it up quickly, and NEVER looked back. Every car I've EVER owned, to this day, has been a 5-speed. I HATE driving automatics. I always avoid it when possible. Friends cars, rental cars…HATE it. To me, driving is not driving unless you have a stick and a clutch. I felt that way as a kid, and I feel that way now. Don't care if it's open roads, or rush hour in the city, bumper to bumper. I feel in control of the car with a stick and a clutch. I feel that you're not really driving unless you have a manual. My whole life I've been into cars. I'll see some sweet multi-hundreds of thousand dollars worth of car, sports cars, I'll get all excited, look in it, and THUD. The disappointment of not seeing a gearshift. How could someone drive/know/APPRECIATE a $300,000 automobile that's an AUTOMATIC?!?! What a waste! To each his own, of course. But I think its a shame that hardly anyone these days can drive a stick! The thought is just surreal to me. And the fact that any make or model of car that has a manual transmission shifts differently, that the gears and/or clutch work differently, that there are 3 speeds and 6 speeds and 4 speeds and 5 speeds... - that's part of the beauty and the art of driving a stick! The fact that they are all so different has always been a fun exciting new thing to me. If you learn how to drive a manual, you can drive any manual! It's always a fun experience for me to drive a different car for the first time. Sure, it may take a few miles to adjust from a 1982 Honda Accord to a '65 Mustang to a Ford F-150 to a Porsche Boxter. whatever. but you'll get the hang of it. To me, the clutch is second nature. I've never thought about shifting gears. It's as natural to me as lifting a glass to my lips to take a drink. On the other hand, when I've had to drive an automatic, I have had to THINK about it. I have to consciously remember to sit on my left foot or have it back against the seat. Otherwise, I'm likely to slam on the breaks, thinking it's a clutch. Attention "opposite problems", I guess. LOL. Yeah, to me, give me a clutch and a stick ANY DAY. No other way to drive.

 

Welcome to FTE Michelle!

 

Yes manuals are gone forever

 

Welcome Michelle. When I met my wife in 1983, she was 32 years old and the only cars she had ever owned were sticks. She worked in TV and would always ask to drive the 18 foot box trucks that they rented to go out on shoots (they were also sticks). My son, now 27, also has owned only stick shift cars and is almost too militant about refusing to drive an automatic. My Ford van has an auto (they didn't make a stick) but my Subaru Forester daily driver and my '91 BMW garage queen are both sticks.

Maybe you're a long lost relative

Sadly, I don't think that sticks are not gonna make a resurgence, though.

George

 

Manuals are probably staying in sports cars for the foreseeable future. I think the only new trucks with them Chevy Colorado/Canyon twins, Toyota Tacomas and I think 2500/3500HD Rams with Cummins turbo diesel. Automatics have become more efficient fuel economy wise in the last ten years. Some of them have a double OD which manuals lack. Like I had said months ago on this thread manuals will probably end up being paddle shift only or auto with a manual mode like they have been doing.

 

BRING BACK THE MANUAL

 

Nobody is gonna bring them back unless consumer demand exists and US drivers are not going to demand them. Consumers are too busy playing with cell phones, nav systems, eating and drinking, etc. to be able to shift a manual transmission.

Heck, when I was a kid, I had to walk NINE FEET thru **** carpeting to change the TV channel.

Having stick shift cars (I own 2) is a great theft deterrent. Many car thieves can break into a car but can't drive it away if it's a stick

George

 

Hahahah sad but so true. It never ceases to amaze me how many people I come across these days who haven't the slightest idea of how to row their own gears.

 

It makes me really nervous to give my car to a car wash attendant. At least twice the guys have had to get the designated "stick shift driver". I refuse to let valets park my cars as well. (My son worked briefly as a valet and could drive anything but he had stories...)

There are a lot of news articles on car thieves being unable to drive away a stick shift car. Here's a YouTube for fun:

 

Not going to happen.

 

Another thing you can't do with an automatic is skip gears as you shift. Just like driving a tractor trailer, if you don't need all the gears each time why use them?

In daily driving I usually shift 1,3,5 (also helps if you have a third person sitting in the middle). If I am taking off on a hill or pulling a heavy load then I need all five gears, but when the truck can pull itself with no trouble at 35mph in fifth gear, why would I want to shift four times between 0 and 35mph.

On snow or ice it is even more advantageous when you can use the clutch to disengage the transmission than having to shift between neutral and drive on a automatic.

I guess all the truck manufacturers have lost me as a customer from now on, since I won't buy a new truck with an automatic.

 

If it weren't for so many gears in new autos and people were still competent manuals would stick around. There is one company (don't know the name) that spends the money to convert brand new Dodge Rams from 8 speed autos to the G56 6 speed manual from the 2500/3500 trucks. Before they make driving illegal and your vehicle has to drive for you I will master driving with a manual...even if I have to buy a truck and convert it...think the best ones I've heard that are butter would be the NV5600 behind 24 valve Cummins.

And yes I just checked ramtrucks.com and you still can order a brand new 2500/3500 with the G56 manual transmission behind a 6.7L Cummins. Yeah its de-rated to 610/660 lb/ft but does it really matter that much? Sucks the only company that still offers a truck like a truck is owned by Fix It Again Tony! But hey you cannot beat a Cummins Turbo diesel, we all know it (as much as we hate sayin' it).