Even if a manual was available and I had the cash I still wouldn't buy a new one. Too many other drawbacks, most of them government related.

 

i agree with this, add to it the new trucks are really ugly, my opinion

 

Back in 78 we had a new 79 Bronco ordered with the 4 speed manual. I couldn't see myself buying a sissy automatic. I had to teach my wife to drive a stick before the new Bronco arrived as we were selling her 340 Challenger. I taught her to drive my 53 Ford with a 350 sbc and Muncie 4 speed. It had an Isky cam that liked to buck if you drove it too slow. Well we were trying out start ups in 1st gear in a park and it started bucking after she let out the clutch. It got bucking so bad that she was blowing the horn with her chest. Good thing we were buckled in!
She shifted the Bronco for some years. Once the clutch pressure plate broke on the way home. The clutch pedal thumped to the floor with the clutch still engaged. With our two young boys in the back seat encouraging her, she made it all the way home and in the garage. When I got home she told me the clutch was broke. She had lifted the clutch pedal up. I found it hard to believe. I got in and put my foot on the clutch pedal and it thumped all the way to the floor and stayed there. I still grin when I think about that. I still have her and the Bronco.

 

Yeah, some more good things about a Manual. You can usually make it back home with Clutch problems.

When I was driving trucks for a living, the Clutch Rod broke one day on an IH I was driving. I crawled under it and quickly found out that it couldn't be fixed in no easy way. I called the office and told them it's going to need a wrecker, but that I could drive it back with no Clutch if they wanted me to. I got the OK.

...saved them a tow bill.

Also Manuals can usually be started with battery and/or electrical problems. I don't know how many times we push started our old cars when we were kids. I even got pretty good at push starting them myself, on flat ground to boot !!

 

Automatic transmissions have been cheaper for the manufacturers to produce and have had lower warranty costs for over 40 years. The manuals have expensive to make gears as opposed to the simple stamped or powder metal parts in an auto. The customers don't buy manuals, so they must be discounted, both on the msrp and the actual out the door price.

Ford engineering and product planners (8-10 years ago when the manual was initiating its vanishing act from product lineups) used to refer to manual customers as bottom feeders, ie not an ideal customer base to cater to, as they generally wanted the cheapest, no margin fleet truck.

 

Good explanation of additional info.

Pretty much goes with what I posted earlier on page #4:

"It's no secret that the auto and truck industry "wants" to sell Auto Transmissions to the public. One way or another, along with help from modern-day buyers wanting more luxury and ease, they have accomplished this".

 

absolutely true and it makes me very sad.

 

Very well said....I feel the same way.

 

Great thing about an auto is that I will never have a broken clutch rod.

 

The one thing an auto transmission will never blow - a clutch rod.

lol

 

Personally, I think the best type of transmission would be if they took the manual gearbox, and put reliable parts on it to autoshift electronically.

Going through the gears without TQ converter slip would be awesome.

 

The whole point is that each transmission has different modes of failure.

To say one is better than another as a blanket statement is silly.

 

This exists in the commercial truck world, a manual transmission with a computer controlled manual shifted with air solenoids.

 

Yes, I recently learned a bit about them.
Certainly more of a truck transmission the way they shift.

 

they came out with autoshift so any idiot could drive a truck.
the problem with autoshift is, the idiots could not figure out how to use a clutch to start and stop.
so they then started putting full automatic transmissions in trucks.