Thoughts on buying a manual now?

[skidsteer]

This. Take a look at prices for a 5-10 year old used Mustang. Stick Shifts cost more because if someone wants the stick they simply won't consider the auto.

You can put me in that camp. I ordered mine with a stick. No stick, and I never even would have considered buying one.

Yeh. We would have passed on ou '22 if the stick wasn't available......we went for the nostalgia high ......2dr/stick.....cheap but, fun...

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[UM_Ftown]

Manuals always retain value better. Any car. Especially now that manufacturers are ditching them for more fuel efficiency of autos. The manual is dying due to regulations, not desirability. There will always be people who want to learn and enjoy the driving experience of manual. It’s not a matter of age, gen Z love manuals (even more than boomers) from my experience.

Regulations aren't making the manual go away lol. That would be people choosing not to buy them.

 

[UM_Ftown]

They may be harder to sell eventually, dealers will complain that it's a manual on trade in, but a manual buyer knows exactly what they want so it normally doesn't take as long as one would think to sell.

 

[BroncoAZ]

One reason the Manual is dying is heavy traffic, stop and go with a manual for hours is no fun at all.

I commuted into Phoenix with a manual VW Passat for years, it never bothered me. In the Bronco I just put it in C and let crawl as other people stop and go.

 

[amazingjason]

I’ve taught my boys to drive manuals and they drive them regularly. Here is my older son driving our stick shift cars when he had his learner’s permit. Samurai, Yaris iA, Golf Sportwagen, 1966 Olds 442.



Jason

 

[Dads_bronze_bronco]

So today I saw an interesting video. Only 18 percent of the population can drive a manual. That told me that 82 percent of the buyers market is now out of the picture. I wonder what kind of pricing could I expect on a rig some one ordered and didn't get it or ordered a manual by mistake? Hmmm

I can tell you when I sold my JKUR 6MT, it sat on marketplace for 4 days, then I had two committed buyers willing to pay more than what automatic JKURs were going for specifically because it was a manual. And the guy who didn’t get to buy it was upset because it is so hard to find one.

Somewhere in that 18% is a group of die hard committed buyers who are your market. You just have to reach them.

Note: it was a 2008 with 165k miles and that did not matter.

 

[Hkak45]

Wild card though will be if the Bronco manual ends up perceived as flawed. Because customers have experienced some issues, and we'll have to see how it all plays out.

Mustang Getrag on the forums was perceived as flawed.... Look at how that turned out. Seems most still want the manual stang even if it has a getrag. Sometimes we forget that these forums are our little echo chamber. Majority of the population doesn't follow these forums so would have no clue the manual has a synchro noise

 

[Shift-N-Go]

Pretty hard to order a manual, haha. I've had a deposit down for an HE manual, and it probably won't even go in until July. Then, it will take another 6 months before it shows up as a 2024 model. Probably get dinged by price changes a few times too.

With that said, no manual, no Bronco for me. There is no way I'd settle for an automatic.

Also, if so few people can drive manual now, think of it as an additional layer of theft protection!

There are some perks too. Whenever I roll up to a nice hotel and park out front, the bell boy always asks for the key so they can shuffle my car away to make room... Usually they get in, and get out because they can't drive stick. So my car stays right at the door until I get checked in, hehe.

 

[BluebroncoNC]

If it has not been mentioned. Get what you want. Life is too short.

 

[Tricky Dick]

The 2.7 has an integrated bell housing. It won't mate with the manual. The better question is why we can't get a 5.0 since that would bolt right on.

Unfortunately all 3 of those engines have different bellhousing patterns.

 

[HoosierDaddy]

One reason the Manual is dying is heavy traffic, stop and go with a manual for hours is no fun at all.

This is what the new (mall) crawler gear is for!!!! It excels in that duty!

 

[HoosierDaddy]

That would be people choosing not to buy them.

This is the continuous "what came first" discussion.
Back in the good old days of overflowing dealer stock, there was rarely a choice given.
The one thing the reservation system has shown is, if the buyers gets to choose from all these options because every single one was a custom order, the manufacturers are out of touch with what the end user will actually choose.

The hard top went at a much higher rate than forecasted.
The manual went at a higher rate than forecasted.
The 2 dr went at a higher rate than expected.
Sasquatch went at a higher rate than expected.

All those plain jane dealer stock units??? That is what Ford expected and had their suppliers plan for .... and here we are today, 3 model years in and they are still playing catch up with what the customers actually wanted.

As you can see, I am not arguing that the manual would ever out sell an auto or even close ... but 18 to 20% is a HUGE number of customers. When given the choice to build what they want, the bean counters are habitually missing the mark, they delete options because they had severely restricted what other options you can get with it. Well no shit nobody bought them in that case. Then they erroneously conclude that nobody wants manuals.

This (custom) ordering system has proven that methodology is/has been defective.

Hell, even in 2021, they HYPED THE HELL out of their new manual tranny "BUILT FOR OFFROADING WITH THE NEW CRAWLER GEAR!!!" ....... then they excluded this offroad wonder from their PREMIER offroad package, Sasquatch.
whatintheactualfuck were they thinking???

I can assure you , I would have been ALL OVER a BaseManSquatch at that point in time.


2nd Bronco, due any day now, I HAD to choose an auto because I wanted the remote start feature.
Again, I can assure you, and Ford, that I would have picked a manual if it retained the remote start in the Mid package.

Now, my current Base manual will A.S.S. at every stop light, traffic light, rail crossing, bank line etc etc etc from here to eternity ... there is no valid reason to not have remote start on it, they ALREADY have the TECH installed ..... but , here I am, having to get the auto in my Badlands to also get the remote start capability due to other option restrictions.

 

[JuztQu3zt]

My bronco be my first purchase of a vehichle that is not Manuel transmission. Sortve upset about it but obx couldn't be ordered in stick shift when I went in 2 years ago.

 

[Dads_bronze_bronco]

Wild card though will be if the Bronco manual ends up perceived as flawed. Because customers have experienced some issues, and we'll have to see how it all plays out.

True - however I am pretty sure the JLs have had some manual quality issues.

 

[Lcubed]

Regulations aren't making the manual go away lol. That would be people choosing not to buy them.

actually, it would be dealers choosing the easy route of white, silver or black w/ an automatic because it's one less thing required of the sheeple/consumer

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