The death of the stick shift is almost here.

[MilesTeg]

Yup.
When I ordered my Bronco, my salesman said I would have to meet with the sales manager before we could place the order. That manage argued with me for 10 minutes that "nobody drive stick anymore" - to which I replied look at the car I'm driving right now. He was also arguing with me that I wanted a 2 door. His last resort was that instead of waiting 3 to 4 months, I could use the $1000 deposit to drive away that night with a brand new Bronco. He had a dozen overloaded 4 door automatic (and overpriced) Broncos on his lot.
In the end, I got "my" Bronco the way I wanted it and it only took 2-1/2 months.

I'm guessing you didn't have the option, but I would have told them to go you-know-what and use a different dealer. My area had zero manuals (in a 50 mile radius or so) but I had no problem walking into a dealer and putting in an order for a 2DR 7MT manual. The only pushback I got was a mild suggestion to maybe wait for the 25 model year as I was close to the end of the 24 year, but they happily took my '24 order with no actual push back. No deposit, and no obligation to actually buy it if I decided I didn't like it after it arrived.

As others have mentioned: they want to sell existing inventory, because cars sitting in inventory cost them money.

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[MilesTeg]

I refuse to give up my manual, my wife thinks I’m crazy but all I’ve known is shifting my own gears (except for the 4dr Bronco I had, made me stir crazy enough to trade it for a 2dr 7mt).

It’s the simple driving pleasure of it at this point. I don’t think it’ll ever leave my blood. If I had to get rid of the Bronco for any reason it would be for another car with a manual.

I think there's a big divide between people who drive for the sake of driving, and those that drive to get groceries. My good friend absolutely HATES the idea of a sunday drive. If he's in a car with no purposeful destination he is not happy. He also would never want a manual.

Me, I take a "Sunday drive" almost every Sunday, hah.

 

[Desmolicious]

My 2012 Wrangler Rubicon was a 6MT. Because up till that point all my cars were MT. It was fun on road, not so fun in heavy traffic (Los Angeles) but I found it stressful off roading with a manual transmission.
Especially when things get gnarly.

I absolutely love that my Bronco has an auto - just makes for a chill ride but more importantly makes it more enjoyable and safer to drive off road. Especially when things get gnarly!

I still have a Miata (ahem, MX-5) with MT for on road driving.

 

[zyglyrox]

I think there's a big divide between people who drive for the sake of driving, and those that drive to get groceries. My good friend absolutely HATES the idea of a sunday drive. If he's in a car with no purposeful destination he is not happy. He also would never want a manual.

Me, I take a "Sunday drive" almost every Sunday, hah.

And there’s my issue with public transit We shouldn’t expect everyone to have an interest in the car based society we have created, but allow them safe travel.

 

[Eldowerks]

I commuted to college (DePaul) and sitting on the Kennedy in stop and go traffic was brutal.

Driving a 1985 F150 daily work truck with a five speed gearbox in rush-hour stop and go traffic cured me of manual transmissions as a daily driver. First gear was always a little too slow and second gear was a little too fast for the traffic.

I get my manual transmission fix these days driving around my girlfriend’s VW Beetle convertible 5-speed stick.

That being said, a two-door manual transmission Bronco as a second vehicle to my four-door AT Badlands DD would be a ton of fun!

 

[GoHawks63]

As I mentioned earlier in this thread, my uncle had an auto repair shop that specialized in foreign cars (which was worth advertising in the '70s and early '80s).

He was always coming across cars. Early on he found two 1964 FIAT 1100Ds that were sitting in a yard somewhere. He restored both (yeah, I said restored) and sold one off and sold the other to my dad. They both had three on the tree.

That was the car my dad took me on my first lesson. My dad was an old school Italian immigrant with little patience. As is the case with most who first learn how to drive a manual, I struggled to synchronizing easing off of the clutch and accelerating and my dad ingrained in me "not to burn the clutch". As such, the car would buck and shake.

My dad, in his broken English, would smack me upside the head and say, "no maka da car shake!!!".

This happened several times during the lesson and towards the end I had PTSD.

As we were driving home (with him at the wheel), he looks at me and says, "you no do too bad".

I can only imagine how severe the PTSD would've been if he thought I really did bad.

I really perfected my driving a manual after I got my license. I was working at my uncle's shop and one day he asked if I had my license. When I said yes, he tossed me the keys to the shop Toyota pickup that was used as a parts runner and sent me to go pick up parts around the Chicago area.

I put on lots of miles on his shop trucks over the years (two Toyotas and a Nissan), all manuals.

Pictured below is a FIAT 1100D, exact model, color and year as the car my dad owned.

 

[Dral97]

I'm in my mid-40's and probably at the tail end too. I don't know anybody now who has a manual, whereas in the mid-90's I knew probably 10-15 and was one myself (so was my brother). Maybe it might skew 5-10 years young, 55-60. But a lot of those guys got Harleys.

At the very least, it was either or - as in if someone got an auto used - you took what you got whether it was auto or manual. It was more about the other aspects of the vehicle, not whether it was auto or manual.

 

[GoHawks63]

Driving a 1985 F150 daily work truck with a five speed gearbox in rush-hour stop and go traffic cured me of manual transmissions as a daily driver. First gear was always a little too slow and second gear was a little too fast for the traffic.

I get my manual transmission fixed these days driving around my girlfriend’s VW Beetle convertible 5-speed stick.

I retired early almost five years ago. I have a "retirement job" managing a car collection (about 130 cars). Not a bad gig and I get health insurance until I am Medicare eligible in a year or so.

I would say 60% of the cars are manuals, so I get my fix driving them when they need to be exercised.

 

[Dral97]

I think there's a big divide between people who drive for the sake of driving, and those that drive to get groceries. My good friend absolutely HATES the idea of a sunday drive. If he's in a car with no purposeful destination he is not happy. He also would never want a manual.

Me, I take a "Sunday drive" almost every Sunday, hah.

HA! I have my summer daily driver, my winter daily driver (Bronco), and two weekend drivers - technically three, but I'm getting ready to let go of one. I'm definitely not an 'A to B only' type of driver.

 

[MilesTeg]

That was the car my dad took me on my first lesson. My dad was an old school Italian immigrant with little patience. As is the case with most who first learn how to drive a manual, I struggled to synchronizing easing off of the clutch and accelerating and my dad ingrained in me "not to burn the clutch". As such, the car would buck and shake.

I gave my niece (who's just learning to drive in general) her first manual lesson in my Bronco a couple weeks ago. She did not quite understand what I meant when I said "a little throttle and slowly let out the clutch" -- even after demonstrating. Instead, on her first try, she throttled up to 2.5k and more or less dumped the clutch.

We were on dirt so the wheels spun easily and she kept it under control, so all good. Took her a few more tries and me explaining "slower clutch, less throttle" to stop spinning the wheels though, hah.

 

[userdude]

I think there's a big divide between people who drive for the sake of driving, and those that drive to get groceries. My good friend absolutely HATES the idea of a sunday drive. If he's in a car with no purposeful destination he is not happy. He also would never want a manual.

Me, I take a "Sunday drive" almost every Sunday, hah.

I'm pretty sure there are people on Sunday drives every day of the week around here.

 

[GI_Jo_Nathan]

I gave my niece (who's just learning to drive in general) her first manual lesson in my Bronco a couple weeks ago. She did not quite understand what I meant when I said "a little throttle and slowly let out the clutch" -- even after demonstrating. Instead, on her first try, she throttled up to 2.5k and more or less dumped the clutch.

We were on dirt so the wheels spun easily and she kept it under control, so all good. Took her a few more tries and me explaining "slower clutch, less throttle" to stop spinning the wheels though, hah.

One thing I find works really well for teaching new people manual with these newer Fords, is to have them practice slowly letting the clutch out with no throttle. The computer will creep it forward if you do it slow enough. Once they get used to that they can add a little bit of throttle once the clutch has already started to engage.

Also if you do this in low range it makes a super easy for them to get the concept.

 

[Ride Em Bronco]

I'm guessing you didn't have the option, but I would have told them to go you-know-what and use a different dealer. My area had zero manuals (in a 50 mile radius or so) but I had no problem walking into a dealer and putting in an order for a 2DR 7MT manual. The only pushback I got was a mild suggestion to maybe wait for the 25 model year as I was close to the end of the 24 year, but they happily took my '24 order with no actual push back. No deposit, and no obligation to actually buy it if I decided I didn't like it after it arrived.

As others have mentioned: they want to sell existing inventory, because cars sitting in inventory cost them money.

My ordering turned out to be a nightmare. I had looked at and a number of times test drove a 24 2-door BB with a manual at one car dealership near me where it had set for months - apparently it had been ordered by someone who later changed his mind - but it was exactly the color - Azure Gray - and almost exactly the way I would have ordered it. But since I had time to still order a 24 BB I did so at another dealership and Ford had confirmed by email receipt of my order - so I forgot about this one thinking my order would be made as I had ordered it. WRONG!! A couple of months later Ford emailed me that my order had been changed to a 25 Base - which was because Ford was no longer making 24 manuals and it was not making a 2025 2-door BB with a manual. The dealership told me that it would be no problem with me not taking it as it wanted a 2025 Base manual Bronco in its inventory anyway. But I now had to hope and pray that the one at the other dealership was still available. At first it appeared that the dealership had sold it - but it turned out the dealership had only moved it to its dealership further away from me. So I was fortunate that no one either knew how to drive a manual and they wanted the automatic or they wanted the 2.7 and/or the 4-door.

 

[VirginiaHeritage]

This thread needs photos!

 

[Vynull]

I've been working for BMW corporate for 14 years and in those years watched takes rates slowly decline for MT. It used to be you could get a base 328i (F30 generation) in any combination of m-sport, luxury line, sport line whatever in a manual. I once had a baby blue on white luxury line manual that must have been a misbuild as a company car. Best company car I had was a black 340xi manual. Wishi could find that one! Now its only the M2, M3 and M4 that you can option with a stick. Everything they say is true, the majority of people don't want to bother with rowing their own and the sales numbers prove it.

That said, I've had it with having to drive an auto. I've driven some of the best and fastest BMW has to offer (for extremely little money mind you) and here I am about to purchase a 2026 Heritage 2.3. Why? Because I can haul the kids and enjoy rowing my own gears again.

Got to hand it to Ford, takes a lot of pushback with controlling and finance (and warranty) to make the business case for manuals. I know because I've fought those battles. Can't wait to drive a car I actually enjoy again.

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