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You can argue chicken or egg all you want, but the fact is that most people can't be bothered to shift for themselves, and as a result, the options to do so have deteriorated. Also, if reports about the 7-speed are correct, then it isn't simply a matter of slapping the transmission to the 2.7L...

OK, fair enough.

Because everything that is offered has to be designed, tooled up and tested. There's a lot of cost involved with doing that. If the take rate is too low, they don't make the money back to offset the investment. If they don't make the money back, they aren't going to make a profit on that...

Drive away tag? This is NY - the dealer issues permanent license plates. They also handle the title application and registration. So, there will also be the DMV fees (that's why they're charging the documentation fee). That includes not only the registration and title application fees, but...

Powertrain matching is a science unto itself. In this case, as I described before, the transmission ratios come into play as well. And they aren't just looking at crawl ratio, but all around performance, driveability, efficiency, etc. They're trying to match the torque curve of the given...

Manual transmission take rate is at all-time low across the industry. You can argue that it is become availability is also low, but it is a circular argument. In order for the manufacturer to invest in developing and producing a model with a particular feature, like a manual trans, there has...

That's exactly it, that's what I'm saying. Make sure that the dealer orders it for you with the proper equipment. In my experience, dealers that aren't used to doing it aren't really aware of the option. It isn't something they normally pay attention to. You need to make sure they know that...

In applying for the title. This is something that the dealer would normally handle if you bought a new car locally. Part of the process for a new car is submitting documentation from the manufacturer that says the vehicle has a legit VIN. That document also describes emission compliance. If...

Not if you can put 7500 miles on it on the way back... In all seriousness, I think if it is a new vehicle being titled as-new in New York, it has to be built with the California emissions package. If the dealer doesn't order it as such, then it has to meet one of the exemptions I mentioned...

Well, assuming California has rules similar to NY, there are a few way around the requirement. But in the used car market, its just a matter of having enough mileage on them to no longer count as "new". In NY, that's at least 7500 miles. And if you move into the state from out of state, you...

Based on the context and phrasing, I think that it goes back to my previous post. There's a common misunderstanding of the phrase "50 state compliant". I think that is at work here. As I said before, "50 state compliant" is not synonymous with "California compliant". In my experience, when...

You see this on a lot of vehicles. Basically, the engineers have calculated how much airflow is needed to balance cooling requirements versus drag. And they only open the grille up enough to allow that. Mustang is afflicted by this aesthetic blight all the time, in some cases only about 1/3...

It shouldn't be a problem as long as the vehicle has the correct equipment. See below. FYI - This is NOT the same as meeting California emissions. All Fords are "50 state" compliant. The issue is that there's a bit of a misnomer in that term. Vehicles that meet the federal-level emissions...

That is attractive, but not being able to title at home is a problem for me. I know some people may be able to work around with out-of-state addresses, etc, but that isn't a very universal answer. I don't recall exactly, but I expect there's a little more to it than that. The state has...

By "similar arrangement", do you mean from Granger, or from a dealer somewhere a bit closer? Its worth pointing out that here in NY, new vehicles being titled are required to meet California emissions standards. You can bring a used vehicle in from out of state once its used enough, but new...

I get where you're coming from on that, but you're overlooking an important point. Cars today are much, much more complicated and costly to build then they were 50 years ago. Between the tech, the safety requirements, the materials used and the more extensive engineering/development baked into...

Torque is force X radius. What a tire does, in a simplified sense, is converts torque (from the axle shaft) into a driving force at the contact patch. If the radius of the tire increases, then when you divide that out of a fixed torque value, you have less force at the road. This is why we...

Its actually not the same torque as the automatic. A lot of people tend to think of torque in terms of flywheel numbers, as with HP. But torque is multiplicative by gearing. So, how much torque gets to the axles is many times that of what starts off at the flywheel. Of course, this varies...

I get that it would be nice to be able to opt for stand alone options in addition to packages, I'd love that too. But once you move the assembly combinations away from pre-determined packages, you add the extreme complexity. Because once a given part can be combined with any other combinations...

By limiting combinations of options and packages, they streamline an already complex matrix of build combinations. More combinations drive more cost, reduces production efficiency, and that makes the final price higher. By streamlining combinations, they can schedule similar builds into...