Manual transmission will “hopefully” be back for model year 2024 Bronco says Mike Levine

[johntesi]

Amidst the saga of my dealer selling my custom ordered 2 door / Badlands / 7MT / High Package out from under me, I got this fun little tidbit in a very unhelpful Twitter conversation with everyone’s favorite Ford rep.

Since Ford isn’t doing anything for me, I figured I’d throw some gasoline on the rumor mill / frustration fire.

Enjoy!

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[HotdogThud]

I see he's as helpful as ever. Tell him I said hi.

 

[RagnarKon]

I see he's as helpful as ever. Tell him I said hi.

Eh... people seem to forget he works in media relations/communications—his domain is https://media.ford.com. He is completely detached from the production/engineering/sales side of the house.

People want him to be useful because he is the only high-ish level Ford employee that actually responds to people on Twitter, but 99% of the time he's the wrong person to talk to for problems.

The real problem is Ford doesn't have any means to actually help customers with dealer issues. If you got an issue with your dealer, and people have to resort to talking to the media guy to try to get help because there literally is no other option... that's probably a bad thing.

 

[HotdogThud]

Eh... people seem to forget he works in media relations/communications—his domain is https://media.ford.com. He is completely detached from the production/engineering/sales side of the house.

People want him to be useful because he is the only high-ish level Ford employee that actually responds to people on Twitter, but 99% of the time he's the wrong person to talk to for problems.

The real problem is Ford doesn't have any means to actually help customers with dealer issues. If you got an issue with your dealer, and people have to resort to talking to the media guy to try to get help because there literally is no other option... that's probably a bad thing.

You're absolutely right, I don't expect the communications director to solve engineering problems. I like to think I've never razzed him on twitter for that specifically.

His actual skills at communication though? dude should have been fired aeons ago for how bad he is at THE THING THAT'S IN HIS JOB TITLE.

 

[Lowcountry Bronco]

Eh... people seem to forget he works in media relations/communications—his domain is https://media.ford.com. He is completely detached from the production/engineering/sales side of the house.

People want him to be useful because he is the only high-ish level Ford employee that actually responds to people on Twitter, but 99% of the time he's the wrong person to talk to for problems.

The real problem is Ford doesn't have any means to actually help customers with dealer issues. If you got an issue with your dealer, and people have to resort to talking to the media guy to try to get help because there literally is no other option... that's probably a bad thing.

Yep, spot on! His guest appearance on BN was quickly evident that they weren't going to throw him any of the production issue questions.

 

[johntesi]

Not to mention, he just communicated to me that the manual transmission will only hopefully be back for next year. That is very much in his wheelhouse and is very much big/bad news.

 

[Lèòn]

Hopefully ya left a bad review and practiced some road revenge on them


Yeah, keep searching John, you'll find the perfect Bronco out there, someone's finances didn't workout and it's now waiting for you. Also, blows to see it'll take a MY to sort that shit out

 

[johntesi]

Hopefully ya left a bad review and practiced some road revenge on them


Yeah, keep searching John, you'll find the perfect Bronco out there, someone's finances didn't workout and it's now waiting for you. Also, blows to see it'll take a MY to sort that shit out

I'm sure trying... the markups and lowballs on my trade-in have me worried that I won't come within 8 grand of the deal I had and lost. If I can even find a similarly-specced Bronco at all.

 

[Lèòn]

I'm sure trying... the markups and lowballs on my trade-in have me worried that I won't come within 8 grand of the deal I had and lost. If I can even find a similarly-specced Bronco at all.

Just use a Pencil when Negotiating, Mr Wick. That'll do the trick

 

[Bigeye27]

He said no. Nicely. What more do you want?

He probably called over to somebody at Chrysler and said something like "hey man, how do your Wrangler manuals sell?" and the response was "like shit!"

Ford has made so many mistakes with the Bronco, one was making custom orders allowable with far too many options. Three years later Ford is starting to take their medicine.

Let it go. Two door autos are not that hard to find.

 

[johntesi]

He said no. Nicely. What more do you want?

He probably called over to somebody at Chrysler and said something like "hey man, how do your Wrangler manuals sell?" and the response was "like shit!"

Ford has made so many mistakes with the Bronco, one was making custom orders allowable with far too many options. Three years later Ford is starting to take their medicine.

Let it go. Two door autos are not that hard to find.

I’ve accepted his “no” and my dealership costing me thousands. That’s not what this thread is about.

I’m sharing the news about the manual’s uncertain future. Lots of enthusiasts on this forum care about the manual transmission. Everyone has different preferences.

 

[Lèòn]

He said no. Nicely. What more do you want?

He probably called over to somebody at Chrysler and said something like "hey man, how do your Wrangler manuals sell?" and the response was "like shit!"

Ford has made so many mistakes with the Bronco, one was making custom orders allowable with far too many options. Three years later Ford is starting to take their medicine.

Let it go. Two door autos are not that hard to find.

If we wanted automatics, we would just get them.

I doubt manual's gonna be completely gone, these are niche vehicles, not a dime a dozen crossover

 

[dejones64]

Sorry about the loss of your Badlands. Starting to feel like my 2-door manual is a unicorn. Though I do have the scraping noise in the tranny.

 

[Bigeye27]

I’ve accepted his “no” and my dealership costing me thousands. That’s not what this thread is about.

I’m sharing the news about the manual’s uncertain future. Lots of enthusiasts on this forum care about the manual transmission. Everyone has different preferences.

Unfortunately there are not ENOUGH manual enthusiasts or Ford would still still be building manuals.

 

[EVH1994]

Unfortunately there are not ENOUGH manual enthusiasts or Ford would still still be building manuals.

I don’t think that’s the reason they stopped making manuals for 2023. Lmao.

Do a quick search on the forum and you’ll see they are probably halting production until Getrag can produce a manual that doesn’t sound like a rock tumbler.

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