I feel gypped by Ford on my cup holders (manual vs auto)

[ChompSticks]

Other notes"
1. I find is that tall cups get in the way of my arm and the shifter.
2. The front cubby isn't as roomy and hidden from the driver due to the shifter and dial and passenger grab handle
3. I like the separate placement of the phone holder more, being separate from the front cubby
4. I also like that our metal plaque is in the center of the console instead of off to the side.

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[Rebel Bronc]

So keep the road sodas to a 12 oz. can, got it.

 

[the poacher]

What, no finger holders! That's it, I am cancelling my Bronco MT and getting the auto. NOT!

 

[Butzy]

 

[AK SNO RIDER]

Other notes"
1. I find is that tall cups get in the way of my arm and the shifter.
2. The front cubby isn't as roomy and hidden from the driver due to the shifter and dial and passenger grab handle
3. I like the separate placement of the phone holder more, being separate from the front cubby
4. I also like that our metal plaque is in the center of the console instead of off to the side.

Yea, aside from maybe cup holder placement the MT actually has the better layout IMO

The combined phone holder and cubby setup on the auto sucks, and our plaque is basically hidden instead of being front and center.

 

[AZ_Liberty]

If I put my travel coffee cup in the cupholder on the Mustang, I can use it as an arm rest when shifting.

 

[thatspecialbeat]

Other notes"
1. I find is that tall cups get in the way of my arm and the shifter.
2. The front cubby isn't as roomy and hidden from the driver due to the shifter and dial and passenger grab handle
3. I like the separate placement of the phone holder more, being separate from the front cubby
4. I also like that our metal plaque is in the center of the console instead of off to the side.

The storage around this area isn't too bad but it is a problem when my wife is riding shotgun. Then it is time to see how much junk can be place directly on top of the shifter and see how hard we can wrap it with charging cables.

She is taking a class this week (I like my marriage too much to try teaching her) so hopefully this will lead to the realization that the shifter has to move during normal operation of a manual vehicle.

 

[‘21OBX]

Here is what I can see of part numbers if someone wants to try to swap one in. I happen to have one as a spare.

 

[Murph914]

Meh. I hbw the mt and think it’s VASTLY superior to the auto. The little cubby for charging your phone is just perfect, and its all nice and symmetrical. Lots of things I could complain about, but this is one of my favorite parts of the mt 2 door.

 

[tourproto]

I don't know how you could be surprised by this?

Ford is out here to make money and the question is how much new tooling would you expect them to make to cater to a niche market? It's obvious the same cup holder "finger" parts weren't going to fit...

I guess I would have thought there would be some "3 pedal" enthusiasts at Ford working on the Bronco and would have cared more about the stick shift crowd.

This is not the best analogy, but do you think BMW and Porsche short changed their manual drivers over the automatics for the few models they have left with stick shifts? I doubt it. Both groups are important even if the split is 90/10 instead of 50/50 a couple of decades ago.

Just irritating and I was venting after I saw this at the Off-Rodeo.

And to be clear, as much as I love my BL, if it did not have 3 pedals on the floor, I would not be a current Bronco owner. So while I am glad that Ford offered an manual, I am disappointed that we have been short-changed on several things that are meaningful (to me) like the cup holders, the window lift buttons, and the tach.

 

[Jdyount]

I guess I would have thought there would be some "3 pedal" enthusiasts at Ford working on the Bronco and would have cared more about the stick shift crowd.

This is not the best analogy, but do you think BMW and Porsche short changed their manual drivers over the automatics for the few models they have left with stick shifts? I doubt it. Both groups are important even if the split is 90/10 instead of 50/50 a couple of decades ago.

Just irritating and I was venting after I saw this at the Off-Rodeo.

And to be clear, as much as I love my BL, if it did not have 3 pedals on the floor, I would not be a current Bronco owner. So while I am glad that Ford offered an manual, I am disappointed that we have been short-changed on several things that are meaningful (to me) like the cup holders, the window lift buttons, and the tach.

It's a terrible analogy, if you want a sports car go buy a sports car. The Bronco is not a sports car its an off road vehicle.

The only, THE ONLY benefit to having a manual in a off road vehicle is that you have a fully mechanical connection to your axles so if something happens going down hill you can still engine brake. That's it. In NO WAY does that outweigh the drawbacks of using a manual off roading, like if you stall going uo a steep incline you could lose control coming down backwards and roll your Bronco (there's a video of a guy doing just that).

All of that being said, sure it's fun to drive a manual Bronco, sometimes (I have actually driven one, and owned a manual FSB, and a manual Mustang), but the automatic Bronco is much much much much better off road and that's what the Bronco is built for.

So in summation: I'm not really sorry about your cupholders and that Ford compromised to give you your manual, go buy a sports car.

 

[MNBigfoot]

...... A small price to pay for the correct transmission.

The correct transmission would've been three on the tree, and people could've kept their fancy cup holders. Broncos were never optioned with a floor mounted shifter till they introduced those big ugly Broncos. But as mentioned, too many act like the Bronco should operate like a Mustang or Miata, rather than a utility vehicle.

 

[tourproto]

It's a terrible analogy, if you want a sports car go buy a sports car. The Bronco is not a sports car its an off road vehicle.

The only, THE ONLY benefit to having a manual in a off road vehicle is that you have a fully mechanical connection to your axles so if something happens going down hill you can still engine brake. That's it. In NO WAY does that outweigh the drawbacks of using a manual off roading, like if you stall on a steep incline you could lose control coming down and roll your Bronco (there's a video of a guy doing just that).

All of that being said, sure it's fun to drive a manual Bronco, sometimes (I have actually driven one, and owned a manual FSB, and a manual Mustang), but the automatic Bronco is much much much much better off road and that's what the Bronco is built for.

So in summation: I'm not really sorry about your cupholders and that Ford compromised to give you your manual, go buy a sports car.

I don't care if you don't care about my cupholders I was just venting about the fact that Ford threw us a bone with a manual (thank you), and seemingly didn't care about anything beyond that. We can agree to disagree on the latter point.

I wanted a manual, and I wanted an off-road vehicle. It didn't have to be a Bronco. I still love it in spite of some of these shortcomings, and love it even more after the off-rodeo.

The Bronco is capable of doing things I never even considered doing (including what we did in the off-rodeo). What I felt was a 7 out of 10 trail (to me) was probably only a 2 or a 3 to an experienced off-roader, and is why no one got into trouble during the day. The Bronco was MORE THAN CAPABLE of doing what we did that day even in the hands of newbies, and that was really cool that it has so much "smarts" that it can make newbies look a lot better than they would be if they were driving a '69 Bronco.

 

[Stitchxp626]

I love manual transmissions. I am NOT buying another (newer) Subaru for that reason - my only other choices in something that can go anywhere are the Cheep, Tacoma TRD pro, and the Bronco - I wouldn't trade cup-holders of any sort for an automatic! - That being said, proper design and ergonomics DO matter.

 

[TriggerTX]

All of that being said, sure it's fun to drive a manual Bronco, sometimes (I have actually driven one, and owned a manual FSB, and a manual Mustang), but the automatic Bronco is much much much much better off road and that's what the Bronco is built for.

I've extensively driven manuals and autos off-road over several decades. They both have their place. I truly believe that the auto is the better platform for the majority of off-road driving. Sure, there's edge cases. There always is.

I've broken a _lot_ of trucks and parts while wheeling. I've trashed axles, driveshafts, half-shafts, diffs, bearings, u-joints, and oh-so-many clutches. The one part I've never managed to break in even the most aggro of wheeling is an automatic transmission. I generally carry spares for all of those, except my transmission. I throw out a clutch and my day is over. And if you're new to this world, you _will_ trash a clutch. It's an inevitably if you're really pushing to the truck's full ability.

This generation of Bronco was built to perform at its peak ability with the auto transmission. Rowing your own is fun. For this rig though, the auto is my choice.

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