What's with the manual trans hype?

[The Pope]

I want a 2.7L w/Manual for Sentimental & Nostalgia Reasons. <--- This alone is more than enough for me to justify it for me.

This will also most likely be my last IC Engine, so I want the biggest one offered. Like it has already been said..... Control, Connection to the Driving Experience, Engine Braking & Hypermiling are things that you just can't truly experience with a slushbox.

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[Rogues Gambit]

I want a 2.7L w/Manual for Sentimental & Nostalgia Reasons. <--- This alone is more than enough for me to justify it for me.

This will also most likely be my last IC Engine, so I want the biggest one offered. Like it has already been said..... Control, Connection to the Driving Experience, Engine Braking & Hypermiling are things that you just can't truly experience with a slushbox.

Always engine swaps and stronger trans, but easier to swap a manual to manual than manual to auto

 

[1lostCDN]

I want the manual because I've always wanted a new manual Jeep baha. In all honesty I'm buying the 4 door Bronco to be my all around family car, not going to lie, it's going to be #mallcrawlerstatus most of the time but thats what I want... An amazing, cool, fun daily driver that is Unique in it's own ways. Without a doubt the auto is the better trans 85% of the time, especially the 10 speed. i just miss rowing my own gears and its going to be a vehicle that I hope to keep a long time.

 

[BoneyRoads]

I haven’t had a manual in 15 years. It’s what I started on and I truly miss it. They are hard to come by outside of this world IMO. I’ve been waiting longer to get a new vehicle than I would so I could get the Bronco and I personally can’t think of a better way to go for my. Another 15 years and you might not even be able to find them in an off-roader. Carpe stickshifts!

 

[HoosierDaddy]

and most of his idiot friends won't be able to drive his car.

Just some of my reasoning.

Just sold me on a manual.
Daughter, 14, wants to learn a manual anyways.

 

[Rogues Gambit]

Just sold me on a manual.
Daughter, 14, wants to learn a manual anyways.

My sister and gf don't know manual, neither do half my friends and family, and the ones that do I trust to drive it

 

[MaverickMan]

So ive had

84 E150 A
78 E150 A replaced C6 twice, rusty lines
89 BERETTA M 1 clutch(high speed pizza delivery car)
78 E150 M replaced shifter after sitting in field for 15 years
86 RANGER M
67 COUGAR M replaced clutch
68 MUSTANG A wouldnt shift out of 2nd
91 E150 A
95 E150 A front seal blew quarts on highway rusty lines
74 MAVERICK A park pawl broke, rusty lines
78 CJ7 M replaced box after filling it with river mud silt
84 CJ7 M
84 BRONCO M
77 CJ5 M
79 E250 A c6 broke then rebuilt later trans caught fire
92 AEROSTAR A
85 CJ7 M
94 F150 M lil grindy getting to 3rd but over 200,000 mi well abused truck
93 ZJ A
80 EAGLE A rusty lines
96 BRONCO A front seal leaks at altitude, rusty lines
92 COMANCHE reverse only when warm


See a theme here

1 manual failure from extreme abuse and 3 replacement parts out of 10 vehicles

9 auto failures with 5 full replacements and 1 that resulted in destruction of vehicle

Yes they are old junk but the bronco will be in 30 years too.

 

[Bronc-OH]

1. human connection to the vehicle drivetrain
2. Cost
3. crawl ratio for wheeling
4. I'm hoping it is more reliable than the 10A aside from clutches
5. I would have it in the 2.7 if it was an option but the manual is more important to me than the engine. Stock and Tuned 2.3 will be plenty for a 2 door with the higher axle ratio.
6. Less people know how to drive it

 

[RupertH]

It's better that's why. Not faster, not more towing capacity, not cheaper, not more reliable. Simply better.

Better is a very subjective word, but it's the only one that matters. Autos now shift faster, deliver higher MPGs, handle more torque, and with the TC and one pedal per foot allow any idiot to do things that used to require skill. Modern cars already take a lot of that away with traction control and ESC, and (probably) all those GOAT modes- but that's all far less noticeable than the glaring reality of how much less you did than the car when the whole operation is just 2 pedals and a steering wheel.

Partly, it's being in control, but it's more than that, it's being in touch. You are part of the process, and there's a level of engagement that you don't get when it's point and shoot. I'm a terrible heel-toe shifter, and I'm hard on clutches- even after decades of practice. Regardless, there's very little that's more satisfying about driving than rev matching a perfect shift or feathering the clutch and throttle just right to push over a rock.

Without that, a car is just an appliance. A simple tool to get from here to there. Just adding that third pedal makes it all about the journey.

Why do the movies still try to pretend cars are cool? I mean, every car movie seems required to have 'action' shots of some loser slamming his selector lever into D. You used to get car movies with action shots of the driver shifting, and that was cool. It was engaging, and added to the sense that you were in the car with them. Now it seems like a desperate attempt to convince the viewers the car chase is exciting.

Also, the automatic transmission was responsible for the fall of Western civilization. I do feel bad for Alfred Munro, I don't think he did it on purpose. But, like Oppenheimer- he didn't burn down the world, he just thought up the horror- GM weaponized it.

 

[CJay]

Just sold me on a manual.
Daughter, 14, wants to learn a manual anyways.

My daughter's in college now, but at age 13 I had her driving my manual '96 Mazda B4000 on the private property. She once spent over an hour starting and stopping on dirt roads and dirt hills, driving down tight trails and backing up along winding dirt roads.

In her driver's ed class, she was one of only two who claimed to know how to drive manual. The other was a boy, who she stumped with questions regarding how to start and knowing when to shift a manual transmission.

She made me proud that day (and many others along the way). ?

 

[kairo]

Damn, now you guys are making me second guess the automatic...

There is a certain nostalgia and pleasure of rowing the gears and feeling the terrain beneath your feet.

 

[nameuser]

I grew up in the sixties when it had to be a 4 on the floor. I have had about 20 manuals and maybe 30 autos, (I even had a Fiat once that had a 4 spd manual on the column, 4 on the tree does not rhyme). Nostalgia occasionally wins and I get a manual, then reality sets in and I go back to an auto.
The one choice that initially surprised me was the superiority of an auto when very serious rock crawling.
I still teach all my grandsons how to shift a manual.

 

[Txchewy]

My first car, '89 Bronco with a 302 was manual and my wranglers ('87 and '15) have been manuals. There is no good reason for it in today's age with 10 spd autos but it is just more fun to drive. This bronco, like my current wrangler, will spend from the April to October with the doors and top off and putting a smile on my face as I row through the gears. Life is short and I try to have as much fun as I can in everything I do. Not for everyone, I understand. Surely was hoping for the 2.7L but I will take the extra 50 ft lbs of torque over my wrangler. A lot is made of the off road capability of these vehicles which is important. I will definitely spend time off road but the doors off experience is what is so unique. I am shocked how few people ever take the doors and tops off there Jeep. They are really missing out!

 

[HoosierDaddy]

Damn, now you guys are making me second guess the automatic...

There is a certain nostalgia and pleasure of rowing the gears and feeling the terrain beneath your feet.

The manual tends to put a little drive line buzz into the vehicle, as a motorhead, I dig it. It's another connection to the car. Plus, I'm one of thjose who keeps his hand on the stick, where you can really feel that buzz happening. Supposedly a no-no, never had any issues.

What really just sold me, is the realization that the kiddo wants to learn on a manual like her Mom and Dad did..... and I know that that process is a HUGE memory for the archives. It forges a connection with your teen that are getting harder and harder to come by these days.
PLUS ...... I can also teach her in the 69 Bronco I am restoring right now.
She may not be all about working on it just yet, but I know how it will feel for her to drive it.... I see Daddy tears on the horizon. LOL

 

[kairo]

The manual tends to put a little drive line buzz into the vehicle, as a motorhead, I dig it. It's another connection to the car. Plus, I'm one of thjose who keeps his hand on the stick, where you can really feel that buzz happening. Supposedly a no-no, never had any issues.

What really just sold me, is the realization that the kiddo wants to learn on a manual like her Mom and Dad did..... and I know that that process is a HUGE memory for the archives. It forges a connection with your teen that are getting harder and harder to come by these days.
PLUS ...... I can also teach her in the 69 Bronco I am restoring right now.
She may not be all about working on it just yet, but I know how it will feel for her to drive it.... I see Daddy tears on the horizon. LOL

Just to wax nostalgic for a moment. The first time I ever drove a stick, my dad had picked me up from piano practice, and we were headed home. He stopped at the bottom of a hill, and got out of the car ('93 Ford Explorer 5spd). I had *just* gotten my learners permit, and he asked if I wanted to learn to drive a manual transmission. Like any mid teen boy, I said, "Absolutely!" and figured in the back of my mind that it was easy.

I stalled that car more times than I can count trying to get going up that hill, and burned probably 20k miles off that clutch on the way home. I actually took my drivers test in mom's stick shift subaru. Driving a manual has always been second nature to me in most of the vehicles I've owned. But I'm older and lazy now and I do like just modulating the skinny pedal to hop over rocks.

My last built rig was a 5spd '02 TJ on 35's with an RE longarm. ARBs front and rear, and 4.56 gears. It still didn't crawl or move like my buddies' rigs with the auto. We did a lot of group runs, and I was either too slow or too fast. I should have put the rubi 4:1 transfer case in it, or just regeared to 4.88. But all things considered, the auto gives you a much wider range of "acceptable" when you're offroading.

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