The rumor is they will offer a manual tranny on some performance models down the road. We'll see. I was surprised as they said currently manual's only made up 15% of the sales. Guess that's product of old guys not wanting manuals anymore, and young guys not knowing how to drive one.
my first car was a hand me down buick. light green, four door. old. sorta ran well, but carb funky in hot weather. overall, good stuff.
automatic. all my gearhead peers would yak endlessly about their wizbang rods (learned a 'stick' before I had a license) with manny trans--
only way to go, they said. a couple years go by, and off to college. I get a wizbang coupe with manny trans, cuz
I wanna be cool too. older brother, who built engines and raced a bit in metro ny area for fun, says 'what's wrong with you? a stick? who needs that noise?' pops laughs.
but it's cool, sez me, forgetting that I live in new england with hills and ice all around. first time im on a hill, with ice, near the crest, and waiting on a light, im like 'uh, oh maybe they're right. this blows.' sold that nonsense soon after. never again. sure, I
need the f650 to have a manual to do big woods stuff (hills, rocks, brush, that evil springtime clay soil nightmare) but in normal life driving? nope. and that's why the manual transmission is over. automatic (hydromatic! gramps calls it) is just
easier. the 'young guys' aren't stupid, and the 'old guys' smartened up. better late than never. but if your a bit skitzo about choosing, you could buy a foreign rig with their
'cool' auto/manny insanity. cuz everyone buys their vehicle to drive at lime rock. yeah, uh no. I got ur paddle shifters right here.