Ford Bringing Back Fun, Old Automobile Feature - but Are They, Really?

In my younger years, I always preferred cars and trucks with manual transmissions. I learned to drive on a manual transmission, and always liked them; in a car, such as the '65 Mustang I had for a while, there was nothing more fun that opening up the four-barrel on that 289, smoking off a line, and slamming through the gears. In a 4x4 truck, I always preferred a manual when off-roading, as it made it easier to ensure your motor was in its best power-band, keeping the RPMs right where you wanted them while climbing up a steep trail or fording a creek.

Manual transmissions have pretty much disappeared from American cars nowadays. But, in an interesting move, Ford Motors - my brand of choice - is bringing them back.

Sort of.

Ford has just filed a patent to bring back a classic driving experience - but only 18 percent of Americans would know how to use it.
The automaker has submitted paperwork to bring stick shifts to electric vehicles.
Manual transmissions have all but vanished from the American new car market. Last year, less than 1 percent of new vehicles sold in the U.S. had manual gearboxes.
In 1990, that figure sat between 25 and 30 percent.
The patent application, published on March 20, outlines a system designed to replicate the tactile experience of shifting through gears – even though there are no actual gears to shift.
The setup includes a traditional-looking shift lever mounted in a raised console, similar to the ones found in gas-powered sports cars.
But instead of mechanical linkages, the system uses electronic signals to adjust the EV's driving feedback based on how the driver moves the stick.

I'm inclined to ask, "What's the point?" I mean, at the end of the day, what is Ford trying to accomplish here?

'Electric vehicles lack operator to vehicle physical feedback that is advantageous in conventional motor vehicles,' the company wrote in the patent.
The filing arrives at a time when fewer drivers in the US know how to operate a stick shift at all.

That much is certain; one of the best theft deterrents you can have in a car now is a manual transmission.

I'll agree that driving a car, especially a high-performance car, is a lot of fun with a manual transmission, and yes, you're more engaged with the vehicle. In everyday driving, you get so used to shifting gears that you don't even think about it; it becomes reflex. You are, essentially, the automatic transmission. But for an EV? I just don't quite see the point.

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But, then, as my grandfather was fond of saying, "Every cat its own rat." Maybe Ford will sell some of these. Maybe they'll catch on. I'm inclined to think that they'll be a bust, but who knows? I could be wrong - I mean, it's bound to happen eventually.

Many years ago, I had a great truck - a 1974 Bronco, the original small, tough Bronco, all steel outside, all steel and vinyl inside. It had manual everything; you even had to get out and turn the hubs to "LOCK" by hand. It would go up and down trees, or very nearly, and at the end of elk season, I could take it into the car wash, open the doors, and just hose out the interior. One summer day in 1995 or so, My Dad and I were crawling up a jeep trail in that electric-green Bronco - we called it the Green Machine. Dad commented that if Ford would make that exact truck then, all metal, no frills, manual everything, and sell it for $10-15k, he reckoned they wouldn't be able to build them fast enough. I know I'd buy one.

But that's not the technological world we live in now. Ford is bringing back a semblance of the famous old stick-shift, but not really. And that, while interesting, is kind of sad.

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