You do realize that 2020 is less than three years away? Things are not going to change that much until then. Most vehicles are not going to have CVT transmissions. Especially anything larger than small vehicles. There are problems with CVTs that manufactures are still working out. In fact some vehicles in the past that they have put CVTs in they have going back to conventional transmissions.
Ford has confirmed that the Bronco will be aimed at the Jeep market. Which is about the only market that would want a manual transmission. While I agree it will not likely have a manual that is about the only market that would want a manual transmission.
But that was the purpose of this thread, not to talk about whether it's going to have a manual or not, but to see if there is support from it. If there isn't much support for it from this community then there's not going to be support for it from anywhere. If enough support was drummed up then Ford might consider putting a manual in it. That is the purpose of this thread.
There's going to be big changes in the auto industry between now and 2020. The Tesla Model 3 will have ramped up production by then and other electric vehicles will have hit the market and there will be more hybrids and possibly even a few with hydrogen fuel cells. They may not call them CVT's, but a lot of vehicles are getting automatics with more than 4-5 forward speeds that are at least sort-of CVT's, they certainly aren't conventional transmissions.
As someone with a 4WD Explorer that has a manual transmission, I don't really see it as something that is preferable for off-road driving, particularly difficult trails, rock crawling, mudding, anything. It can be tricky and a lot of work, and frankly exhausting. Really, the main reason the manual transmissions were preferable in Explorers were becasue the automatics were so weak and prone to issues, and rebuilding the auto was a professional job that was quite costly, compared to the manual which was rebuildable as a DIY project in the garage or shop, and quite inexpensively by comparison. A manual transmission does have plenty of other general benefits for on-road driving but the new Ranger, as a much larger truck than it's previous namesake, and the new Bronco, which will probably just be a new body on an existing platform, don't seem to be anything I'd want or expect a manual transmission in. It'd be like having a manual transmission in a Raptor. I've driven full size trucks and huge box trucks with manual transmissions and it just doesn't make a whole lot of sense. I think of a manual transmission as something you'd want in a small and light sports car, maybe a midsize SUV like the Explorer, but anything bigger and heavier just seems like you'd want the automatic, for the extra towing capacity as well.
I might support a manual in the new Bronco if it was compact enough, but it's likely to be built on a full-size platform and a similar size/width as the new Ranger, something more like a cross between the mid-size early Bronco and the older full-size Bronco. I think it's going to be heavy and a manual isn't going make it fun or enjoyable to drive.
There's also the practical consideration that adding transmission options, especially if a newer manual transmission has to be developed, increases cost compared to if they just offered say, one transmission with two or three engine options, or even just whatever engine/transmission options they offer in the 2020+ vehicles generally.
It may be that Ford already intends to offer a particular base model of the Ranger and Bronco with a manual transmission, manual transfer case, and a particular engine to go with them. If the next generation Ranger offers a manual transmission in other parts of the world, it will probably get one here. The Bronco is harder to say since it's such a specialty vehicle, and I think it's going to appeal more to older people that had Broncos but won't be considering a manual transmission like I stated previously. If Ford intends to aim the vehicle at the Jeep crowd/offroad enthusiasts, and maybe even make it in a sporty 2WD version, sure, it might get a manual as well.
If that's the Bronco the Internet will explode LOL.
