Mustang’s Manual Isn’t Going Anywhere, Ford CEO Says

Every year, it feels like we have fewer and fewer choices of cars with manual transmissions. Mainstream buyers don’t seem to care, but as enthusiasts, it sucks to see something you love slowly die out. The good news is, though, no matter how bleak the outlook for manuals may be over the next decade, if Ford CEO Jim Farley has anything to say about it, you’ll always be able to buy a Mustang with a third pedal, telling Australia’s CarExpert in no uncertain terms that Ford will keep building the manual Mustang as long as it’s allowed to do so. 

Speaking with Australian media at the 2026 Australian Formula 1 Grand Prix, Farley reportedly said, “Out of our cold, dead hands will we not have a manual Mustang.” It wasn’t the most natural phrasing, but the meaning is still clear. Under Farley, Ford will keep offering the Mustang with a manual transmission option unless it’s forced to stop for some reason. Even if you couldn’t ever see yourself driving a Mustang GT, you have to respect the commitment, especially with so many other automakers and performance sub-brands abandoning the manual for more automatic pastures.

Farley reportedly continued, saying, “I really believe Ford best serves the working people and enthusiast drivers. And that’s increasingly off-road as well as on-road, and I like to say we don’t have any boring cars at Ford.” Those who have driven the current Ford Escape may disagree with that last part, but the first part we can definitely work with. More enthusiast-focused cars will always be a good thing.

As CarExpert explained, Farley’s statement comes on the heels of the news that BMW doesn’t plan to give future M cars a new manual transmission:

Mr Farley’s commitment to a ‘stick shift’ Mustang also comes only days after BMW M division boss Frank van Meel told CarExpert the German company isn’t looking at developing a new manual for its high-performance models.

It currently offers a six-speed manual in several models, but the transmission isn’t capable of handling the higher outputs in up-spec M cars such as the CS line, which now includes an M2 CS, M3 CS and M4 CS.

What’s especially frustrating is that BMW is going in that direction even though manual M cars actually sell pretty well and far better than the overall take-rate that’s usually hovering in the low single digits. According to van Meel, about half of all M2s sold in the U.S. have manual transmissions, which is great news. Unfortunately for us, developing a new manual transmission that can handle more power is expensive, and the overall number of M cars sold with manuals is too low to justify the investment. Which sucks. We’re doing our part by buying the manual enthusiast cars, but overall, they don’t sell well enough to justify keeping the manual option around much longer. 

“You can see that it’s going to be quite difficult in the future to develop a completely new gearbox because the segment in the market is quite small.” van Meel told CarExpert. “So we’re happy with manuals we have, and we plan to keep them for the next couple of years – but in the future, it’s probably going to be more difficult to keep manuals alive, especially in the next decade.”

Sadly, BMW isn’t the only automaker to arrive at similar conclusions. The manual versions of the Volkswagen GTI and Golf R sold well in the U.S., too, but Volkswagen still killed the three-pedal option anyway.