Why not?

[margal]

Just Wondering what is the reason not having the Manual Transmission for USA market as the option?

 

[Kajtek1]

Not too many Americans are willing to drive manual.
Even the pickup manufactures stop offering manual transmissions about decade ago.
I had 1 on 1999 F450 and loved it. Low gear would pull the house without touching gas pedal, but official ratings were giving less towing than with auto.
Too many burned clutches went for warranty repairs.

 

[ssort]

In the lazy USA, few know what a manual transmission is. Even fewer know how to use one.

 

[OrioN]

Who want's to manually shift through 9 gears?

 

[Kajtek1]

Who want's to manually shift through 9 gears?

My F450 had 6, marked as Low and than 1-5.
Normally you start on 2nd gear and as I mentioned, 1st was pulling the houses.
Truckers have like 20 gears and don't mind.

 

[Roamers]

My F450 had 6, marked as Low and than 1-5.
Normally you start on 2nd gear and as I mentioned, 1st was pulling the houses.

We called it "the stump puller" in our F250.

 

[OrioN]

My F450 had 6, marked as Low and than 1-5.
Normally you start on 2nd gear and as I mentioned, 1st was pulling the houses.
Truckers have like 20 gears and don't mind.

Please don't quote me with this irrelevance. This is a Sprinter forum. I don't give a rat's ass about your F450 and its 30 year old technology, or your experiences.

 

[margal]

I understand not many people nowadays can’t and willing to shift gear. But for those like me why not have it as a option. For my application it would have many advantages over AT. And it is 6 speed manual as I see it in other markets exception is only USA. Is this for regulation reason or MB America will not see any profit out of it or serviceability issues?

 

[Kajtek1]

Please don't quote me with this irrelevance. This is a Sprinter forum. I don't give a rat's ass about your F450 and its 30 year old technology, or your experiences.

Can say the same about you flooding the forum with solar panels topics, can't I ?
Personally I love all the side topics. Technical forum being just technical would be extremely boring.

 

[sailquik]

Yes, all USA Sprinters have an automatic Transmission,
but wait, the T1N's had the 5G-Tronic/NAG-1 and needed to be downshifted
to 4th gear frequently when towing.
2007-2018 NCV3's with the 3.0 liter OM-642 V6 had the same 5G-Tronic/NAG-1
transmission and they 1 frequent manual downshifts in the RV's and when
towing, or with a really near full capacity load.
The 2014-2021 NCV3's with the OM-651 2.143 liter Inline 4 Cylinder had/have
the 7G-Tronic 7 speed and don't require and much manual downshifting, but
you can put them in any one of the 7 gears and it will stay until you manually select
another gear.
The C907/VS30 has the 7G-tronic 7 speed behind the OM-642 3.0 Liter V6 with the
paddle shifters so you can select any of the 7 forward speeds and the transmission will
stay in that gear until you change it up or down manually.
So, Sprinters give us nearly the best of the automatic transmission with the ability to
manually select whatever gear is appropriate like manual transmission.
I've had the 7G-Tronic in my 2014 and my 2019 and pretty much never used the manual
shifting capability as the 7G-Tronic takes care of all shifting "automatically".
That was not the case with the 4 earlier Sprinters with the 5G-Tronic/NAG-1
Roger

 

[margal]

If there is not an actual clutch or 3rd pedal than it is still Auto Transmission

 

[autostaretx]

I understand not many people nowadays can’t and willing to shift gear. But for those like me why not have it as a option. For my application it would have many advantages over AT. And it is 6 speed manual as I see it in other markets exception is only USA. Is this for regulation reason or MB America will not see any profit out of it or serviceability issues?

First, there is the "service" issue (from the supplier side) ... MUCH more investment in training and maintaining (yet another) pile of parts in their inventory/distribution network to supply a tiny fraction of the market.
As for fleet buyers (and self-maintainers) auto transmissions are *far* more reliable given the relatively untrained high-turnover driver population they're dealing with.

Finally, from a long-term fly-on-the-wall perspective, the European manufacturers consider the US market very "dumb". MB (as Dodge and Freightliner) had to be *dragged* into the market by two major customers (FedEx and UPS). Consider that both they (and Ford) were selling "Eurovans" for many years before the Sprinter appeared here ... and it still took another decade before Ford "introduced" the full-sized Transit.
MB has never offered the full suite of options available to the rest-of-world.
Heck .. back in 1972 i picked up a VW Kombi catalog in Norway that offered over a dozen different body styles, none of which were available here (the double-high moving van was the most amusing).

--dick

 

[Kajtek1]

That is talking politics.
MBUSA is trying to keep the brand image on the market and they don't import those 80 mpg smaller sedans here.
Same with VW, but they also suffer a lot from the emission scandal.
I drove 1980 VW diesel truck making 40 mpg. But when 44HP engine was annoying, the 75 HP turbo version never made it over the pond.
Would 4-matic wagons making 50-60 mpg and seating 7 be sold in this country- the sale of domestic SUV and pickup would suffer.
Back in 1980's USA had a chain of Peugeot dealers and their luxury diesel sedans were well appreciated.
The brand is still strong all around the World, but not in America.