The other day I was talking with a friend who also owns a Dodge Ram with a Cummins. I mentioned the fact that Dodge is now the only manufacturer left that sells a full-sized pickup with a manual transmission. He said that he heard a rumor that Dodge will soon also be doing away with the manual transmission option
Rumor has it that the emission regs are part of the reason for this. Not that a manual transmission prevents the truck from meeting emissions but that, given the relatively small percentage of trucks sold with the option, it's not worth all the effort and time to design, tune, and certify two different models.
Anybody else heard of this? From a business perspective, it seems plausible to me. The "cost of compliance" so to speak is going to be roughly double for two different models, but if you sell fewer manuals, then there's less oportunity to recoup the cost.