Is there something you have to do before putting this thing into Reverse, because just moving it doesn't seem to do the trick? 6sp 5.0L.

 

push down on shifter

 

Or, you know, perhaps take a peek inside that weird book Ford threw at you when you bought the car - you know, the one called the owner's manual. Just sayin'. Might help you out in the future.

 

 

Well, lets see, picked up the car and had 15min to get to work on a 20min drive. Hadn't driven manual in 5yrs, and NEVER had a car that needed to be pressed down on to Reverse.

 

Well ok, fine, you get a mulligan this time, but srsly, read the manual. Cars these days are too **** complicated to not read it. You'd be amazed at what you'll learn!

The reason you have to push down on it is so you don't accidentally throw it into reverse on the 2-1 downshift. On 5-speeds, reverse is to the right of 5th gear so it's not as big an issue.

 

Plenty of manual transmission cars have had some sort of lock out / need to push on the shifter in some form, for YEARS, to get into reverse.

For exmaple, many Chevy transmissions used to (I say used to because I haven't been in one post-2002 model) have a ring around the shifter, hidden in part by the shift boot. You had to pull up on that ring in order to engage reverse, even though the transmission was a 5 speed. It's a safety feature.

 

Lol even though I knew this, whenever I get around to driving a 2011, this will be me

 

Haha, dude I read the whole manual and OMG, this car does so much it's insane. I need to take one of my off days, to calibrate everything, and sync up everything, and program all my stations, etc. It's crazy. I can not describe the panic as it went thru my blood thinking "OMG, I just bought a car I can't drive..." lol. I drove all day today, and got used to it. Drove on hills, steep steep hills, reversed uphill backwards, etc. Haven't really gotten on it all that much though. Im afraid of breaking something before the car is "broken in". Gonna wait 1000mi.

 

Just vary the revs and speeds, don't make it all highway if that's how you get to work. As for driving it hard, the manual suggests you only need to be careful of that for the first 100 miles. Don't feel bad about reverse, I had the same problem when I tried to leave the dealership.

 

You guys never had a bug???

Puppys !!!

 

Yeap my s2000 requires you to push down too... i think most new cars have some kinda lock out...

I know some volkswagens and audi's have a little thing on the shifter itself that you have to lift UP with ur fingers before you can put it into the reverse position

 

My 77 Volvo had that collar thing on the shifter for it to go into reverse.