[roddy1960]

I never owned a XD but I did have an XE . It had the 4 speed manual and to be honest I loved that gear shift . Then I bought a 5 speed Telstar TX5 Ghia and the gear shift was notchy and stiff , not terrible but not as good as the 4 speed in the XE GL...Then the EF Futura (gunmetal grey) with the 5 speed . That was a beauty..sweet manual box . My AU was the first auto I ever owned . The BA Fairmont Ghia I had was the sports shift 4 speed that I hardly ever used that way but the FG XR6 ZF is a different beast in that way ..The sports shift is fun .

I do love a good manual though ..and if I could have got the XR6 with the six cogger that way it would have been epic..

I guess the X Falcons were the last ones where the manual was the standard and the auto was optioned .. Ended up totally the other way round .

Now my fix with a manual comes from my little Honda Accord (circa 1985) with a really nice 5 speed . So AU (standard 4 auto) Accord (5 manual) and XR6 (6 sports/auto) .

Yep , on Peter Wherrett's dislike of power steering and higher power was bewildering for a motor journo . The F6 would have literally blown his mind . Another common thread was his rear drum brakes without pressure limiting valves.. He was a bit different Ol' Pete.