"Manumatics" are indeed pretty standard now. My 2004 LS(which was intended to be a "sporty" sedan) allows you to enable it by smacking the gear stick right when it's in drive. Once over there, pushing forward upshifts and pulling back downshifts.
Even my mom's boring Buick has a manumatic mode, although it's a rocker switch on the gear shift.
On thing I do like about the Lincoln is that it pretty much lets you take full control. It does have a few intentional "quirks"-you can't start from higher than 3rd gear, and coming to a complete stop in 4th or 5th gear will cause it to automatically downshift to 1st. Aside from that, it will do what you tell it to-the only gear shift it won't allow is a downshift that would redline the engine. I've never had it forbid an upshift(something that other cars will do) and if you hit the red line you just bounce off the rev limiter rather than the computer upshifting.
I've driven MANY column shift Fords through the mountains-everything from Town Cars to minibuses on an E450 chassis. Particularly on the E350s, you have to save your brakes for the times you really need them. I would always just push the button at the end of the gear stick, which turned overdrive off and thus downshift to 3rd(on the 4 speed trans) to give you some engine braking. You could even push the lever down another notch to 2nd if need be. Engine braking on an automatic is nowhere near as efficient as it is on a manual, but like I said if you have a heavy vehicle that's full of people it can make the difference between whether or not you even have any brakes at the bottom of the hill.
Despite its detractors, I also rather liked the now-gone Jaguar J-gate. If, for example, you had the car in drive, wanted to pass someone on the interstate, and the transmission didn't respond fast enough you'd just push the stick over and get an immediate downshift. I never moved much beyond doing that, although the J-gate did make it relatively easy to row through the gears yourself.
Even my mom's boring Buick has a manumatic mode, although it's a rocker switch on the gear shift.
On thing I do like about the Lincoln is that it pretty much lets you take full control. It does have a few intentional "quirks"-you can't start from higher than 3rd gear, and coming to a complete stop in 4th or 5th gear will cause it to automatically downshift to 1st. Aside from that, it will do what you tell it to-the only gear shift it won't allow is a downshift that would redline the engine. I've never had it forbid an upshift(something that other cars will do) and if you hit the red line you just bounce off the rev limiter rather than the computer upshifting.
I've driven MANY column shift Fords through the mountains-everything from Town Cars to minibuses on an E450 chassis. Particularly on the E350s, you have to save your brakes for the times you really need them. I would always just push the button at the end of the gear stick, which turned overdrive off and thus downshift to 3rd(on the 4 speed trans) to give you some engine braking. You could even push the lever down another notch to 2nd if need be. Engine braking on an automatic is nowhere near as efficient as it is on a manual, but like I said if you have a heavy vehicle that's full of people it can make the difference between whether or not you even have any brakes at the bottom of the hill.
Despite its detractors, I also rather liked the now-gone Jaguar J-gate. If, for example, you had the car in drive, wanted to pass someone on the interstate, and the transmission didn't respond fast enough you'd just push the stick over and get an immediate downshift. I never moved much beyond doing that, although the J-gate did make it relatively easy to row through the gears yourself.
