First, for the first time in decades, i am without a clutch pedal. The best insurance policy I ever bought was a Saturn SL-2 with a five-speed I bought for my daughter when she was in high school Her boyfriend couldn't drive the car; I rode him unmercifully about that. Not one of the little b*****s at the school ever asked to borrow her car "just to run downtown".
Second, my wife's whip is a 2003 Thunderbird with just over 100K miles on the odo. The five-speed auto trans was not quite right and the Ford dealer quoted me $3500.00 to REPLACE the trans. They wouldn't fix it, they would only put in a "new" one. I found a reputable shop in the next town over and they opened it up and found no scrap metal in the pan (a good thing) and installed a "servo kit" for just over $600.00. The gearbox shifts like new. The shop gave me a one-year warrantee on the work. I know a bit about old-fashioned autos, Nissan sent me to school to learn how to fix their early 70's three-speed; it was just like a miniature Turbo-Hydramatic. They were all analog, the new ones have a digital control box that buzzes the servos all the time (pulse-width modulation) and can lead to premature failure. The Ford dealer sells me a $3500.00 trans and then fixes the old one for between $500.00 and $1500.00; lather, rinse and repeat. The T-bird box is also used in the Explorer and some Lincolns. It's a nice racket.
By the way, I asked and the new shop will rebuild the trans for around $2000.00. There is a two-year warrantee on that and they belong to a shop network that will do warrantee work in over 7000 shops nationwide.
I'll be testing the new shop with my '02 Saturn L-300; If they do good with that one, they'll have a new regular customer.
Russ