Never be surprised with a manual if a dealership has no experience with them. Even in Houston, my service guy has only seen a few others in the almost five years I have had mine...and one of them has been in the back lot for a while as it gets lemon law'ed for electronics issues.

Interlock is an interesting thought, but I think on the manual, it would only prevent starting, not putting the vehicle into gear. I just haven't heard of this on the F-Type. I saw it on my X-Type, and that was a bad tranny, not a simple switch issue. But that didn't come until around 135-140K miles...

The other oddity for me is that this issue came so soon after delivery...which begs the question of whether something got shoved in transit that shouldn't have had pressure on it from the underside. I would welcome the thoughts on that from Lizzardo and others who have far more experience with the trannies on the manual F-Type...

 

First thought is that while I agree on the need for a fully charged battery, that's a distraction from the real issue here.

Electronics and the 6MT? There's a switch or sensor somewhere that knows if the transmission is in neutral and there's a switch on the clutch. That is used for Eco start/stop and as a safety to prevent starting in gear without depressing the clutch. The electronic parking brake does engage when the car is shut off, and it is also used for keeping the car from rolling backwards on a standing start. That last one initially made me think "I don't need that. I can drive a stick" but it's actually really nice.

The problem here is the inability to put the transmission in gear with the engine running. The clutch is dragging, plain and simple. There is no interlock on the shifter. There may be a solenoid that prevents moving the shifter over to reverse while moving forward but I'm not certain. A previous car had that but reverse was on the other side.

I doubt it was transportation damage. I don't see how it could be, even if a lot jockey abused the clutch it would only be failing this way if something inside were coming apart or the hydraulics were failing. As noted above there was no mention of the pedal feeling dead or mushy, so I'm sticking to my diagnosis. I'm guessing that this was causing trouble for the previous owner and that the original clutch was never replaced.

 

After decades of righteous fun, I had finally gone over to the dark side some years ago and purchased a new car with an AT because, as you've seen <sigh>, the writing was clearly on the wall. Since then, electronics have pretty much taken over the cockpit and controls. Small wonder that I first pointed my finger at electronic sensors when I threw out those earlier ideas.

Not to argue with lizzardo's idea of the clutch, but here's another idea. I too have been stuck on the side of the road with gearshift problems similar to yours. (I'm trying to remember whether I couldn't get the gearshift to move at all, or whether it was that it just wouldn't go into a gear. I was able to finally get it to engage by getting out and rocking the car, or... did I actually kick kick the &%#% thing?. I don't recall.) Whatever, it turned out to be a broken (or worn) tooth in one of the many idler gears inside the tranny. According to what I was told by the (warranty) mechanic, sometimes the gap caused by that broken tooth would stop in rotation aligned with a needed gear. As such, the two couldn't mesh; essentially neutering the whole set of gears. (I DO recall that it took weeks for them to find that part.)

I'm not saying that the (so far outstanding) F-type transmission could/would/should have the same problem as that Subaru. I'm just tossing out yet another idea to see if it sticks. It might answer the intermittent type of problem you're having.

I have little doubt that your mechanic(s) will have to go through the same kind of diagnostic processes that the collective minds of this forum is doing. And FWIW, as much as I really do hate it when other people contribute their unasked WAG suggestions when I'm fully engrossed in trying to figure out a serious problem, I have to admit that this is kinda fun.

Still, good luck!!! Let us know what you find out.

 

Did I read somewhere that MTs have a clutch delay valve? Not that well acquainted with them, just a question.

 

They do, but it's purpose is to restrict the flow on releasing the pedal to reduce driveline shock when launching. My previous car (Volvo C30) had the same part and I got some instructions on removing it from there. To the best of my recollection the only one here who tried removing it was Lance and it didn't solve anything. The solution was the Gen3+ clutch kit.