Manual Transmission Owners? Downgrade from Full Size?

Wait .... what?? You average over 20mpgs?? I feel lucky getting 16mpgs mostly around burbs. Granny McAckshen how do you do it?

 

I downsized from a 2002 Ram to a 2006 2.7 MT Tacoma. Best decision I ever made. Sure, I missed the power and room at first, but when I stopped having to visit the mechanic every month, I became very fond of the Tacoma. Currently have a 2017 3.5 MT, it has plenty of power. My work truck is an F-150 ecoboost for comparison.

Mike

 

If you'll miss anything it will be the cab size and torque. Otherwise go for it.

Had a 12' double cab auto. Hated the transmission even on last gen, didn't want to risk same mistake twice and went with manual this time. Love it.

Takes awhile to get use to the power train combo but once you do its awesome.

 

I have a 2016 DCSBOR with the 6-speed still enjoy driving it. The trans is as smooth and crisp as an manual I have ever driven. I would recommend it to any of my friends. I drove a 6-speed Frontier and it was just not quite a polished as the Tacoma. My other pickup was and still is a '93 K3500 with a 454 BBC and 4.10 gears so there is obviously no comparison in terms of raw torque and acceleration. However the Chevy averages 9-10 mpg in town and 13 on the freeway and I get 18 in town with the Toyota and 20-21 on the freeway. But, these are two entirely different trucks for different jobs and a side by side comparison is meaningless. If I need to run through fields to get to the timber to hunt I use the Toyota, if I have pull the school bus out of a ditch the K3500 gets the nod. I don't regret downsizing to the Tacoma but I am lucky in that I still have a full size with a stupid big motor to yank a house over but I would not want to have to feed it daily.

I really do not drive the Toyota hard and find it has acceptable power for what it is. My drive to the big city consists of several up and down sections on rural two lane highways and the Tacoma holds 55mph in 6th without lugging. It did take some getting used to as it spins a lot higher rpm and makes it's power at a much higher RPM range than I was used to. I have not towed with it and likely will not as my trailer is a tandem axle car hauler and is just too much for it.

I do love my Tacoma and it seems to have great build quality inside and out, but I do miss the deep growl and steady drone of the 454. There is just something about the sound of a big displacement V8 under load that brings a smile to my face. But that being said I would still buy the Tacoma again, but only if I could also keep my full size.

 

Love my '17 Off-Road Double Cab. I came from a tuned Suabaru WRX. The Taco is not as fast, but its just as much fun to drive in its own right. I would say the truck's power band is like a turbo car or vtec Honda (we are more common to that with our vvti) in that there is little oomph until you hit 3500 and then BAM new cam profile and Powah! Insert Clarkson Top Gear Meme:



Well, less BAM than a big turbo or performance car, but you get the idea - we need rev's. That said, the V6 motor lugs fine too, but if you need to really accelerate be prepared to drop 1,2 or even 3 gears depending on the situation i.e. doing 60 mph on the highway and needing to "shoot the gap" requires a 6th to 3rd gear change and WOT if you want to really scoot. Taking a hill on a 55 MPH two lane may need no down shift from 6th depending on grade, or it may need a single drop to 5th. Others may disagree, but I haven't lost all my hoonigan techniques from my WRX. More mileage will change that (I'm only at 3k miles on the Taco).

 

TRD off road 4x4 manual 4door here. I tow my Nissan Maxima just fine here in flat Tampa, FL. I test drove my exact truck in automatic and it sucked.

 

Hello fellow subie friend! I came from a 05 STi and then a 2012 WRX. I miss the turbo, but love the 6 speed in the Tacoma. Truck is still a pleasure to drive and has enough power for me. This truck truly excels off-road. I did 21 trails this summer here in Colorado. Couldn't have done that in my WRX!

 

I'm coming from a 2010 quadcab 5.7 HEMI with CAI, Tuner.. to a 16 SR 4x4 UTILITY 2.7 Manual hahahaha, and loving it! Sure its slow!

 

I agree with you on the mechanic thing. My RAM is pretty new (2012 w/ 23k miles), but it's in the shop frequently and has some weird little problems that they can never fix. I don't want to think about what will go wrong when it has 50k miles. It's hard to swallow large repair bills on something I'm making a sizable payment on already. Glad to hear you like the 17 Taco.

 

I currently have a 2016 double cab TRD sport 4x4 3.5 and 6 speed, before this I had a 2014 Mustang GT 5.0 full boltons, and full size F150 before that. I miss the power of that car a lot, I got this truck mainly because of my dogs, but the power is really fine for what it is. Enough to get you out in front of people, on the highway or whatever you want. The biggest adjustment for me (coming from the V8's) was the low end torque, just gotta rev these engines up and they'll get you around just fine. I usually get 17-18 mpg city, and plenty happy with that. No issues either, had the truck since July (only have about 1500 miles on it, having a work car helps), but its been really flawless. Hope it helps

 

Good insight here. I agree that the sound and torque is just awesome with my Hemi. Brings a smile to my face and will never get old. What does get old however is the 13-14 mpg that I average on my commute. My hope is that trading for a manual transmission Taco will bring the same smile to my face as the Hemi, just for different reasons.

 

Yeah, I get that trucks aren't meant to be performance machines, but when you're used to a full size truck with loads of power you get a little spoiled i guess.

 

Wow that's quite a difference in powertrains! I'm sure the manual makes up some of the "fun", but from a Hemi to a 4 banger would be tough for me.

 

Great info! I know that i'll miss the power of my full-size, but that's a given. I'm more curious to hear if people were more positive or negative about the new M/T Tacos in general. Sounds like it's an overwhelming positive so far.

 

My commute is 20 miles each way of rolling hills between 55-60mph, can't really go faster as it's mostly 2 lane roads with not a lot of opportunity to pass. I can lug through most of it in 6th gear just fine, have 2-3 hills where I usually need to drop into 4th or 5th depending on traffic, but my commute is mostly coasting around that speed. I'm sure it would drop quickly if I had more city driving or was going faster.

 

My 2017 4x4 OR DCSB 6MT definitely does an end-around on any and all issues people are having with the autos

What follows is my OPINION:
This truck drives and handles well, feels nimble and has lots of power but not down low off the line. The stick is smooth and nicely gated with pretty good spacing between gears. First could be a little taller for daily driving - but it's a truck that I'm going to ask to do real work so I get why it's not. You need to spin it up between 3k and redline to really make it move and when you do - it boogies pretty well. You will lose drag races to pretty much everything except another 3rd gen Taco with an auto though because it's a dog until you hit 2.5k. But, ya know..., if you are drag racing a Tacoma you have already kinda missed the point. My bias here toward the manual is strong enough that that is pretty much the reason I bought the Tacoma over any of the other contenders for mid-size truck, and I bought the one with the semi-useless 5' bed to boot because there was no way to order a v6 manual with a long bed. So take my next statement with whatever grains of salt are warranted. I would not even entertain paying extra money for that auto trans - it ruins the driving experience and has a very appliance-like feel to it. It makes the truck feel dead when it has a pretty rev happy motor that wants you to zing it up the tach.

THe rest of the vehicle... It's a nicely appointed, well screwed together, reasonably powerful, good looking, medium sized (by today's standards, but really the same size and specs as my '00 Tundra) sporty truck. It has more to like than not. IMO it's affordable and has good resale if you stay away from the Limited and geegaw option packages which do not give great value and push it into a losing competition with luxo trucks from the big three. Keep it simple and you are out the door, nicely appointed for mid-30s. Click a few more boxes and it's not as good a value at $40k+ but if you gotta have heated leather seats or a moon roof... that's where you are going to end up. The choices for mixing features are very "All or nothing" and add up fast. For me - I wanted a basic 4x4 manual with a locking diff and seating for 4 that could haul motorcycles, occasionally tow a race car on an open deck trailer and/or go camping so the basic TRD Off-Road was perfect. YMMV.

 

Great info! I wouldn't even consider trading my RAM for the Tacoma unless the manual was available. That makes it for me. The resale, and reliability are nice, but secondary IMO. I don't mind paying more for a vehicle that I enjoy driving day-to-day. I personally love the look of the DCOR. I'll be keeping my eye out for one to test drive around here. Pretty slim pickings at the moment.

 

Do you guys with the double cab short bed... how useful do you feel the bed is? Do you frequently feel you want a bigger bed?

 

When I was buying it I went back and forth - but I am not a contractor so the gold standard of driving around with sheets of plywood and the gate closed isn't a thing for me.

The bed is big enough for me to haul an XR250 and DRZ400 with the gate down. Two spare engines for my race car fit at the same time. I can neatly accomodate 4 Mountain bikes. To carry long items you need to be creative. I bought a roof rack, a ski rack, and made a makeshift support out of tube steel that holds the back of things too long for the roof rack so I could get some 16' boards and a ladder home from Lowes. So... would I like a longer bed option, yes. But the 6' bed wouldn't have cut it for that last case either. Can I make due with this one and a little creativity? Sure. The shorter wheelbase fits in my garage with room to spare and that is more important than another 12" of room for stuff.

FWIW, I had a Chevy 2500HD LT Duramax before this that was a colossal workhorse with a huge bed and I still needed a high rack once in a while to carry roll cage tubing.

Maybe the real answer here is to just buy a cheap 8' utility trailer and use the bed as a trunk?

 

I have to agree with you 100%. I came from a 2008 Acura TSX which was one of the last great cars from Honda's glory days. Independent suspension, sport steering, and one of their best implementations of iVTEC. This truck reminds me of that engine wise.

The TSX was rated at 20/28 mpg and I will say those ratings were dead on for city driving and I easily exceeded the number on the highway. I routinely got 33 mpg on the highway going 120-130 kmph (75-80 mph).

Much like the TSX the cam profiles are like Jekyll and Hyde. Under 3500 rpm in the Tacoma I get incredible gas mileage and over it I watch my 9 L/100km (26 mpg for you Americans) morph into 13.5~ L/100km (17 mpg). Seems like the sweet spots for me are at 70 kmph (45 mph) and 105-110 kmph (75 mph) gas mileage wise. It happily sits in 6th gear and sips gas. Anything over 110 on the highway leads me back closer to 19 or 20 mpg.