Single Cab Manual vs Automatic

Looking to purchase a single cab Tacoma and wanted to know if it's best to buy the manual or automatic. Found a 2014 single cab 4x4 automatic for sale at $16k with 85k miles. Over priced?

 

Manual. No question. The auto sucks the life out of the 2.7L motor.

 

I held out for a manual. If I had to commute in California I might have settled for an automatic but I would have hated it. As long as the truck has service documents and no rust I feel the price is fair, not great but fair.
Welcome aboard.

 

It's hard to find a single cab manual for sale that doesn't have 150k plus miles. Check out the link below for a 2010 single cab manual with a 2015 conversion. The truck was salvaged and I asked for the carfax to assure the frame wasn't damaged. It looks good but it's hard to tell the full story based off the photos.

https://sacramento.craigslist.org/cto/d/yuba-city-toyota-tacoma/7110024330.html

 

It took about a year to find mine. Me personally, I wouldn't touch a salvage title. Be patient and you'll find a winner.

 

Obviously I'm biased, because I own an automatic 2014 single cab. I love it. For me, the AT works well, but I don't go rough off-roading, or climb the highest mountain. But for street travel or highway merging, I can kick into it and get it up to speed fairly rapidly.

Never have to worry about all the maintenance a manual transmission requires.

 

I lucked out and found a 2014 regular cab 4x4 manual with 60,000 miles on it for $16,000.00. Previous owner added a sunroof and power windows. Also took it in for service every 5,000 miles to the dealer. I've done the following mods over the past 3 months:

Euro spec driver's side mirror
Intermittent wipers
Bilstein shock upgrade x4
MOOG front sway bar bushings
LED bulbs 3rd brake light
LED back up lights
Hooked Road rear bumper
APS modular bull bar
Center armrest addition
AVS hood shield
Kenwood DMX906S head unit
Kenwood KDC-PSW8 powered subwoofer
Polk Audio DB6501 comp speakers
Kilmat sound dampening
Additional horn added
Tonneau cover
LED cab light
LED license plate lights
Turn-Key tailgate lock
Hitch step and lock
K&N air filter
Secondary air filter removal

Front diff, rear diff, transmission and transfer box fluids replaced with synthetic fluids. New spark plugs and engine oil changed. Will flush the power steering fluid soon.


I think I'm done. Not building it to offroad. Just for truck runs and keeping the MINI Cooper off the road during the winter.

 

Thanks for that I’m sure listing all your stuff helps the op with his questions.

 

Try them both out. I knew I wanted a regular cab and when I had enough cash to buy there were two in my area I was interested in. Both similarly priced, and both silver. One was a 2012 auto with bucket seats, the other a 2013 with a manual and the bench seat. The auto was fine, I just preferred the manual because I just wanted to row my own gears.
That being said I loved the bucket seats in the auto. The bench seat that comes in the 2nd gen regular cab is just garbage. After two years I had swapped it to a set of bucket seats out of a 2014.

 

Glad to help!! Don't be a dick!!

 

Your not the boss of me

 

What?

Manuals get cheap gear oil changes every 100k+

Automatics need pan drops, magnets cleaned, new filter, lots of expensive new fluid, among other parts, like every 30-40k
typically

How would manual be better for off-roading? There is a clutch to work.
Automatics you put in D and it goes.

Not sure how driving auto currently creates bias. I had auto sedans before. Hated every minute of it. Got rid of them. Never missed it. No bias.

For $16k, I wonder why OP doesn't get a 4.0L vs the 2.7.
4.0L manual can come as dual cab or access cab.

 

I think I agree with your general statement that manuals don’t really need a lot of maintenance. But I’ve also never don’t any of the maintenance you are describing for an auto either.

 

It probably depends on what the overall condition is regarding the price. Does the truck have any mods done to it like a lift, bigger wheels/tires, suspension components? The reg cabs are pretty stripped down but the automatics get the bucket seats vs the bench seat (which is really lousy) in the manual. Do you drive in a lot of stop and go traffic, if so the automatic is probably better. Do you tow anything? Do you plan on going offroad much (manual is probably better)? I like manual cars/trucks, but my back and left leg with the never ending hamstring pull don't like it so I went for the automatic. Plus, I had 2 boats at the time and with towing every week in the nice weather, the automatic helps. The biggest downside to the auto is if you run bigger tires, then on the highway the auto will want to downshift a lot to run 70 mph or higher due to the lack of power with the 4 cyl. I'm more than happy with the auto even with the lift and bigger tires.

 

Nicely said. I'm with you on these points except the bench being lousey. It's not super comfortable but I can take both my kids in there if I need too.

 

A 4 cylinder You'll probably wish you had a manual.

A 6 cylinder You can get away with either one because the power and torque is higher.

Depends on if you want to shift your own gears or not, and what you want to do to the truck.

 

I wonder how many people in the past (if any) have swapped a 4.0L into the 4cyl. Or how hard it is to do.
The body style of a single cab definitely looks cool. Maybe it's lighter. For even better power to weight ratio if the engine is upgraded

though I hear the 4cyl gets much better mpg and is desirable for that reason. Not sure if true.

 

I have a 2012 manual 4x4, I personally love it because I love the control over everything on my vehicle. I do my fair share of rock bashing and highway driving, for the manual, you will get better gas mileage than an automatic (granted that your not running for the redline every shift). I've used both an automatic jeep and my manual reg cab for rock crawling and hands down the automatic is WAY easier, but the manual can be just as capable in the right hands and adds more thrill than the auto. I do believe 16k sounds like a little much though for that many miles you could try to knock them down a few. I got my 2012 with 35k for about $15k. Overall though I agree with the above comments, it comes down to whether or not you like using a clutch.

 

I avg about 22-23 mpg on the highway and 19-20 city, I'm only running 31's though.