Manual Transmissions Were Just 1.4% of 2023 US Sales

Which is lame, might of forgave them killing the AC if it came with a manny. That would of been a great grumpy curmudgeon old man truck…

 

the word "sold" throws me off where it would be more accurate if they said manufactured or produced it would be a more accurate depiction.

 

I got lucky with my pre-pandemic 6M. Put my request in just before the s*** hit the fan. Got a nice discount off of MSRP too. Really wanted an AC LB but Toyota-san said no can do.

 

Toyota reports sales, not production, in their annual reports. As do most automakers. Sales are correlated to, but not analogous with, production.

If you look at the Toyota-provided spreadsheet here, it explicitly says sales. The other article says Toyota reported manual Tacoma sales to Motor1. Comparing one sales number to another is a completely accurate statistic and I haven't represented it as anything but that in this thread.

 

2023 4-door sb OR m/t celestial silver (though I like to think "celestial" more refers to the m/t than the color)

It was quite the adventure for me, but worth it everytime I slide into the driver's seat. I almost threw in the towel at one point and settled on a 2022 OR auto in lunar rock with 20k on the odometer.

Long story short, after multiple dead ends I finally realized that the Upper Midwest was getting an unusual number of manuals in their allocations. After 6 weeks of calling dealers in that region and working with salesmen to line up a reservation for myself to no avail, I cold-called a small dealer in Michigan and was able to put a deposit on my truck. I couldn't believe it! I had the salesman verify that it was indeed a manual and indeed was available. Again, I couldn't believe it. I was coming from a 99 2wd single cab m/t with the 2.4l engine and 14 inch rims (girlfriend, now wife, bought it in 2004) and was pretty much getting the truck I had wanted for the last 10 years.

Two weeks later I got the call that it arrived at the dealer. Bought a plane ticket that same day and flew to Michigan, then drove 2,000 miles back to Utah.

I feel like I'm a good illustration of the idea that there isn't high demand for manual Tacomas, but the people who want a manual Tacoma, REALLY want a manual Tacoma.

I probably would have travelled to Canada for an AC OR with a manual except I need the four doors.

 

I searched for 8 months for a use MT with low miles and heated seats and ended flying to New Mexico from AZ to pick it up and ended up driving it home in a Blizzard. Four hours into the drive cars and trucks were smashing all around me and all I could think was I was going to lose my new Tacoma that it took me 8 mos to find. It all worked out and I made it back. But Yeah, I would have flown anywhere to get it once I found the right truck at the right price.

 

I had a similar experience on my drive back over the Rockies on the I-70. A late season snow storm came through (this was late April) and there were vehicles spun out off to the sides of the highway. Eventually, I just got in the right hand lane and slowed down. Once I got west of all the Colorado ski towns the traffic disappeared and I figured I was pretty much home free. It was such a great feeling when I was about 30mins from home and driving my new Tacoma on my daily roads.

And heated seats. My wife's Honda has heated seats and I can't get enough of them. Definitely plan on adding them to my truck for next winter.

 

I'm surprised I found mine in a couple months. 8 months is a long time to search not knowing if it'll pay off. Glad you got what you wanted.

 

We have 4 doors, but the rear 2 suffer from “shrinkage” due to the cold Canadian weather.

 

Yeah…butt…baby got back. (There is a joke in there, not sure where, butt….)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X53ZSxkQ3Ho

 

This is my hunting truck so heated seats are a must when getting into my truck at 3:30am to get to my hunting spot and it is only 15 degrees outside.

 

The 2024 Toyota Tacoma Is The Truck You Hoped It Would Be - The Autopian

In the article it mentions the expected take rate of the manual to be 11 percent, really need to go back and watch some of the videos to see if Sheldon mentions the take rate.

 

I have a very similar story as to how I got my truck. looked for several months to find the perfect truck for me. Finally found one in the middle of nowhere Wisconsin and contacted the dealer to put a deposit on it. Bought a plane ticket and flew up to Milwaukee, rented a car and drove 3 hours north to almost Canada just to pick her up. Finalized the paperwork and began my drive home to Georgia. 1100 miles and 14 hours later I was home.

ended up getting a 2022 Celestial silver TRD OR M/T with 9k miles on it. It’s got every option/package you could get. It’s crazy the things you will do for getting what you want at a great deal.

 

I have a ‘23 Off Road in black with manual transmission. Put the deposit / order down in November 2022 and I picked it up in October 2023.

In those 11 months I got a LOT of calls from that dealership (and others) offering ATs instead, until I made it clear I was dying on the hill for an MT lol saw 3 sales guys come and go in that time

 

One dealer near me tried to take advantage of that hill by loading up any manual they sold with the full Toyota parts catalog. Added something like 6K to the price of the truck.

 

That sounds about right, they definitely hit a couple dealer installed options but I got cost knocked off since it wasn’t on the specs I signed for. BUT they got that back and then some since MSRP had gone up $3k since I put the deposit down

 

Funny, that is exactly what I wanted, a fully tarted out TRD Sport 6MT; my dealership called me numerous times during my wait with lesser equipped Tacomas; I rejected them all.

 

I am still getting calls from Toyota dealers trying to sell me a TRD Pro in solar octane with an AT. I nabbed an allocation in October of 2022 and took delivery in February of 2023 — 6MT. I am still getting calls for automatics. Love my MT and am very fortunate to have the last MT TRD Pro, since the 4G Pros are all AT

 

Yup back at 2022, there’s a dealership who tried to push me into an automatic or sell me a ‘21 manual base TRD Off-Road with 5k miles listed for $52k. I wasn’t having it, only wanting a brand new manual TRD Off-Road.

I noped outta my way and bought my manual TRD Off-Road brand new at a different dealership without any markup. More than $10k saved from that overpriced ‘21.