Manual Transmissions Were Just 1.4% of 2023 US Sales

There is absolutely nothing wrong with pretty much any RPM south of 3,000 for a cold engine.

 

It's more of a preference thing. It won't hurt anything.

 

There are days I miss an auto but don’t miss the gear hunting my ‘17 had.

But all last week driving in tons of steep hills reaffirmed my choice in an MT.

Do any of you have days or weeks where you pine for an auto again?

 

Never man. I am 73 years old and have only owned 1 vehicle with an automatic. Hated it.

 

Only when I get stuck in traffic in the hills. Haha

I learned to drive stick in my 135, and that car makes a ton of torque off idle and has hill assist. The taco has neither, so it’s been a learning experience.

 

Never owned an auto in 23 years of driving and never once said "I wish this was an auto right now" regardless of traffic or area I am driving in. The wife has the only one of 6 vehicles we own that's an auto and it's the least enjoyable to drive even though it's the second fastest 4 wheeled vehicle

 

I’ve mostly driven MTs my whole life and have no desire to own an automatic with the exception of an electric vehicle. If it’s gas powered, it’s gotta be an MT. This is what drove me to drive 500 miles and pay more for a TRD OR when I bought my ‘21 Tacoma. I simply hated that thing!! I tried OV Tune and Overland Tune. While both were substantial improvements to the stock tune and initially had me thinking my problems were solved, neither solved the underlying issues. The consistency and predictably of the 3.5 V6 were simply horrendous!

I managed the shift just fine but I’ll admit the process was unduly difficult. Rather than achieving a state of harmony between the machine and me, I felt like I was constantly fighting against it. You can try to pin the problem on me being a lousy driver (I promise you.. I’m NOT), but I had more issues with the 3rd gen while it was in gear! If I rolled my foot into the throttle, sometimes it would respond immediately and with equal smoothness, other times it would hesitate, only to respond with a sudden and aggressive “jerk”. I never could find any rhyme or reason to it. It would do this often while climbing through the rpm range. This kind of nonsense was especially common after a shift. The shift itself could be perfectly smooth, but I would find that the engine was completely “dead” or flat on its face, only to abruptly provide the requested torque up to an entire second after shifting.

The dang thing wouldn’t engine brake! …not much anyway. I’m guessing this was programmed intentionally so that it could “coast better” or some BS. I could rev it up to 4k rpm and the negative torque was still rather pathetic.

The last straw for me was hooking up my laptop to the OBDii and collecting data. I did this to prove to myself that I wasn’t crazy. I had been having issues inching my truck forward in my parking garage (on a very slight incline). I would just barely ease into the throttle to give me just enough torque to overcome the incline (shouldn’t have been any problem at ~idle rpm). I found that it would either do absolutely nothing at all, or give me way more throttle than I wanted resulting in maybe 1500 rpm which is just asinine for inching forward a bit. The scanner data confirmed that I wasn’t crazy. I could sit there and ease into the gas pedal and it would log actually sensed movement of the gas pedal, but the engine would do NOTHING! I could go as far as 5% with no response whatsoever. The worst thing is this was completely inconsistent. Sometimes it would respond to 1% movement. Sometimes 3… it was completely random!
I’m completely convinced that either my truck was a lemon and had worse drive qualities than others’, or that those who say it’s “just fine” are just not very perceptive or precise with their driving.

I traded it in for a 2010 with a 2.7 i4 and 5MT and absolutely love it! When I roll my foot onto or off of the gas pedal, I can not only feel the immediate, predictable response, but I can hear the load of the engine changing.. the 3rd gen did not respond this way! I don’t have to deal with any of the “gremlins” that plagued my 3rd gen experience, and the tiny 2.7L engine brakes at least twice as well as the 3.5L on the 3G! I’ve gone from dreading driving anywhere with the 3rd gen to frequently going on late night drives in my 2G just to get out of the house.

Long story short, If this is what MTs are becoming, I see why they’re not selling.

 

Wow, now I feel like my MT is more rare then I originally thought.

I got mine in 2019 and it was about 3k to 4k cheaper then it's automatic counterpart.

It's geared lower being a manual which made the jump to 33s less painful, and overall I like it quite a bit.
Will be better whenever I can get my hands on a Uniclutch too.

 

I am also 73, and the 2023 is the first auto I have owned for myself.

The ECT and ability to lock the highest gear is an acceptable substitute for me.
I can drop down to a low gear when descending a steep grade, so that will have to do.

 

I like autos in a full sized truck....but I can't imagine my '23 Pro with an auto. MUCH prefer the 6MT in it, and was easy to find last Summer when I bought it, no mark up...dealer was happy to get rid of it! Apparently, everyone wanted an auto Pro...

 

Not when I know how annoying the AT is in this truck. There are often times that I wish the 6MT was better. I mostly have complaints about how crunchy the 1-2 shift is and the vague gates. I switched to Redline at 15K miles and didn't notice an improvement.

 

I could not imagine any small/midsize truck with an automatic

The full size trucks are fine because the ones I would want has a V8 engine

 

A V8 would make me want a stick even more.
Not that I ever would, but I wonder how tough it would be to swap the 4.7 or the 5.7 into this thing.

 

Love my MT. Only thing I needed improved was the 2LO mod. Btw tested reverse full clutch release on level ground this AM…it goes 5mph. Way too fast for backing up a trailer but I’ve had worse in other MT cars

 

8700 miles on mine. Anyone else feel the 4th to 5th shift is rarely smooth? It feels not notchy, but not smooth either. I'm referring to the feeling while holding the stick, comparing to all other shifts.

 

It gets a little better with some miles

 

Agreed there. I was useless at that shift for months after buying the truck. Now it goes ok.

 

Have you tried a short shifter? Mines a second gen but the transmissions are similar and the hurst shifter was a huge improvement, I love how the truck shifts now with that and the rev hang eliminated with a tune

 

Good to hear it's normal. Overall I'm ok with this transmission, but I do remember my 1991 with the 5 speed smoother and even more fun to drive. And I had the 4 cylinder ha.

 

Drain your fluid and use Redline MT90.