Last of their kind? Manual Transmissions and Gasoline Engines

Water balloons are quieter.

 

I don’t think either automatic or cruise will be mature until they can incorporate terrain response that can match that level of anticipation. And do so as easily as you. Fwiw, cruise is still only moderately useful on mostly level ground with no traffic, which is why I drive at odd hours whenever possible.

 

I did not really need a truck, but I have never owned any vehicle with an automatic and I decided in 2017 that a manual Tacoma was my last chance to get a manual truck (I would never buy a truck with an automatic). Now that I have the truck, I find uses for it (as I expected) and I hope it lasts for a very long time. My fear is that once electric vehicles take over, legislation will limit the availability of gasoline/diesel to force the remaining internal combustion vehicles off the road. So, I suspect that at some point there really will be no way to continue to enjoy driving old school vehicles.

 

I actually like the dual injection, all the advantages of direct injection but toyota got smart and realized we needed port injection to prevent intake valve carbon buildup. Seems like it's working out well.

I REALLY wanted a manual. I got an automatic on my 2010 taco and it did a great job. The auto in the 3rd gens I test drove (a 2017 and a 2020) were just something I knew I would regret. Had to drive 500 miles to get the one of 5 available in the country that were configured like I wanted (and that was with no consideration to color). If manuals were as easy to get as the autos, I bet a lot of more casual fans would take them in a heartbeat, especially after test driving.

 

Rest assured that if there was a market for a manual transmission, manufacturers would produce them. The buying public is what killed the manual not the manufacturers.

I have a close friend who is the sales manager at a Toyota dealership. Except for the A86 where buyers expect a manual box, he said he can't give them away. The Corolla and Corolla hatch are available in 6 speeds. He said trying to sell a manual Corolla is like trying to give away the Clap.

And he did say that a manual transmission in a Tacoma is ultimately what will sell it.....but not before 300 people walk right on by it when they see the 3rd pedal. He said Toyota produces just enough to satisfy the tiny percentage of truck people who want them.

I also have a friend who's an engineer for the Big T. He says the manual is dead. Toyota offers a few models with them where it's expected...mostly the A86. He said Toyota only offers the manual in the Taco so they can say they do. But few people actually want them. And to simplify things it's only offered in the V6/4x4 combo. He said low volume configurations like a manual transmission added cost and complexity to the production process. Not worth producing them. The Tacoma will lose the manual at some point.

Doesn't matter what a few enthusiasts on a website think. Manufacturers aren't going to build what people don't want....and a few stragglers don't pay the bills.

30 years ago you could get a Previa minivan with a manual. Can you imagine the average minivan driver "hand shaking" their way through daily driving these days? Hell no. People are soft. People killed the manual

 

I don't disagree with most of what you are saying, but in my recent buying experience, every dealer within 500 miles was firm that they would NOT do a dealer swap on a 6MT taco unless it was for another 6MT. The VAST majority are spoken for long before they get produced. There are two takeaways there - One, big T is doing a great job of producing very close to demand, or two, most people will hit the easy button and just deal with the automatic rather then jump through the hoops of getting a manual. I'm going to guess it's a 75/25% skew towards big-t producing with demand. I am positive they would sell more if they weren't so damn hard to get.

Edit: your signature...haha!

 

A year or so ago l was watching a Tacoma Engineer on YouTube and did mention that at certain points the MTs are limited by Toyota regardless if they had buyers with cash in hand. The reason he gave was because of CAFE, the MT is rated lower and pulls the average down so they will only produce a certain percentage and stop even if they could sell more.

 

Thanks to their quality, we should be able to mechanically maintain our MT trucks for years/decades after the big T pushes the last MT off the line. But at some point, the infrastructure and policy around ICE will change enough that it will be no longer be practical/legal to operate them.

I'm trying to think of another historical analogue. MT love could be like long play record enthusiasm, with a hard core set of users hanging in there keeping alive a heathy second hand market, and ultimately fueling a mass market resurgence. But the shifts in infrastructure/policy towards EV seems relentlessly one way, which complicates that narrative. Will ICE owners become like horse and buggy enthusiasts, frustrated that they can no longer safely and legally use public roadways, carefully maintaining their private stables in out of the way places? Finding reliable gas could be harder than finding hay...maybe this will usher in a new age of small batch, specialty gasoline producers

 

I don't think our lifetime will have to worry about that. The tech may be getting there, but the infrastructure needed to make gas cars completely obsolete/unsafe on the roads is nowhere near close. At some point it may be a niche thing, but I don't think we have to worry about that. I think they'll always be around even if it's just for groups of enthusiasts on tracks or roads long forgotten

 

Look, there are two types of people;

The Star Trek people who look to the future and all the improvements that may come with it.
The Gunsmoke people who look to the past and how great (they imagine) it was back then.

Electric cars are coming. Clean energy is coming. And if it doesn't, sustainable life on earth won't make another 100 years. Texas isn't an example how solar panels don't work when its cloudy or wind turbines freeze - it's an example about how climate change is absolutely a real thing and we will see increasingly more catastrophes that decimate economies and take lives. The Gunsmoke folks can deny it all they want, but it's reality. The Star Trek folks can glaze over how many scientific challenges still need to be solved. It's not going to be that easy to change.

Like many others on this thread, I grabbed my current MT Tacoma with the assumption it'll be my last. It'll be replaced by an EV, and I'm totally good with that. If you've ever driven an EV, they are a delight! They accelerate so fast and are so quiet, it's impossible not to giggle when you put your foot into it. I love my MT, but I cannot deny that EV's will be better and are already more fun.

And I'm old enough to remember the world before the EPA came in and cleaned up rivers and set pollution standards to clean up the air. I am excited to see more progress that direction. Like many others on here, I love the outdoors, and more pollution, more deforestation in the name of protecting the very inefficient ICE and the way things used to be will ensure that we'll never get back to any semblance of the way things used to be; you know, when clean water and clean air was something we took for granted.

Scotty, we need more power! Bring on the electric revolution!

 

Well put

 

You sound a bit like a third group (one that I'd say I'm in) - Those that enjoy the ride but appreciate technology. I want driving experience. I get that from an electric car, but it's a very different experience. I wouldn't want to give up the something special that an ICE with manual transmission gives. It's the enjoyment of a sports car vs. the enjoyment of an open top jeep. Neither one is better or worse, just different.

 

Popular Mechanics - Sept. 1837 issue
Clandestine MIT study revealed windmills effectively reducing earth's rotational speed & gravitational pull. Also predicted that the moon would escape earth's orbit by the year 2350. Check it out.

 

We purchased a new Subaru Crosstrek in 2016 with a manual, and glad we did: We get better mileage than the CVT automatic ones do, even with 78K on the car. The Tacoma is a DCLB, and unfortunately we all know, no stick available... My wife is eyeing a new Dodge Challenger w/Hemi in a stick, though (she likes her muscle cars).....

Me... I'd love to own a new C-8 Corvette.

A dollar and dream they say, can win you the lottery.

 

I always laugh at the idiots pimping "gas is going to be gone in 10 years derp".

The same types think electric airliners are real.

 

It wont be gone, but it will def be utilized less

 

lol

 

Don't worry, they're laughing right back. That Tesla is worth more than most car dealers combined should tell you all you need to know. If you were in the stock market, you would be broke. It's happening and it's happening quickly.

 

When his response is "lol" and his name is troll that's all that needs to be said.

 

I think the bus will be a more popular form of transportation than personal EVs.