Quick Thoughts on the Manual

I managed to find an SR trim double cab with the manual transmission and test drove it to see if I want the MT. Spoiler: it is a fantastic truck.

The SR is not the trim I believe I want, but I was shocked with the refinement of the "lowly work truck". The ride was compliant, honestly surprisingly smoother than I would have expected. The interesting thing is that I felt less of the little bumps on city streets than the coil sprung TRD Sport and Off-road models, which could be the soft cheaper tires on this SR. (I forgot to compare tire PSIs) This part confused me as you can tell the leaf sprung rear has a stiffer spring rate than the coil sprung trucks. I stood behind both side by side and pushed the bed down with my hands, and the SR was noticeably harder to move the rear end down. This is why I think it is more in the tire differences, and that on my very short drive I did not experience situations where the coils reveal how much better they are.

Onto my thoughts on the manual: This part shocked me as well, I figured before driving it that while the manual is cool and all, I would no doubt prefer the 8 speed. Turns out I am now extremely conflicted over which transmission option I want since both are so good.
-Shifter feel is similar to the 3rd gen, as expected since this gearbox is in a way carried over with different ratios. It wobbles around a lot going down the road, but engagement going into gear feels pretty solid and it was not hard for me to find each gear with the exception of me not being sure if I was in 5th once. Definitely easy to comfortably reach the shifter in all gears so the ergonomics are great.

-Clutch travel isn't too long, and effort is actually really easy to press the clutch pedal. It seems that this would make it easier to live with than in my WRX if I were in traffic or something. I didn't particularly notice feeling the bite point, but I was not focused on that either.

-Rev hang: I did not wring this engine out, I never took it over 3k RPM. The videos I have seen show rev hang at high RPM when driving aggressively. Driving it around town like a normal person, rev hang was no issue at all and I thought it was better than 3rd gens.

-iMT works fantastic for rev match downshifting. I don't know if it defaults to off, or remembers your last selection, but I toggled it on halfway through the test. The truck was easy for me to rev match myself, but this feature is freaking awesome and makes driving a manual feel like less of a chore. Having the ability to either do it yourself or let the truck do it is so nice.

-Engine noise is more prominent in the MT truck when accelerating, which is both a character of any manual vehicle, plus the fact that there is no active noise cancellation through the speakers for engine sounds in these manual trucks. Some would say the engine note is course, but to me it gives it a gruff character that I found endearing. Maybe I am just weird and kinda like 4 cylinders. Once cruising at a set speed it seriously gets quiet inside.

-Turbo noise is there! You can easily hear the turbo spool up at lower RPM when accelerating under moderate throttle.

I will definitely need to test drive both a manual and automatic TRD OR back to back to know which I want. I think it is going to be a very tough decision for me.

 

Thanks for the info. My Off-Road with the manual is estimated to come in by September…….guess it’ll be delivered as a ‘25, if at all.

 

@MOC221_ you better get yours on order

 

Thanks for the review. I would love to test drive a 4th gen manual TRD Off-Road and compare it with my 3rd gen manual TRD Off-Road

 

The iMT works well in the fact its nearly impossible to stall on take off. If anyone gets the chance, turn iMT on, and let the clutch out with zero throttle. It does the throttle for you.

I dont like the down shift blips personally, but I like the lazy take off haha.

 

Take offs were plenty easy for me, probably because of a low 1st gear. I’ll have to try this on my next test of one, that with the light clutch would probably make stop and go about as easy at it could be in a manual.

 

I was on the Toyota configurator doing the "build your" Tacoma. The one thing that I noticed is the MT engine output is 228hp/243tq, the AT's are all 278hp/317tq. I thought the MT was going to be 270hp/310tq?

 

It’s a typo. Check the detailed comparison

 

Great info. I need to drive a 4th gen manual when they end up near me. I both plan to put their transmission in my truck and then also get a 4th gen truck to add to the collection. Either that or the 4R if they happen to update 4R to have the manual option.

 

4th gens are still a rare bird in my neck of the woods.
There is a nice Sport+ MT in underground coming in at the end of April.... IN British Columbia!!! LMAO