You live in a strange world if the method of gear shifting is more important than the entire rest of the vehicle.
I still own several. I started rock crawling with a manual before I even had a license, and continued doing so until I bought an automatic in a JK and haven't bothered looking back. There's not much of anything a manual has to offer beyond what an automatic and a foot on the brake can provide, but an auto does have that handy torque multiplication coming from the converter. I certainly wouldn't choose a manual mustang or ranger over an automatic bronco or jeep, that's just silly. I don't actually need to wiggle a stick and push an extra pedal to feel like I'm driving.
Most of the autos I've driven were pretty easy to pop back and forth, maybe not super healthy for the transmission and drivetrain in general, but it gets you going sometimes. That is, with the exception of the Toyotas, they have those stupid gates that keep you from shifting straight from reverse to drive. Easy enough to fix with a modified shifter. Come to think of it, really the only auto trans I don't care for is made by Toyota. For Jeeps and other crawlers, it's especially handy when you get a reverse shift pattern (P-R-N-1-2-D) instead of the standard shift pattern (P-R-N-D-2-1). For me, trying to rapidly go from bottom right to top left in a manual Jeep often resulted in going into 4th instead of reverse or 3rd instead of 1st, or grinding the crap out of them. Don't get me wrong, it's great fun to blip the throttle and hammer it into the next gear without using the clutch, making the tires chirp on each gear, I've just come to realize that newer autos are probably better at reliably shifting gears than humans are. It lets you focus on driving when you really need that focus.
manual for rock crawling is awesome if you have three feet or a hand throttle lol
Ding ding ding!!!! Say it louder so the people at Ford can hear you.
Are the newer engines really that bad? I heard they were a definite upgrade, just laggy in stock form and needed a tune and a little help to shape them up. My 4.0L (single and dual VVT) and 4.7L were absolute dogs until they were supercharged, and even then they weren't exactly what I would consider powerful...just a step above adequate. Felt like they didn't make any low end power and always had to be wrung out at 4K or more to really do anything. Had two of them seize up on me as well, one made it to 220K and the other only 105K (4.0L), the 4.7L is still doing fine. My taco is getting an LS swap, I'm just done with Toyota engines and transmissions LOL
original owner of an '06 4 dr v6 Taco with 5ft bed and 144K on it ..... I drive it hard and all i can say is the fkng thing is a tank ... never had an issue ..... the only thing besides regular maintenance is when i changed my front brakes at 105K miles .... I expect it to outlast my Bronco by many many miles
man that's ugly...
