The Manuals Have Been Saved! 4th Gen Taco 6-speed Confrimed

Per Car & Driver, Toyota confirmed the new (yet to be fully unveiled) 2024 4th Gen tacoma will keep a 6-speed manual transmission option. 

https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a43754989/2024-toyota-tacoma-manual-confirmed/

It's slim pickin's out there for truck drivers that want to row their own, with only the current tacoma and gladiator offering manual transmissions. With a new taco on the way, many (including myself) assumed that we would see an ushering in of turbocharged & hybrid powertrains and a phase-out of the 6-speed manual. Lucky for us, Toyota will be keeping the manual around for another generation! 

It might not be exciting news to most, but a midsize truck that can tow a race car, haul some camping gear, bikes & people, do hardware store runs and other truckish stuff, with a manual trans, will always have a place in my driveway. In fact, there's one there right now ('22 tacoma 6-speed). It's good to have options! 

Side note, Toyota has been churning out enthusiast cars as of late, supra (now with a manual option), GR86, and the GR corolla. Add in a new tacoma w/ a 6-speed, good on them.

Color me surprised. Given that the percentage of new car sales with a manual transmission has dropped to below 2%, which includes sports/sporty cars, I would expect that pickup trucks which are meant more for utility than driving dynamics will have almost zero sales of manual versions.

Right there with you on the surprise. Supposedly the tacoma had a manual take-rate of 5% in 2019 (https://tfltruck.com/2019/05/toyota-tells-us-exactly-how-many-manual-transmissions-it-sells-including-the-tacoma/)

My desire to drive a manual doesn't really have anything to do with sporty driving dynamics, I just enjoy the increased interaction with the vehicle. I find the slower & more ponderous the vehicle, the more I seek out that experience. 

Hopefully they make it available with the LBCC, and not just the short bed.
 

The LBCC + 6spd configuration would put it on my short list when I'm shopping for new in 3 years. 

Maybe they already had to do the engineering for the ROW vehicles? I know up until recently you could still get a base FWD RAV4 with a manual in some markets.

I hope it's better than the last generation. I was new truck shopping in 2019 and found the only 4x4 manual Taco on a lot in my greater metro area. I drove about 45 min one way to test drive it. It was absolutely awful. Like literally the worst shifter I've ever used. Broomstick vaguely attached to bungee cords awful. It was such a letdown too. I had previously owned a '92 pickup and that had one of the best shifters ever to grace a pickup. My '85 Landcruiser shifter is pretty amazing too, even after all these years. How could they have gotten it so wrong on the Taco?

I ended up getting a Jeep Gladiator, which is still stupidly cable shifted, but light-years better than the awful Taco shifter. 

I was interested in a 3rd gen Taco. But I either had to get King Cab long box or Crew Cab short box to get the 3rd Pedal. I wanted CCLB. And then I test drove a Taco and holy moly what a poor driving truck. Nice to see them keeping the 3rd Pedal, but there's way more they need to fix before I'd consider one.

When I bought my 2022 Tacoma, issue was DCSB only comes with 3 pedals. Short bed truck isn't useful for me, who uses it on the farm. Thus I had to go gimpomatic for my DCLB. Not only that, DCLB 4x4 is locked out in west regions. I had to go to Montana to get a DCLB 4x4. 

Hope Toyota does a MT in a LB, but probably won't. 

Interesting that this is confirmed, but I wonder if they're going to do something silly like limit it to the 4-cylinder engine.  If the top spec engine is a turbo/hybrid that looks to have sufficiently improved highway/towing fuel economy over the current V6, and is available with the 6 speed, I'd be seriously tempted to upgrade...

mr2s2000elise said:

Hope Toyota does a MT in a LB, but probably won't. 

To be clear, you can get the long bed with a manual, but only with the access cab; this is what I have.  Which is fine, trucks aren't supposed to have back seats.

not related to the new tacoma but as it relates to the 4runner, is the next generation still based on the tacoma platform?  does anybody have any links/details on that new vehicle (the next generation 4runner)  

In reply to Berck :

Then they need to make SUVs with manual transmissions. Changing into ski boots is way more fun in the back seat of a crew cab, than outside in the cold and snow.

In reply to buzzboy :

I mean, these days it seems like a most "pickup trucks" are just SUVs with a weird parcel shelf tacked on to the back, anyway, so you may be on to something.  I've never understood the point of a truck that can't comfortably haul a stack of 4x8 plywood.  What do people do with these silly short beds anyway, keep their purses back there?

Berck said:

In reply to buzzboy :

 What do people do with these silly short beds anyway, keep their purses back there?

The same thing you do with bigger trucks, only smaller:

Plus, it fits my purse real nice.

Berck said:

Interesting that this is confirmed, but I wonder if they're going to do something silly like limit it to the 4-cylinder engine.  If the top spec engine is a turbo/hybrid that looks to have sufficiently improved highway/towing fuel economy over the current V6, and is available with the 6 speed, I'd be seriously tempted to upgrade...

Reports seem to indicate the taco will get a turbo 4 and turbo/hybrid 4. I'm not sure if there will be a lower spec non-turbo 4 and I doubt the v6 caries over, but I don't really know anything. I'd guess the top spec hybrid will be auto only, but hopefully they don't saddle the manual with a sub-par engine. 

ClearWaterMS said:

not related to the new tacoma but as it relates to the 4runner, is the next generation still based on the tacoma platform?  does anybody have any links/details on that new vehicle (the next generation 4runner)  

 

The buzz is that they moving the taco and 4runner to the new global TNGA-F platform that underpins the latest tundra, sequoia and land cruiser.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyota_New_Global_Architecture

Berck said:

mr2s2000elise said:

Hope Toyota does a MT in a LB, but probably won't. 

To be clear, you can get the long bed with a manual, but only with the access cab; this is what I have.  Which is fine, trucks aren't supposed to have back seats.

All 4 of our Toyota trucks are DCLB - as we carry illlegal aliens all over the farm for work

Fupdiggity (Forum Supporter) said:

Berck said:

Interesting that this is confirmed, but I wonder if they're going to do something silly like limit it to the 4-cylinder engine.  If the top spec engine is a turbo/hybrid that looks to have sufficiently improved highway/towing fuel economy over the current V6, and is available with the 6 speed, I'd be seriously tempted to upgrade...

Reports seem to indicate the taco will get a turbo 4 and turbo/hybrid 4. I'm not sure if there will be a lower spec non-turbo 4 and I doubt the v6 caries over, but I don't really know anything. I'd guess the top spec hybrid will be auto only, but hopefully they don't saddle the manual with a sub-par engine. 

I'd bet no hybrid / manual, as the Toyota hybrid systems have not historically been compatible with a manual trans. 

Berck said:

In reply to buzzboy :

I mean, these days it seems like a most "pickup trucks" are just SUVs with a weird parcel shelf tacked on to the back, anyway, so you may be on to something.  I've never understood the point of a truck that can't comfortably haul a stack of 4x8 plywood.  What do people do with these silly short beds anyway, keep their purses back there?

Well you can use it to tow your race car and have room for the whole race team. 

Please tell me that the shift knob will sport an L on it. :) 

So everything gets the 2.4L 4-cylinder turbo with varying levels of tune and hybridization.  As expected, the hybrid option is sadly only available with the automatic.  But, the manual transmission version is tuned for 280hp and 210hp of torque, which sounds comparable to the 278hp/265lb-ft outgoing V6.  I wonder how driveable it'll be.  The current V6 is pretty sluggish until it wakes up around 3,600rpm, which feels like wringing its neck.  If the turbo spools low enough, the 4 cylinder could be a vast improvement.  Definitely expecting better fuel economy numbers, though those aren't released yet.  I'm worried that a turbo isn't going to be great for reliability.  On the other hand, it'll be a lot better at actually delivering power at the 9,200ft elevation I live at.

It checks a lot of boxes for me, and I wasn't really considering replacing my 2020, but now I'm thinking about it.  Mine is used pretty much exclusively as a racecar hauler.  Sometimes to gather lumber for woodworking projects, and a couple times a year to haul wood pellets.  I like to think I'll also use it to hit some trails and go camping in places I otherwise couldn't, but I haven't actually done that since I bought it.  Something like a Tundra would probably be better suited for the towing, but the Tacoma gets the job done.  It's rated at 6,400lbs capacity which is well more than an E30 on an open trailer weighs.  It's not as fast uphill as I'd like, but I also like not having to own/pilot/park a behemoth.  If the Tundra came with a manual, I'd have bought that.  My biggest objection to an automatic transmission for this use case is the kickdown downshifts drive me nuts.  I like being able to climb a hill wide-open throttle in 6th gear.  Automatics just won't let you do this, and the downshift while under full power is just terrible.  And if necessary, I like being able to downshift before starting up the hill and opening the throttle.

Oddly, the promised extra 7 inches of bed depth is a huge selling point for me.  I use a tonneau (haven't wanted to deal with a full shell) to keep all my gear covered on the way to the track.  An extra 7 inches would make packing for the track substantially easier.

Seeing if they fixed (a) the terrible ratio for reverse gear, and (b) if the fuel economy numbers are better will be key.  I get anywhere from 13-18mpg (mostly depending on wind) towing at 75mph, which doesn't sound that far off from the giant trucks.

Berck said:

My biggest objection to an automatic transmission for this use case is the kickdown downshifts drive me nuts.  I like being able to climb a hill wide-open throttle in 6th gear.  Automatics just won't let you do this, and the downshift while under full power is just terrible.  And if necessary, I like being able to downshift before starting up the hill and opening the throttle.

You can always force a pre-emptive downshift with an auto, but most won't let you prevent a downshift.  That said, unless you're dealing with an engine that doesn't apply any power enrichment under heavy throttle, cranking along at near WOT in top gear up a hill isn't saving you any gas, just maybe a little bit of noise. 

I did some testing (with the instant MPG display and wideband O2) in the Jeep at one point and found that with any decent amount of trailer behind it, highway cruising MPG on flat ground was slightly better in 4th vs 3rd (converter locked in both cases), but as soon as you got to a hill, the difference disappeared entirely.  Except that you had very little ability to accelerate uphill without a downshift in 4th at 65 with a heavy trailer, while 3rd had enough surplus power to accelerate up a 7% grade.  The big difference was that in 4th, you were almost on the edge of power enrichment cruising on flat ground and well into it for the hill climb (being near WOT in terms of manifold vacuum).  In 3rd, it rarely went rich even on a decent hill at highway speed as you were never getting close to WOT. 

Welp, so much for this.  Just spent some time on the Toyota build site to discover that there are no manual transmissions to be had with a 6 foot bed.  For the 3rd gen, you could only get the manual transmission with either the access cab with 6 foot bed, or the double cab with 5 foot bed.  Now there's no manual transmission with a 6 foot bed on either cab choice.  Only available with double cab and 5 foot bed.

A truck with a 5ft bed is not a truck, it's a toy with a parcel shelf on the back.

Here's hoping this changes in future years.  It does appear that they fixed the terrible gear ratios for 1st/reverse, but kind of a moot point if I can't have the 6 foot bed.