Pick -up trucks with manual gearboxes used to be the norm. There is a good reason for that. Trucks were also mainly used as working vehicles. Whether you pull a stump at a work location or drag a trailer full of stone – or your boat at the weekend – manual gearboxes had a real role to play. Especially when older vending machines were notoir less robust.
But that was then. Ford recently told us that one of the reasons that they cannot sell the Maverick Hybrid with a standard machine, but is only with a CVT, durability and fuel consumption. The CVT is more efficient, but it can’t handle that much torque. Meaning: the automatic reigns supreme for strength.
Meanwhile a truck that competes with Fords other Mid-Size Truck, De Ranger, is the Toyota Tacoma.
And unlike that Ford, it is the very last pick -up that is sold in the US to offer a manual gearbox. For now. We say that Toyota sold more than 300,000 conventional (non-hybrid) tacomas due to the first two quarters of 2025. It is by far the best-selling medium-sized pick-up in America.
In the same six -month window, Toyota only sold 5,427 GR86 sports cars. Yet Toyota has still sold more manual gearbox GR86s than Tacomas in 2025. How long can the last pick-up of the stick shift stay in America? We have a number of ideas.
- Base Trimmotor
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I-Force 2.4L ICE
- Base -trim transmission
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8-speed automatic
- Basic trim drive
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Four -wheel drive
- Basic Trim PK
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228 HP @6000 tpm
- Base -Trim couple
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243 LB.-FT. @ 1600 tpm
The hot tacoma
The pace of 2025 Tacoma turnover has risen, a scorching increase of 88 percent compared to the number last year. There are two reasons why. The newest tacoma of the Tacoma, the fourth generation of Tacoma, debuted last year, but you could not get every class of the new truck until this year. While the sale was demolished in 2024, customers were on their wallet, awaiting the new new ones.
However, you cannot get the strongest engines that are linked to Toyota’s six -speed gearbox, so wanting to saddle the self -renewal of those customers with less electricity. That is the case even when, technically speaking, the same 2.4-liter engine is under the hood of both trucks with eight-speed gearbox machines and six-speed manuals. And Toyota also no longer offers its cheapest SR model with a manual.
So at the moment you can only order a manual with the TRD Sport and TRD Off-Road, and you can only have it in AWD versions if you want a manual. For your information: Due to gear restrictions, the 270 hp 2.4-liter version with the manual gearbox truck down of 278 hp and 317 pound-foot torque in the automatic version of the same truck.
And you cannot have the 326 hp hybrid with a stick, so manual gearboxes in Tacoma Land means a number of the reasons that you may want one, such as more pulling power.
| Tacoma TRD Sport | Tacoma TRD Off-Road | Tacoma TRD Sport I-Force Max | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Engine | Turbo compressor 2.4-liter 4-cylinder | Turbo compressor 2.4-liter 4-cylinder | Turbo compressor 2.4-liter 4-cylinder hybrid |
| Transfer | Manual six -speed gearbox | Manual six -speed gearbox | Eight rapes automatically |
| Horsepower | 270 hp | 270 hp | 326 HP |
| Couple | 310 LB-FT | 310 LB-FT | 465 LB-FT |
| Max Towing | 6,500 pounds | 6,500 pounds | 6,000 pounds |
| Max Payload | 1,705 pounds | 1,705 pounds | 1,710 pounds |
| Start MSRP | $ 43,795 | $ 43,795 | $ 46,720 |
Two silver linings
Do you still want that manual? Okay, Toyota charges you $ 800 fewer Then if you have chosen the automatic in the TRD sport and $ 1,100 less than if you have the car TRD road of eight gears.
And to relieve equipment, Toyota lends from his bowl of sports cars and includes the Herroeplosief technology. They also add a coupling start antereerer with which you can start off-road on a steep slope without suppressing the coupling.
What is missing?
In addition to the fact that you cannot get the manual and the most powerful and most economical engine from Toyota, you will get a pick-up with Toyota’s Multi-Terrain system (essentially reprogramming stability and traction control), although the off-road crawl function that works as a slow cruise-road-road-road.
Why could Toyota finally kill his Tacoma manual?
Toyota is the last American truck brand that sells a pick-up with three pedal. The only earlier holdout was jeep, but they have added that option to the Gladiator at the end of last year. There is no pick-up in full size with a stick, and there has been none since RAM killed that choice in 2018, and rivals such as the Nissan Frontier eliminated their way back in 2019 because of the low demand. Based on the percentages that are shared with top speed of Toyota, we assume that they have sold no more than 1,440 tacomas with manuals up to and including 1 July this year.
And we suspect that they have sold just about double that number of GR86s with manuals.
Toyota does not break Gr Corolla from the total Corolla sales, but Reuters Reports that every year there is enough demand for at least 10,000 gr Corollas in the US, and Toyota shared that no less than 72 percent of the GR Corolla customers want the stick.
That’s all great; It means that there is a strong incentive for manuals to survive in Toyota sports cars.
But the costs for making Toyota that makes gearboxes for their pick -ups cannot be turned out. That is a small take rate, and even as Taco-fans complaint, they clearly not really order the hands-down most popular medium-sized truck in America with a manual gearbox. If customers don’t want it, Toyota doesn’t make it.
Take top speeds
We asked Toyota where manuals still sell, and the answer surprised us: the northeastern US and the Bergwest. The latter is logical, but the first? You would guess California, but that is not what the figures say. What that says to us is that if you want a manual tacoma, first act quickly. Who knows how long Toyota she keeps selling? And secondly, when the only option becomes a used taco, your search query expands nationally and focuses on Colorado. And maybe, shocking, the state of New York, Massachusetts and Connecticut.
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