2017 Tacoma, access cab, 4x4, I4, 5 speed manual, utility package. The exact truck I wanted. I was going to wait until next June for a truck, but Toyota killed the 5 speed manual for 2018. Purchased from a dealer in MA, they delivered it to my town hall in NH so I can register it and not pay MA sales tax. It's to drive to work, the dump, the range and the hardware store. I'm also in the 5 vehicle club now, but 2 of the kids have their DL and the youngest can start driving with a parent in about 8 months
Very nice truck Matt! I thought about getting a manual in my next one so that I could teach my grown kids how to drive one but my knees and I discussed the matter and they said that we're getting too old for such things - especially on these cold mornings.
I like a manual transmission. I usually shift without clutching. You can roll 'em down the barn bank to start 'em. More and more punks these days can't steal a vehicle with a transmission because they only know how to drive a juice box.
Buddy of mine from Wales calls a stick shift "an American anti-theft device". He lives in a dicey neighborhood in DC and nobody has ever tried to steal his car.
My almost 20 year old son and 16 1/2 year old daughter can drive a manual - I taught them on the '71 Corvette. I can still smell clutch, but they can do it. The almost 15 year old can start driving with a parent when he's 15 1/2 and will learn. He tries to be snarky one day and says "Dad, when are you gonna teach Mom to drive the Corvette?" thinking he's being funny - she got a little pissed that he thought she had no skills
'71 Vette - very nice! I learned to drive a clutch in my buddy's German-made Ford Fiesta (the old model). My daughter tells me that I'm looking at this clutch situation all wrong. She makes the case that she wants to learn how to drive a clutch and I want a bike, so why not get a bike and teach her on that as the basic principles are the same, both are motor vehicles and she really wants to get a bike. I like the way my daughter thinks but the Wife's response is an emphatic - No Bike!
Ha,ha, if you really want to blow their mind (youngsters that is) let them get behind the wheel of a vehicle that has three on the tree if you can even find one these day's, that's what I learned in, a 1960 GMC stepside. Tony
