i read it and bought what i saw made some sense with the idea of clutches relieving force when needed but before then had always believed in the strength of the manual less parts less trouble only reason at all i am happy with my auto is because often i am in a ton of traffic and other than that alot of the time doing too much in my truck to be shifting

but it would be no more of this time bomb of a e40d i have now with 170k miles on it thats on and of shifts rough... still a good auto tranny though

 

by 96 the E4OD was indeed a reliable trans, and if you're in alot of traffic the auto is a nice convenience, but frequent towing will fry autos quicker than sticks

 

I'm all for sticks, as I posted earlier, but out of the 140,000 miles on my C6, close to 80,000 were towing about 10,000 lbs. It still shifts great, I have never had a problem with it slipping. And the Chevy Kodiak 4500 wrecker (truck weighs 14,400 lbs.) I drive has about 56,000 miles on it and it performs as well as any automatic could be expected to, but I would still rather have a third pedal on the floor.

So an auto that is properly equiped with a cooler and possibly a shiftkit (I have one in my C6) will last when towing, but sticks do have advantages. But autos do have their advantages, I would love to see someone who could shift their ZF as fast as my C6 shifts!

 

C6s are beefy as hell, and the shift speed is true, alot of drag racers used beefed up autos. Regardless I still think an auto is somewhat of an inconvenience, like when i want my truck to downshift but don't really want to suck up more gas, i have to put the pedal down anyway so it downshifts, also using your transmission to slow you down in snow and slippery conditions isn't good for an auto, but sticks take it like champs

 

My preference is autos they can shift in snow, mud or pulling a hill where a stick would lose its momentum, keeping you in the lower gear.Their are pros and cons to both and you have to decide which fits your driving conditions. A bad driver can destroy either one as a good driver can make either one last..Also on older autos they were not as fuel efficent as manuals due to 3 gears only. The newer 4 speed autos and up with locking converters have cured this problem.

 

The Final word on the crew with the standard trany.
I called the dealership that has/had it just to see if it was still there. Turns out the owner was who answered the phone. The jerk insulted me with obscene launguage which I did nothing to provoke. The call lasted about a minute before he hung up on me. I think his issue is/was he gets lots of calls about his internet adds from tire kickers and I guess he has a small operation. However I did not deserve to be insulted like that, it is his chosen buisness and he should be polite all the time not just when it suits him. I can only hope his poor business practice ruins his dealership. the dealership? Carsystems in San Fransico CA.

 

I wan't ever buy a stick again. Call it old age, set in my ways, whatever, I just don't want to shift gears. Automatics are so much more comfortable to drive and they are especially nice for pulling in the hills and stop and go traffic. The biggest detriment to an automatic is HEAT! Control the heat with the proper cooling equipment and change the fluid regularly and they will last a long time. Just my opinion.

 

I tend to agree, to some degree. For trailer hauling, I almost prefer an old C6 or E4OD(the newer automatic transmissions, I don't trust so much) to my four and five speed manual trannies. A lot less clutch dust lying about, that's for sure.

 

Lost-in-the-thread question: No, there isn't any way to cool a manual tranny. The fluid in an automatic is pumped by the tranny itself, and acts as hydraulic fluid; thus, it can be pumped out to an external cooler (either the garden variety coil inside the engine radiator tank or a stand-alone cooler that usually hangs in front of the engine rad). But manuals have no pump; they're just a box of gears, and the "fluid", even if the stuff itself is ATF, is just an oil bath that "sloshes" around as the gears pass through it. You'd have to introduce an external pump in order to work in any auxiliary cooling.

If you've driven manual before, in any vehicle, you're "over the hump" wrt. towing with a manual. As suggested above, most screw-ups from towing with a manual are not because of the towing, but because of incompetence with a manual. Not an issue for you.

I can think of a slew of other reasons to choose manual. For starters (no pun intended), the automatics use the brake light circuit to determine when/whether to lock the torque converter. And since our trucks still have the '70s holdover combined stop/turn signal bulb, AND a center stop light that stays on independent of the turn signals, you hear lots of weird stories about folks with simple lighting issues (short, burned-out bulb, etc.) causing the TC to unlock. Eek! I've also heard that your average car thief is no more likely to know how to drive stick than your average non-thief, so a manual tranny is a theft deterrent.

 

I would think most men would know how to drive a manual transmission. The issue is primarily one of preference. I drove a manual for years. I now drive an automatic. That's what I prefer. It does just fine. The original poster will just have to make up his mind as to which he prefers.

 

True.
However, I think the deciding factor is going to be availablity. I want a stick but can only find auto's, and as I said before the only manual I found is kind of far away and the dealer is a bit of an ***. Wasn't for that I would be driving up there to get.

 

You'd be surprised. Many years ago, I had to pick up my (female) veterinarian's kid from day care, because neither of her (male) clinic employees could drive her 5-speed Escort (puke) equpped with the child seat. I've heard estimates that aprx. 20% of the driving population in the US knows how to drive a manual; haven't seen the breakdown by sex. But even if that 20% were ALL men (which it obviously isn't), that would still mean that only aprx. 40% of male drivers know how. I've (only half-jokingly) told people that I married my wife in part because she knew how to drive a manual.

But yeah, the real criterion is not which is better for towing, but which one the OP prefers for daily driving, since he'll probably be driving it a lot more without the trailer than with.

That's unfortunate. The PSD my wife found was aprx. 100 miles away, but the dealer was very cool and fair, def. worth the trip. Sad that the seller's shooting himself in the foot.

 

Availability is definitely a factor now. There are so many dealerships closing their doors, its scary. Not to worry though, Obama will soon be opening up his own dealerships.

 

Maybe if I can't find one with a manual after a few weeks I will drive up there and check to see what the deal is. If I get a good price on it...... still it is a definate wait and see what happens.
Really I want a manual because I think they are fun. Also this truck would not be used as a commuter so that lessens the traffice issue. What I have read here I do not think towing is an issue, and my wife and son both can drive a manual and rather well. So at this point it is just a matter of finding one.