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why auto

sinastergator

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Sep 15, 2022
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great_britain
morning all,i have a new landcruiser which is an awesome machine and a merc sl which is now sorned,can anyone tell me the reason why toyota only sell the automatic in the UK,surely a 4x4 would naturally be manual and i certainly would have gone for this option, the sl is an auto too and again a sports car should be manual also,thoughts please
 
Have you ever driven a Auto ? I will not have a manual now I have a 100 series in auto and as far as I am concerned the auto will out drive
the other one, it is so easy to drive weather on a motorway or in 10" of mud I cannot say about the SL but I guess its not far off
 
hello i have driven my sl for 12 years now and although it has a gearbox which you can use as a manual as well as auto i would still prefer the manual ,i was a trucker for many years jamming 16 speed manual boxes ,maybe thats why i like them.my 1999 colorado was manual and i loved it. to me manual gearboxes need a little more skill and enable the driver to utilise the gears for a better driving experience,thanks for the reply,mike
 
I too was a trucker for too many years wrangling 16 speed manual boxes, some back to front types, but after a 70 series auto 15 years and now the 120, I would never go back to a manual box.
As Steve says, easy in all conditions.
Maybe it's an age thing.
 
hello,i get it that it is a personal choice and it could be an age thing as i am rapidly approaching 3 score and ten and have a few million driving miles under my generous belt but the reason for the post is why the manuals are sold around the world but not the UK,seems strange
 
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Auto = Lazy = Luxury . Few who have genuine use for a 4x4 in the UK can actually afford to buy a new one so market is swamped with bankers choice .

If you were willing to wait i'm sure they could deliver a new manual if it exists in other countries .
 
hello,when i ordered the car i was told that toyota will not supply a manual gearbox on uk cars,just wondered why
 
Had an auto and yes it was lazy and very good. But when going down a very very long very very steep hill that cooked the brakes - its been 4 manuals since then.
Its about what you will be using the truck for that will help to make up your mind
 
Really depends on the use TBH - in reality in the UK Toyota are not expecting new Cruisers to be used off road, and hence auto.

There are pros and cons to off roading manual vs auto - I've ran several of both - e.g. for rock crawling, auto every time; for more general exploring, manual gives you more control and options, especially as Ben mentions, if you are coping with a lot of steep gradients.
 
Its very much a personal thing i think unless its for a very specific task such as rockcrawling or wheel diggers .

Hummer H2 6L V8 321hp auto was simply astonishing to drive but the novelty soon wore off on a trip of any distance . I'd let my speed gradually drop just so i could floor it occasionally - hear it roar - feel like i was driving instead of just being a passenger with a steering wheel .
 
Everyone to their own, I'm an auto man, and a class one driver/operator. I have shifted to all auto's truck wise, better for everything especially driver and driveline fatigue and I go right back to the AEC, Leyland/Seddon/ERF days with non synchro straight cut gearboxes with non air assisted clutches. Noisy and hard work and a poor driver can kill a clutch in no time.
I can't see any point in making something harder work than it needs to be and crawling along in slow traffic holdups with any manual is harder work than it needs to be.

The demand for auto 4X4's has undoubtedly shifted to auto's in the UK and elsewhere over the years, the majority of 60's were manual in the UK, 80's were about 50/50 ( except 95-7 when you could only buy a manual and sales suffered) then 100's were nearly all auto, 120's too and the 200, all auto.

Now if I was driving a Lotus Elan/ MX5 or anything of similar ilk ........
 
thanks for all your comments,i too have been a trucker for well over 40 years and driven all types of gearboxes and on occasion been forced to drive wagons with no clutch hundreds of miles to get back to base, doing a highland fling on the crash box - happy days but it shortened your life by a year or two. so the concensus is that it was the power of the purchasers who demanded autos instead of manuals got their way ,however why then do toyota still sell manuals in other countries and why do they not intend to bring the new big one over to the uk,i feel that once again the brits seem to get the raw deal,your comments please
 
one more thing ,i was surprised and pleased that after waiting for 6 months for the car,i drove the motor off the forecourt and the value had actually increased considerably on the price i paid ,how is that for a novelty - we are living in crazy times
 
Personally i think its a salesman's job to sell what they have . The logistics nightmare is Global so only the most stubborn will get what they want .

I'm reminded of story very hazy in my memory of someone who having misread or correctly read a typo somewhere was demanding an underpowered engine in whatever car it was and ultimately was told "we can supply it if you insist but your going to regret it" .

My brother in law was told by Ford he can have the standard colour of his choosing but only if he waits a year for delivery , but they can deliver a brand new green one in 2 days .
 
I think you hit the nail on the head there Shayne, in salesmans job to sell what they have.
If he kept saying no to people's demands because they had no stock, he would get no commission(wages) and probably P45.
As for most stubborn getting what they want, - add most rich to that too, money talks !
 
Hence you have the power and all you have to do is walk away - they will chase you .
 
I'm still trucking, of a fashion, sadly my lot won't specify a manual box even from Daf which seem to be about the only maker that still offers them, give me eye teeth for a 14 litre Cummins Eaton Twin Splitter box Rockwell axle drivetrain again.

There's a whole world of difference between the awful automated manual boxes fitted to modern trucks, there are not enough foul words in the alternative dictionary to adequately describe my loathing of the things which alone have served to deskill an entire industry, and the lovely super smooth robust torque converter autos as found in our Toyota 4x4's and MBs.
I too would never go back to a manual gearbox by preference in a car or in one of our Toyota 4x4s, when we bought a new Hilux in 2007 we specced auto and it was just as much a joy of a box as the Prado enjoys, our ageing W124 is auto as is our Subaru, both are good to drive though obviously completely different in all manner of ways.
TC autos do it all, infinitely variable application of power (our Subaru tends to just launch itself like a scalded cat, but that's an unusual case), barely noticeable gearshifts always in the right gear ad never give a moments trouble.
However would not have an automated manual box in a car for any price nor a DSG or whatever name they come up with the wallet emptying boxes favoured by some German marques, and defeniately none of the new CVT's that in some marques self destruct barely out of warranty to the tune of £4000 upwards, effectively scrapping the vehicle.

Our old 70 series had the 3 litre engine and was manual, but that engine was amazingly tractable, would pull (Cummins like) from 800rpm without protest and was almost impossible to stall, so it made manual driving a pleasure, i've driven many car Diesels (and Landrover Diesels) with manual gearboxes and found them to be horrible peaky things that you constantly had to play the gearbox because below some ridiculously high turbo spool-up revs the engine would bog down and possible stall out and then went like hell for about 1500revs then you had to change up again...going back to Landrovers we had to put them in low range just to load them onto car transporters where new Toyota 4x4s would romp up the decks in normal drive.

An anecdote for you, back when the first versions of automated manual were being rolled out i delivered some new cars to one main dealer who asked me what i thought of the box, i told him i wasn't impressed as maneuvering in particular was a joke, he told me they were a good box on the motorway...just let that sink in lads, a good box for driving along mile after mile in top gear was the best thing about them according to the bloke selling them.
 
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