Best Manual Transmission Trucks for 2024
These are the best manual transmission trucks based on iSeeCars' analysis of each vehicle’s reliability, resale value and safety.
Many lists ranking manual transmission trucks may already exist, but those depend mostly on subjective editorial criteria. iSeeCars' Best Manual Transmission Trucks are ranked using a data-driven and objective methodology. By applying data science to over 330 million vehicles, iSeeCars analyzes each car to understand its reliability and how long-lasting it is, its safety, and how well it holds its value over time. Each manual transmission truck is compared to others within its own category, and the best one in a given category is the model with the best ratings across these three key areas, summarized by the iSeeCars Quality Score. Here are the top models in each manual transmission truck category:
The best manual transmission midsize truck is the Toyota Tacoma (8.8 quality rating).
The low cost, workhouse nature of trucks ensured they always came with a manual “stick shift” drivetrain for much of their history. But the manual option for pickup trucks has nearly vanished in the modern world, leaving only automatic transmissions for most truck buyers. New car shoppers seeking a three-pedal truck can still find one in the Jeep Gladiator and Toyota Tacoma, but similar midsize trucks like the Chevrolet Colorado, Ford Ranger, GMC Canyon and Nissan Frontier have joined the rest of the industry in all but abandoning manual transmission vehicles.
The same can be said for larger, full-size American trucks from Chevy, Ford, GMC and Ram, as well as the emerging small truck category, with automakers like Ford and Hyundai providing car-like trucks with four-cylinder engines and excellent fuel economy, but no manual transmission options.
One could argue that everything from towing to off-roading with a truck’s four-wheel-drive system is simpler when using an automatic transmission, but the increased control that comes with a manual gearbox can’t be recreated, even by today’s best automatic transmissions.
iSeeCars has identified the best trucks that come with a manual transmission below. These trucks are ranked by their iSeeCars quality score, which takes reliability, resale value, and safety into consideration. Additional information, including horsepower, mpg ratings, new and used pricing, and whether each truck comes with a five-speed or six-speed manual transmission, is also included.
How We Rank These Cars
The best manual transmission cars rank vehicles by iSeeCars Score which is based on our proprietary assessment of a vehicle’s reliability, resale value and safety (based on ratings from IIHS and NHTSA).
We analyze data from over 12 million new and used vehicles in our Longest-Lasting Cars and 5-Year Depreciation Studies, combined with the NHTSA's Safety Ratings to give you an unbiased guide to the best vehicles in each segment.
iSeeCars Score is an analysis of three factors: reliability, resale value and safety. It is calculated based on the latest research and analysis by our data science team. The data analysis comes from over 12 million new and used vehicles in our Longest-Lasting Cars and 5-Year Depreciation Studies, combined with NHTSA and IIHS Safety Ratings.
Vehicles are scored in three categories:
Reliability
The reliability score represents an analysis of iSeeCars' proprietary research on the longest-lasting vehicles.
Value Retention
The value retention score is based on our data science team's statistical analysis and prediction of 5-year depreciation from MSRP to determine which cars hold their value best, using US Bureau of Labor Statistics data to adjust for inflation.
Safety
The safety score is calculated based on the last five years of crash test ratings from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and incorporates the latest Top Safety Pick information from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS).
