auto or manual

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Hey guys,

I just found this amazing forum!
Well, i'm 25y live in Belgium and i'm looking for a 3drs 90 prado '99 3.0diesel.
I've searched the web for days know, finally i'm here :-)
What i'd like to ask you guys is:
I never owned a 4x4 before and i was wondering if i'd buy one with an automatic or manual transmission. I've tried several 4x4's from friends but they were all manual, so i cant make the comparison.
Is an automatic trans better or worse in offroad situations?
Is an 90series auto better than theone with stickshift?

Srry for the bad english and hope you'll have some fun answering my noob questions ops:

[Chippy Addicted PP Member Find all posts View Profile Close Chippy]

G'day mate

Here in Oz we get to play in sand a lot and, IMHO, nothing beats the auto for sand work.

I also had the opportunity, last night, to watch a petrol Grande tackle a really ugly hill climb - big ruts, tree stumps and rocks - but the auto took all the guess work out of gear selection and saved the driver from situations where rolling backwards at all would have meant damage.

My 2 cents.

Cheers
Chippy

[Snaga Wishing I was lost Find all posts View Profile Close Snaga]

Me, I'm an Auto 95 series (5 door version) and it really does take the guess work out of most situations. The manual would still have the advantage with lower crawl speeds than the auto but I haven't had a problem with where I've taken mine.

[Zubey Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close Zubey]

Hi,

I've owed both, and its a matter of horses for courses. Nothing beats a manual for steep rugged declines. I would go as far to say the manual is atleast half the speed of a auto when declining steep hills fully loaded in 1st & 2nd low range. Giving a lot better control and braking.

On the other hand I now spend more time on the blacktop in cities and so nothing beats the auto there.

Cheers Zubey

[big al Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close big al]

AUTO V MANUAL.

Tha cats going in with the birds on this one .If you are a trueblue 4+4 man ,M for man ,M for manual.If you are buying for the misses then get her a auto car and reduce the hazard.If you intend to share please leave me out of this one...oops to late. :shock:

[McBAIN Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close McBAIN]

manual for me. love it! but auto would be handy in peak hour traffic!

[carrot Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close carrot]

The manual would still have the advantage with lower crawl speeds than the auto but I haven't had a problem with where I've taken mine.

Is that true??? I thought autos have lower gearing. Also, I've heard that more and more competition trucks are going auto.

:?

[Palko Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close Palko]

I've always thought that autos were a bit ho-hum but now that I have an auto V6, I wouldn't live without it. I spend a fair bit of time travelling around Central Australia where I live and she's a breeze in the dry riverbeds. And the auto is especially great at the moment as I've broken my left arm. I would be car-less without it. :wink:

[Guest Close Guest]

Automatic choice

IMHO there is not much of a choice in this type of vehicle: the auto wins every time. I drive a 3,4 litre V6 auto, now with 205 000 km all over southern Africa. I especially like driving in Namibia, where a car really has to be good to survive. The way the Prado automatic handles these conditions is just unbelievable: it just goes on an on as if there is no tomorrow. It seems that the rougher the terrain the more the automatic transmission loves it. There is no clutch to burn on steep hills, and it can go at ANY speed you want, even 0,001 km/h! After this distance both engine and gearbox are still in tip-top condition.

[Roktruk Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Roktruk]

I love my auto (2001 TD), apart from the fact that TD manuals are as rare as rocking horse #$#@.

I was dubious about the electronic gizmos (TX with the ETC), but after a year I love it and pay no attention to the disturbing noises that emanate from underneath when it's working. I've rethought spending the cash on lockers now, which will be re-directed elsewhere.

Locked in low first, it's not as slow as the old 80 for crawling, but it's still better than some of the manual petrols we travel with. A bit of judicious left foot braking and I haven't taken it anywhere the 80 wouldn't have gone. Can't be beat for climbing and mud and sand and.....

[StormyKnight Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close StormyKnight]

Just finished 200km offroad in the Vic High Country.

For me the auto was excellent with only 1 or two spots on the whole trip where a little lower 1st gear would have been handy.

The biggest (only?) disadvantage of the Auto is the engine braking, but you do have to be in some serious country for you to notice it. Most downhill tracks are fine irrelivant of their steepness, unless they contain rocks, ruts, tree roots & other obstacles that you need to proceed over more slowly. The rocks & tree roots we were driving over on some of these steeper sections was enough to get the wheels airborne which ofcourse without lockers meant an immediate loss of traction & a subsequent increase in downhill speed. Here I was wishing for a manual!

There is another issue that in modern cars isn't as apparent but will become evident in a 4WD due to its weight & that is extended downhill decents at bitumen road speeds whilst using the brakes. Eventually the brakes will heat up & become very soggy. To fix this you need to change your technique even on the bitumen & deselect the overdrive & even on occasion manually selecting 2nd gear. Offroad, you will need to manually switch the gear lever back through the gears if you want to avoid excessive use of the brakes.

A 3rd but minor issue is that in low range, overdrive is not available meaning that the max speed in low range is around 50km/h......I believe the manual with the option of using the overdrive gear would allow a faster speed without having to stop & select high range.

On the plus side, nothing beats an auto up hill. You simply select 'D' & adjust the throttle for your desired speed. In fact generally the Prado will choose 2nd gear low as the climbing gear unless you back right off to idle over the contour banks where it will switch back to 1st. By the time you have gone down the other side its back into 2nd.

Only 1 hill whist away did it prefer to stay in 1st & that was a really steep hill that needed a bit more throttle to keep forward progress. It was rocky & had tree roots all over it, interspersed with patches of fine bulldust.

After 200km off road, I can't imaging how many clutch shifts my mates made whilst mine was changing 'automatically'.

& PS...the auto is faster off the mark, has a higher top gear (lower rpm @ the speed limit), & loves sand....

All I could hope for is that my next auto is a 5 or 6 speed!

Cheers :lol:

[plucker Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close plucker]

I have no doubt that in a lot of fourbie situations the auto would eat the manual alive. Sand mud and other slipprey conditons you just point and shoot so to speak. 2 pedals stop and go and they can be used for variations. More to concerntrate on the road ahead.

I still chose manual for the fact I can push start mine if the battery dies. Can the new Prados with auto do this?

I also use the gearing down to slow down most of the time whereas autos you just break. Too many years in a truck I spose. This is especially helpfull with the boat on the back with the esky full of fish.

[Snaga Wishing I was lost Find all posts View Profile Close Snaga]

I use the OD on my auto all the time rather than ride the brakes... down the gateway bridge the OD off stops the car running away without the use of brakes... down Mt Tambourine (very steep sections on the black top) I use 2nd all the time... it's a lovely aroma following someone riding the brakes down that hill :shock:

Off road I regularly keep it in 2nd on dirt tracks so the gearing doesn't get to high... I prefer to keep the revs a little higher so the V6 is more responsive when needed.

I commented on the weekend that I'm sure I'd have no problems driving a manual but the enjoyment factor is so much higher with an auto it would take some serious off road situations for me to consider a manual.