Did You Know Toyota Made A Stick-Shift Tundra With An Eight-Foot Bed?

With so many different models out there, it can be hard to remember what cars were available with a manual transmission. Some are obvious, like the original Toyota RAV4, while others like the second-generation Kia Sorento often go undetected in regular traffic. Here’s another obscure one: For seven model years, Toyota put a manual transmission in its Tundra half-ton pickup truck, and one recently came up for auction on Bring A Trailer.

From the launch of the Tundra for the 2000 model year through 2004, the base model borrowed the first-generation Tacoma’s 3.4-liter 5VZ-FE V6. Cranking out an adequate 190 horsepower and 220 lb.-ft. of torque, it came standard with a five-speed manual transmission, and was the absolute entry point into the Tundra range. Perhaps unsurprisingly, this was also a powertrain carried over from the T100, Toyota’s weird half-step into the full-size pickup truck market. When an automaker has a reputation for being evolutionary and generally conservative with technology, this is the sort of product planning play that makes sense.

For 2005, Toyota upped the ante with a new standard V6. Shared with the second-generation Tacoma, the four-liter 1GR-FE is known for cranking out 236 horsepower and 266 lb.-ft. of torque until the vehicle it’s in simply returns to the elements. Mated to a six-speed manual transmission and offered exclusively with two-wheel-drive in the Tundra, this is one combination I’d put my money on for longevity, and it’s exactly what’s under the hood of the Tundra you see here.

With an entirely reasonable 74,000 miles on the clock, this 2006 Tundra looks remarkably nice considering its residence in New Jersey. Sure, there’s a bit of surface corrosion going on underneath, but the rocker panels and cab corners look straight, and the frame looks remarkably good for a nearly 20-year-old Toyota truck that’s spent its life in the northeast.

Although this might be the definition of a fleet-spec truck with hubcaps, crank windows, and the conspicuous absence of a tachometer, both the paint and the interior look to be in remarkably good shape. The driver’s side seat bolster still looks fresh, the urethane steering wheel still looks gnaw-worthy, the pedal pads aren’t worn smooth, and even the composite headlights don’t look terribly oxidized. It doesn’t look like you’d need any more than spit and polish to make this rare stick-shift Tundra really shine, and that condition combined with the Toyota truck tax makes a hammer price of $16,000 seem high but not exorbitantly so given the market.

While the limitation of V6 power may sound like a kneecapping, there’s another way to look at it. Sure, we’re essentially talking about the same powertrains you could get in equivalent Tacomas, but you couldn’t get a Tacoma with an eight-foot bed. If you’re looking for the simplicity of a manual transmission in a Toyota truck with the mission of maximum plywood haulage, the stick-shift Tundra is the one to have. A rated payload capacity of 1,565 pounds is nothing to sneeze at either, although a towing capacity of 5,000 pounds has since been eclipsed by newer trucks.

So there we are, a reminder that the stick-shift Toyota Tundra was a thing that existed. You might be more likely to see a bear wearing a party hat in the wild than one of these oddly equipped half-tons, but that doesn’t mean interesting beasts aren’t out there.

(Photo credits: Bring A Trailer)

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