[Climber76]

I wonder though...I had to go with an automatic for a variety of reasons having to do with who else was going to drive the truck...but I bet around town, if you shift early and use neutral whenever you can coast, you can probably do better with the manual. I live in Albuquerque where the whole city is on a gentle slope. With a manual you can drive for miles rolling downhill in neutral. With the automatic, as several people have pointed out, it locks up as soon as it can, and then doesn't unlock when you lift the gas, so you get engine breaking when you don't want it, even if it's in 5th.

So, real world, in a mixed freeway/city streets driving, I bet a manual does better. The other time I really prefer a manual is on the highway mountainous country. If you know your truck and what speed it will hold in different gears, you can just mash the accelerator and operate at moderate RPMs and a high manifold pressure when climbing. That's the most efficient way to get around, it doesn't hurt the engine as long as you know what you're doing. My automatic downshifts on every freekin' upgrade, lots of drama and noise that seems unnecessary.

I would go manual if you can, unless you drive long freeway miles in mostly flat country, in which case the auto is the clear winner.