Standard vs Auto for towing?

[Everyroadleadshome]

I can give you one real world example. I owned a 97 Ranger with a 4.0 V6 manual and it towed my 7x12 trailer full of tools pretty good. Two years later I came across a much lower mileage 97 Ranger with a 4.0 V6 Automatic for a deal too good to pass up. Bought it then sold mine. The auto with the exact same truck couldn't tow that trailer to save it's life, was dangerous getting on the highway it took so long to get up to speed.

But, in my case, neither of those two Rangers were the right vehicle for what I was asking of them. So if you are towing with an underpowered vehicle to start with, you'd probably do better with a standard. If you're towing with the right size vehicle, I don't think it's going to make much of a difference. Especially with the newer automatics you can manually select your gears if wanted. I have a 2013 Silverado and if i'm towing at it's max capacity I'll usually do the gear selecting myself to get up steep hills, outside of that I just let it do it's thing.

But I do love driving a manual and I wish they still offered them in most or all vehicles. Europe and other parts of the world still love and offer the manuals. Americans not so much.