RE: Automatic vs. 6-Speed
Ray,
I will start out by saying that I have been a stick guy since I started driving. I have always felt that I "enjoyed" driving a stick more than an automatic. Having said that, and in the sake of honesty, I have the following comments on both:
I must quickly point out that the automatic is in the 04 which has 90 less horses to play with. Another point that I have to make is that I do not have the writing skills that Jim G has been blessed with but will do the best I can to keep it factual. I have about 250 miles of experience with the 05 automatic which will be the basis for my automatic comments because it proves to be more of a heads up comparison for my 6-speed.
The "city driving" is based on the mostly flat terrain in and around Tampa, Florida. The "boulevard cruising" is based on small town events such as the monthly car shows in San Antonio and Plant City, Florida. As for the "running twisty roads" it is based on the roads in and around my home in Blue Ridge, GA whch is located in the Blue Ridge mountains.
In terms of Highway driving, there is really only one point to be made here. Due to the the factory gearing in the 6-speed should you need to pass, you will have to down-shift to a lower geart unless you are running speeds in excess of 80 miles per hour (assuming you are in sixth gear).
Automatic
There are both positive and negative aspects of the automatic. I will get the negative out early. The "drive-by-wire", and "abuse management" systems seem to inhibit ones ability to really let the horses run. I find that when I accelerate hard on one occasion I find myself planted against the back of my seat and smiling from ear-to-ear. On another occasion I will pound the accelerator to the floor and the SSR will wind up like a clock, make all sorts of impressive noise and go nowhere fast. The "controls" will kick in and shift into the next gear 2K before red line. I have not been able to determine the exact situation required to get consistant "stop light to stop light" performance out of this truck.
Having said the aforementioned, when the "controls" let me play, I believe that the automatic is an awesome choice if a majority of your driving will be around town, in traffic, or you need to tow a trailer. In terms of performace, there is very little "seat of the pants" difference between this automatic and the stick.
Six Speed
The six speed also has its positive and negative. I will once again get the negative out of the way. Because of the close ration used for the shift pattern this truck is more prone to mis-shifts. This could also be due to "fuel management" in the form of "skip-shift". The other "big hitter" would be the rear end gear ratio. At 60 MPH, the truck is running under 1400 RPM which requires a down-shift in the event of a grade greater than about 20%.
The great news with repect to the six speed is the fact that the "abuse management" is all but non existent. I can confirm the fact that you control the RPM that the vehicle shifts at as opposed to some computer. Once you get to red-line in first gear the rest of the gears go by quiclky and the performance is awesome. Although this vehicle will never be a 1/4 mile truck due to the weight, it has nothing to apologize for in terms of performance.
city driving
This is where the automatic is the bomb, when you are zipping around town and jumping lanes to get where you need (or want) to go quickly the automatic manages itself like a pro. The "rolling performance" of this vehicle is very consistant and provide a strong degree of confidence that you have the horses in the stable to squeeze into the next lane. In stop and go situations there is no need to leave a car length between you and the car in front of you because you have plenty of power to "keep the door closed" and you have the confidence that your braking system will stop this beast on a dime.
This is where the six speed is really at a disadvantage. I for one love a stick, but when you have gearing such as this you spend so much time shifting that it is no longer fun. Also, I have misshifted enough times that I do not have the confidence to weave in and out of traffic like I do in the automatic because I no longer trust the fact that I will hit the correct gear each and every time. Once again, I am STILL not used to the close ratio nature of this transmission. Maybe over time I will build confidence once again and city driving will be more enjoyable.
Clearly from my personal experienced the automatic wins hands down in this catagory. Once again, my PERSONAL opinion.
boulevard cruising
Okay in this catagory, I would say that once again it is mostly stop and go type driving but with a limited top speed. At least this is my interpretation of Rays heading. In this arena the automatic is a dream to drive given a light touch the factory exhaust sounds awesome and the truck really grabs attention. If you want you can manually downshift the automatic transmission to help slow the vehicle and it sounds just like a stick. The torque converter does a great job getting it off of the line and the stop light to stop light performance is great.
The six speed is also awesome for this style of driving. The ability to step on the clutch, press the gas a few times (even with the factory exhaust) really gets the crowd going. Of course there is nothing like the light factory popping when you use the transmission to slow you to a stop. I have to say in fairness that the high gear ration is not a factor in this style of driving because you only use the lower gears anyway.
Categorically speaking for this style of driving I will have to call is a draw. Both vehicles perform very well for this style of driving.
running twisty roads
The automatic does an admirable job of shifting to the required gear for twisty roads. Of course these trucks are a blast to drive although I personally believe that the suspensions are set up more for the street than the slalom. The automatic does just fine, but from where I sit that is not good enough. I guess that you could manually shift the automatic into lower gears and drive it like a stick but to be honest I have never tried so I have no knowledge as to whether or not the abuse management would kick in.
The six speed is the king of the twisty road, there is no feeling like the feeling you get when you control the power curve of the vehicle through the use of the transmission. There is enough torque in this vehicle that you can swing the rear end around the corner if you keep the RPM 's around 3000 in first or second gear and then step on the gas as you get halfway through the turn. I cannot express in writing how awesome the feeling is to have this beast on those twisty mountain roads. Of course you have the limited slip rear end so it is very possible to lose control of vehicle if you oversteer it on the other side of a turn.
I would have to say that the six speed hands down out performs the automatic in the catagory.
Closing
In closing, the opinions expressed here are my own. I do not profess to be an expert. This is based solely on my "seat of the pants" experience.
Overall, I believe that the choice of a standard verses an automatic should be based on the intended use of the vehicle. If I was only going to pull a trailer or use it as my daily commuter I would ONLY buy an automatic. On the other hand, if I wanted to go out and play with the vehicles on the back roads over a sunny weekend there is no question that I would purchase the stick.
My Best,
Rob
