Quote Originally Posted by blacksambo View Post
Isuzu was looking for lots of street exposure of the VX design to trumpet their style capability. Average Joe's climbing rock piles was not the intended purpose. That terrain already belonged to dowdy Jeeps.
Surprisingly the trend is going toward auto transmissions in the 4 wheeling scene mainly because its much easier to drive an auto in rough terrain. Racing is manual transmission's last stand but with dual clutch autos now being used in supercars, they may be fazed out on the track too.

Personally I love manuals & can't wait to be stalling out on those rock piles soon