Im looking to buy me a Chevy soon and seems like everything Ive seen so far has been a auto trans....been looking at the models 97-2002s....

The standard trans, is it still available or is it a thing of the past ?....

 

It's available, just not as common unless you're looking at a bare bones base model pickup. Anymore, with constantly sitting in traffic, people not wanting to lose floorspace and the fact so many can't drive a stick, they're not as common.

 

....also, unless you're looking for a heavy duty truck, manual transmissions only came with the 4.8L V8 in half ton trucks from 99 on.

Just curious, why do you want a manual trans?

Mr. Dragon is correct in the fact that most people don't know how to drive a stick, and that included a majority of those who own them. Everyone want's to be the boy racer, if you get my drift.

Today's automatics will actually give most people better gas mileage than sticks, and as mentioned above, are much better for city driving, and offer more floor space on long trips.
...and if you do want to be "speed racer" it's pretty hard to miss a gear with an automatic. Plus, with the right converter and valve body, they can shift faster than you can. lol

 

Personally, I love a manual transmission... just not in a truck. I used to plow with my boss's 98 Ram 2500 V10 5spd and after awhile I just got annoyed with trying to park it and back the damn thing up and all that jazz. Hooking up a trailer was a pain in the *** too cuz his clutch was out of adjustment.

As I said though, if you see me in a small car or anything like that, It's probably got a manual transmission to keep me from being bored while driving

 

They are out there, but fairly rare. I saw a 99 -> body with an 8.1 stick shift at the auction the other day. I had an 1994 5.7 stick shift many years ago man was that a fast stock truck. Good luck!

 

I'm no longer a manual fan. I prefer automatics. I'll be 62 years old, soon enough, and I have no need to drive to two feet any longer. I will admit though, as a teen and a young adult everything I owned was a stick. As I got older, I slowly grew away from them.

Even my trucks changed. Back in the day, my truck were sort of spartan. Now, they're very cushy. Power everything, and as far as I'm concerned, it MUST have AC. If it doesn't have AC it doesn't need tires either, because I won't drive it. lol

Another nice thing about being older is that I don't drive small cars any longer. I don't like Front wheel drive anything, and I don't like sitting with my butt lower than my knees! LMAO....

Anyway, everything I own now is a V8 or a diesel, everything is automatic, and everything is, at least a half ton! No need to stir the trans, 'cause I ain't racin' anybody.

 

Reason I mentioned a standard trans, thats what Ive had for the last 10 years or so and have gotten good gas mileage with them....and seems like the stick trans holds you back better going down a mountain....and I do have a nasty mountain to cross going to and from work....

But I do agree with you guys Im 50 now and having a little pain in my legs...

Just a little concerned about the auto trans due to the cost of maybe someday having a trans replaced in it...a guy I used to work with had a 99 chevy and had the auto trans replaced in it and it cost me 3500.00 for it...

Let me ask you all something, how well does the auto trans hold you back going down a steep hill ?.....

And while going down the steep hill wouldnt the speed allow the truck to speed up and shift into a higher gear and cause the truck to go into a slide or skid if you are on a slick road like snow or icey roads ?...

 

I don't know about going down a big mountain, as I've never done this in my truck before, but I know people do it all the time in regular automatic transmission cars. It's doable. I personally don't think it's anything to worry about, other than you're not as used to driving an auto versus a good ol' standard transmission.

If you ask me, Just grab what ever good deal comes along that suits your needs.

 

I don't know who rebuilt your transmission but they ripped you off. We just had ours rebuilt a couple of months ago and it's a 4x4 and it was $800.00.

 

By shifting the PRNDL down into a lower gear it locks them into a certain gear and is great for descending steep grades and is an awesome brake booster. I recently drove through Colorado in a 2004 Ford F250 Diesel and never had a problem when shifting into 3rd or 2nd to keep it at speed. The only thing was that after 100 miles or so I got annoyed and just threw it into towhaul so I wouldnt have to keep shifting up and down.

Towhaul, when unloaded is great because by tapping the brakes on a descent, it will automatically shift down. If you tap the brakes again, it will shift again and eventually run in the lowest gear possible. I'm not sure how well this works in the mountains in a gas truck, but in the diesel i was able to descend a 5% grade at a constant speed without touching the brakes... which is hard to do