If I had the room on the driveway, I would entertain getting something like that for the the few times a year I need a pick up for.
Cheaper to rent a U-Haul trailer a few times a year in the end. That's what I do. I don't miss my pickup truck much at all honestly.
I miss my stick shift.
Always reminds of the line I saw painted on the back of a drag car way back "I'd rather eat worms than drive an automatic"
Honestly, modern autos outperform sticks now in both performance and fuel economy, so aside from the "I like to feel the car" aspect, I don't really get the attraction anymore honestly. All of our class 8 tractors at work are now going to full auto as the new drivers just don't know how to operate a 10, 13, or 18 speed manual. Some of the old timers like me have got their boxers in a twist over it and moaned to the company about wanting a stick again, but me? I love it. I've been at this sh!t for almost 30 years, I have nothing to prove to anyone anymore, I can jam an 18 speed manual with the best of them if I needed to, but my left knee and right shoulder don't miss the shifting thing anymore honestly, especially when you spend a lot of time doing short hops and/or sitting in traffic where you shift hundreds of times a day.
I'll keep my auto tractor now, thanks.
On that front, they say that there's always a "last time" you do something, but you rarely know when that last time might be until you realize it's come and gone.
But when I drove another drivers tractor a few weeks back with 10 speed manual, I suddenly realized that
it might be the last time I ever shifted and drove a manual big truck. Sure enough that tractor went off to retirement last week when the odometer hit 750,000km. And that was the last manual at our terminal.
In the moment of realization, I snapped a photo of that "there's a last time for everything" moment. Which very well
was likely the last time.
I don't doubt the skill will remain with me forever, if I was to suddenly get into another manual tractor in 15 or 20 years I'm sure it would come back instantly, but the chances of that happening are somewhere between slim and none - reality is that manuals are likely to be completely phased out within the decade in this industry.
