{"id":3672,"date":"2026-04-10T09:00:59","date_gmt":"2026-04-10T09:00:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/automotivefly.com\/?p=3672"},"modified":"2026-04-06T19:38:30","modified_gmt":"2026-04-06T19:38:30","slug":"three-pedals-arent-dead-yet-in-the-jeep-gladiator","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/automotivefly.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/10\/three-pedals-arent-dead-yet-in-the-jeep-gladiator\/","title":{"rendered":"Three Pedals Aren&#8217;t Dead Yet in the Jeep Gladiator"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><em>If you&#8217;ve been mourning the loss of the Jeep Gladiator&#8217;s manual transmission, there&#8217;s good reason to cheer up. At the 60th Easter Jeep Safari in Moab, Utah, a top Jeep executive dropped a thinly veiled hint that the six-speed stick shift is making a comeback in the Wrangler-based pickup truck. For fans of rowing their own gears, it&#8217;s the kind of news that doesn&#8217;t come around very often in 2026.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>When the Jeep Gladiator received a facelift for the 2025 model year, it lost its manual transmission option.<\/li>\n<li>Jeep&#8217;s global head of off-road, Aamir Ahmed, said the manual transmission was still very important to the brand.<\/li>\n<li>The manual Gladiator&#8217;s return also means the Tacoma is no longer the only stick-shift truck you can buy.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>What Jeep Actually Said at Easter Jeep Safari<\/h2>\n<p>The news came during a conversation at the Easter Jeep Safari, which ran from March 28 through April 5 in Moab. Speaking to Jeep&#8217;s global head of off-road and EVs, Aamir Ahmed, CarBuzz learned that the manual transmission is still very important to the brand. Ahmed didn&#8217;t specifically name the Gladiator, but his hint was about as subtle as a rock crawling through a china shop. He even went so far as to say Jeep will bring back the manual in a model that previously offered it. That can only mean one vehicle: the Gladiator.<\/p>\n<p>The automaker dropped the transmission option from the truck for the 2025 model year. Jeep said at the time that most Gladiator buyers opted for the automatic. That reasoning wasn&#8217;t shocking. In the United States, less than 1.0 percent of new car sales were manual-transmission models, and manuals are even falling out of popularity in Europe. So killing the stick shift seemed like a cold but logical business decision.<\/p>\n<h2>Why Jeep Dropped It and Why It Might Return<\/h2>\n<p>Chatting with Ahmed and Jeep officials at the Easter Jeep Safari, there were no clear answers as to why the six-speed went away. Jeep never made any official statements in the past, either, but the decision was likely made to simplify production during a model changeover. The manual probably had a low take rate, making it an easy option to cut.<\/p>\n<p>Jeep, perhaps, figured that it may not be able to offer the transmission for much longer, given production costs and slumping consumer interest in manuals, opting to kill it before beginning to lose money. The other reason, of course, is emissions standards. Manuals are less fuel-efficient than modern automatics, and Jeep had to meet certain EPA requirements.<\/p>\n<p>But things have changed in recent months with the EPA&#8217;s sweeping deregulatory measures. That shift has led to a renewed push for combustion engines at Stellantis, Jeep&#8217;s parent company. The brand is making hay while the sun is shining, offering big engines like its popular Hemi V8 and walking back its plans for hybrids and EVs. Meanwhile, the plug-in hybrid Gladiator 4xe never made it to market in North America, pulled before launch as Stellantis quietly retreated from its electrification timeline. With those pressures removed, <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/automotivefly.com\/index.php\/2025\/04\/18\/the-best-vehicles-for-dog-owners-in-2025\/\">there&#8217;s room in the lineup for the manual to live again.<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<h2>The Mechanical Case for Three Pedals<\/h2>\n<p>From a technical standpoint, reviving the Jeep Gladiator manual transmission shouldn&#8217;t be difficult. The Gladiator runs a single powertrain option, the 3.6-liter Pentastar V6, good for 285 HP and 260 lb-ft of torque. That&#8217;s the very same engine that was already paired with a six-speed manual before the accountants got involved, and the same one still running a stick shift in the Wrangler today.<\/p>\n<p>Ahmed also made a practical argument for the manual&#8217;s off-road benefits. He mentioned how a manual Wrangler has a 100:1 crawl ratio when equipped with the 4.88:1 axle ratio, matching the now-discontinued Wrangler 4xe. That kind of low-speed control matters on trails, and it&#8217;s a capability the automatic simply can&#8217;t replicate with the same feel.<\/p>\n<p>Jeep backed up the sentiment at this year&#8217;s Safari with the Wrangler Laredo Concept. The American brand showed off several new concept vehicles for the 60th Easter Jeep Safari, and the Laredo is meant to hearken back to simpler Wrangler models like the CJ, most of which were sold with three pedals. The message was loud and clear: Jeep still believes in the stick shift.<\/p>\n<h2>What a Manual Gladiator Means for Truck Buyers<\/h2>\n<p>Right now, there&#8217;s only one stick-shift pickup truck remaining in the US: the Toyota Tacoma. Bringing back a manual Gladiator would add a second option, and an appealing one at that. The Gladiator already stands alone as the only open-air midsize truck on the market, with its removable roof and doors. Pair that with a clutch pedal, and you&#8217;ve got something you won&#8217;t find anywhere else.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s super-rare to see a manual car on sale from a brand at all at this point, much less to see a brand revive one from the dead after previously axing it from the lineup. That makes Jeep&#8217;s move all the more interesting. Don&#8217;t expect the manual Gladiator to become a best-seller, though. Jeep has never shared the take rate for the manual-equipped Gladiator, but we&#8217;d expect it to be quite low. <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.autoblog.com\/features\/2025-jeep-gladiator-vs-2025-toyota-tacoma\">This is a move driven by passion and brand identity<\/a><\/strong>, not volume sales.<\/p>\n<h2>Should You Hold Out for a Stick-Shift Gladiator?<\/h2>\n<p>If you&#8217;re the type who actually enjoys the act of driving and wants to feel connected to the road or trail, waiting could pay off. Jeep hasn&#8217;t given us an exact timeline, but Ahmed&#8217;s comments suggest the return could come soon. For now, the 2026 Gladiator still starts at $38,830 and comes exclusively with an eight-speed automatic paired with the 3.6-liter V6. This engine puts out up to 260 pound-feet of torque, a gas maximum towing capacity of 7,700 pounds, a 4&#215;4 payload capacity of 1,720 pounds, and 285 horsepower.<\/p>\n<p>Whether you&#8217;re a die-hard three-pedal purist or just someone who wants options, the news from Moab is encouraging. The Gladiator&#8217;s manual chapter isn&#8217;t finished being written yet.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/_pmrhFV0fKE?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en-US&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\"><\/iframe><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If you&#8217;ve been mourning the loss of the Jeep Gladiator&#8217;s manual transmission, there&#8217;s good reason to cheer up. At the 60th Easter Jeep Safari in Moab, Utah, a top Jeep executive dropped a thinly veiled hint that the six-speed stick shift is making a comeback in the Wrangler-based pickup truck. For fans of rowing their [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":3673,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[352,168,60,555],"tags":[2994,2997,2995,2992,2993,2996],"class_list":["post-3672","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-crossovers-and-suvs","category-jeep","category-off-roaders","category-suv","tag-2026-jeep-gladiator","tag-gladiator-six-speed-manual","tag-jeep-easter-safari-news","tag-jeep-gladiator-manual-transmission","tag-jeep-gladiator-stick-shift","tag-manual-pickup-truck"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/automotivefly.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Jeep-Gladiator-manual-transmission.png?fit=1000%2C523&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9nQhf-Xe","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/automotivefly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3672","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/automotivefly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/automotivefly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automotivefly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automotivefly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3672"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/automotivefly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3672\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3674,"href":"https:\/\/automotivefly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3672\/revisions\/3674"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automotivefly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3673"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/automotivefly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3672"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automotivefly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3672"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automotivefly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3672"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}