Toyota Supra combines stop-start with manual transmission – it feels so weird

If you are reading this story, I can probably tell you three things about you:

1. They love the Toyota Supra.
2. You enjoy driving a car with manual transmission and manual gearbox.
3. They don’t like the automatic stop-start feature.

As a former owner of a manual Toyota Supra, I agree with you on numbers one and two, but I have a confession to make. The automatic start-stop doesn’t usually bother me. My daily driver has it, and I almost never turn it off. In test vehicles I’m lucky enough to get, I don’t often disable the start-stop feature either. There are rare exceptions, but I like the car to be quiet when I’m stopped at a stoplight. I value the dollar—what’s left of it—and I’d rather not waste gas. However, the Supra I tested recently gave me goosebumps when I drove it with the automatic start-stop. If you’re a Six Sigma Level 9 manual ninja like me, you’ll understand why.

Anyone who drives a manual transmission will know that if you stop and have the transmission properly put into neutral, the car will slowly come to a stop and continue to idle. However, if for some reason you forget to shift out of gear, the car will jolt and shake and then come to a sudden stop. As soon as you feel the car begin this process, your instinct is to immediately press the clutch all the way to the floor. This will prevent the car from stalling abruptly and you can then pull or push the gear lever into neutral.

If you have the automatic start-stop system in a manual car, the car switches off just before it comes to a stop, which leads to a reflexive reaction of quickly pressing the clutch. This happens EVERY TIME You stop the Supra. Overcoming this instinct takes more than a week (that’s how long we had the pleasure of testing the Supra).

This leads me to now join the weird club of automotive journalists who write articles saying that automatic stop-start is not a good technology. Which I don’t like. I’d much rather be in the group that says, “Why don’t we use hybrid and/or electric powertrains in every car?” With these technologies, you don’t need automatic stop-start because the powertrain isn’t running when it stops or slows down anyway.

Luckily (more or less) for Supra owners, there is an override switch to turn off the stop-start system, and look at that! It’s right next to the lever. It’s almost as if someone at Toyota’s design center knew this combination was an abomination and wanted to do their part to make it bearable. Unfortunately, the switch resets every time the car is restarted.

You won’t find many people who love rear-wheel drive Toyota sports cars more than I do. Every review I write about them is a true love letter. However, having owned a manual transmission Yoda and many other manual transmission cars, I now suffer from the instinct to lock the clutch every time I come to a stop and the 2024 Supra starts to shut off. Let me know what you think in the comments. Was this pairing ever supposed to happen?

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John Goreham is a veteran member of the New England Motor Press Association and experienced vehicle tester. John completed an engineering program with a focus on electric vehicles, followed by two decades of work in high tech, biopharmaceuticals and the automotive supply chain before becoming a news editor. In addition to his 11 years at Torque News, John has published thousands of articles and reviews with American news outlets. He is known for offering unfiltered opinions on automotive topics. You can connect with John on Linkedin and follow his work on our X-channel. Please note that stories with John’s name never AI-generated, but he uses the grammar and punctuation software Grammarly for proofreading.

2024 Toyota Manual Transmission Image by John Goreham