theres no doubt a manual is cheaper and lasts longer.
again sprint , like the covid stuff...follow the money.
toyota have always had the reputation for longevity.
great for the consumer
terrible for toyota.
you really want built in redundancy now .
look at your apple i phone 10 or sansumg 20.
they want you buying the new model.
its good for the corporate profit.
the consumer has been sold on the idea that you turn a car over after 7 or 8 years. (i dont).
its environmentally very bad.
in order to force the consumer out of the car and into the new one, you need a catastrophic failure at about 7 years and thats the auto trannie in many cases.
some are made as sealed units, so they cant be serviced.
and you certainly cant rebuild a modern automatic transmission.
the "fixed price servicing" is also designed to ensure your car fails, just after the fixed price service period ends.
the engineers know you can stretch an oil change out to 20000 km like they do in the new navara.
they know you can seal the trannie and it will last 5 or 6 or 7 years.
the very high tech fuel injectors also cost 1000's to replace.
they know if they change the fuel filter every 40 , they will last longer, so they change it every 100.
they know you can put a timing chain on the engine that never breaks, so they put a timing belt on which inevitably breaks and then you have to junk the car.
the germans are very very cunning.
they put parts like starter motors in really inaccessible places, so you have to disassemble half the negine to replace it at a cost of maybe a 1000 in labour.
they put the fuel pump inside the petrol tank so you have to take the whole tank off the car to replace it.
they know that the plastics they put to hold the brake cylinders and the power steering assembly will fail and crack after so many cycles of being hot and cold...designed to fail after 5 to 7 years (depending on the warranty

).
with regards auto trannies specifically.
if you must have an auto (and increasingly you have no choice) do some research and dont get one made by Jatco.
try to get one you can service.
do NOT flush (that stirs up the particles and screws them generally).
do NOT try to service if it is not something you will do regularly. so if its done 200,000 and never been done, leave it alone, the bits of crud now are part of the working mechanism and if you remove them it will fail.
and above all, baby that transmission. nice gentle acceleration up hills especially if towing.
i do all my services twice as regaular as the dealers say.
in fact, never go back to a dealer (though they can be the best source of genuine parts if you can get friendly with a guy in their service department.
do your oil and filter every 10 k.
again , manufacturers are being pricks.
the new hilux has a system of nuts and bolts and retaining screws and difficult access just to change the dammed filter.
drop all the coolant out every 60 and replace.
the little bits of grit in the coolant are what wreck your head gasket.
do your air filter every 40 especially if its dusty.
change out your power steering fluid and you gear box, transfer case and diff oil every 80.
spray a good rubber protecting spray on all the hoses every 6 months
put your battery on the charger every year at least (modern cars only charge to 70 %) and they last better if you put a 100 % charge into them
buy yourself a generic scan tool on ebay ($100) and you can check all the codes and the data.
all the best.
i love driving 15 yo 4 wds that still go beautifully.