^Yes, but to your point “nowadays” and “modern” automatic trans is subjective and I’d take a turbo 400 over any of the early 4speed autos hand down and a 5 speed manual over both.
In the OPs budget and year range I disagree that an auto is the default better choice over a manual. Partly because he’s looking at marginally large enough tow vehicles, but mostly because the service history, miles and how an auto was treated is key to its reliability now, 20 years after it came off the assembly line.
Sure if you can hone in on a recent rebuild or otherwise verifiable service record and relative certainty that it wasn’t beat on and overheated, then it’s a good thing.
But the simplicity and relative reliability of a manual trans I feel is still a valid consideration.
