But it’s a truck, the real cargo space is just behind all of this, right? The TRD Pro is available in only the shorter bed length, in this case five feet. Other versions of the Tacoma, even crew cab ones, are also available with a six foot bed. The bed itself features an interior made of SMC (a fiber reinforced sheet molded composite) that won’t rust and seems quite durable. Mine was also equipped with a thick rubber bed mat that I was sure would no longer be there when I gave the truck back but perhaps I just don’t give my fellow man enough credit as it remained in place.
There’s also LED bed interior lighting as well as an outlet in the back right corner of the bed for tools etc. The tailgate opens and closes easily without feeling too weighty and I used the bed to variously carry a short ladder and also a bunch of roofing materials for a shed I was building.
The electrically operated sliding (without a defroster) rear window came in handy for loading 10-foot lengths of drip edge that were able to fit at a slight angle between the tailgate and the front sun visor without damaging anything. However it was close so I put a leather glove over the inside end as I didn’t want to have to explain a torn headliner or visor in a brand new truck.
The Tacoma has come in for some controversy over the use of the DOHC 24-valve GDI 3.5liter V6 engine also used in the Highlander and various other Toyotas. Some don’t feel it has enough grunt for a truck, however the engine it replaced wasn’t really that powerful either.
Perhaps this engine requires it to be revved a bit more, but the output figures are 278hp@6000rpm and 265lb-ft of torque at 4,600rpm. Let’s be honest, how many people really use Tacomas for serious work and heavy hauling? Using the key (how does that work again? Even the Frontier has a button these days…) to start it resulted in a smooth but somewhat deep exhaust tone from the TRD exhaust system, it’s likely quieter in other Tacoma versions.
The relative novelty of the manual gearbox didn’t wear off during my week, the 6-speed with the fairly long lever has a notchy yet rubbery feel, which sounds doubly terrible but really is actually quite enjoyable to use. Enjoyable in a truck like this, that is, it’d be miserable in a Corolla. Reverse is to the left and forward and selecting it results in a novel warning beep to let you know. Other than that it’s a conventional 6-speed pattern and once in first, the clutch is extremely forgiving letting you roll off it at any desired speed or ham-footedness without stalling.
There’s enough torque to start in second gear without shuddering on flat ground if needed for whatever reason and once on the go, it’s just a matter of vaguely pointing the lever towards the next gear and it slots right in, although there is a rubbery notchiness as I noted before (that’s sort of endearing). The whole mechanical nature of this part of the truck was revelatory and added a huge amount of character to it, it almost had me considering that maybe driving with my head tilted at 20 degrees isn’t all that bad after all…
It’s a sweet engine and paired to a manual feels completely different than in a Highlander. I would never describe it as making the truck “fast”, but with quick enough gear work and some determination it can (seem to) hustle from a stop. But really it’s just more comfortable at a more relaxed pace.
I ended up thinking that it’s no surprise that automatics get such good gas mileage these days with their multitude of gears, as even with six speeds I frequently found myself driving down the street at close to 3,000 rpm which would rarely happen with a modern automatic. Trying to act like one swiftly had me in top gear at 40mph with the engine turning around 1,500rpm. As a diehard manual guy with lots of them in my background but currently not one in my own stable somehow, all I can say is it was weird, man. But I loved that part of it.
Cruising around, the truck gives a decent ride, it’s a bit bouncy and juddery at times, if nothing else it felt a lot like a somewhat more composed long wheelbase current Jeep Wrangler. Both being body on frame vehicles with V6 engines and off-road oriented that’s not unreasonable to find.
On the freeway it was well composed and relatively quiet while happy to cruise at close to 80mph all day long without as much choppiness. Faster works too but it just seems less happy then.
It weighs in at 4,500 pounds, has a payload capacity of 1,135 pounds and is rated to tow 6,400. It’s rare to see a Tacoma towing much more than a yard trailer around here, perhaps a medium sized pop-up, but people here seem to overbuy their trucks for the most part. The included towing package does feature an oil cooler, power steering cooler, 4/7 pin connectors, 130 amp alternator, and trailer sway control, but no integrated trailer brake controller.
Turns, well, it’s a BOF truck with an off-road focus. It will turn, it’s not a racecar. For a truck, it’s just fine. The tires on this one were soft and grippy enough, but it lets you know that you should watch your cornering speeds. If cornering at high speed is vitally important, perhaps let me direct your attention to the Supra in the other corner of the showroom…
Riding on dirt roads the truck was fun (as it is in practically anything, especially someone else’s) and taking it over some grassy areas had it bobbing and hopping around, the ride was fairly good even on slightly wash-boardy surfaces and poorly maintained areas. The 4WD system is controlled via a rotary knob and features a locking rear differential. I didn’t do anything with it that likely a RAV4 Hybrid couldn’t do either though, although I am fully confident that with the right tires, and some judiciousness regarding breakover angles, this truck can go most places most Jeeps can. And back.
Fuel mileage with the manual is rated lower than with the automatic (also a six-speed). In the automatic it’s rated at 18 city and 22 highway, the manual as tested here comes in at 17city, 20highway with an 18average. I in fact saw a combined average of 18.2 mpg over 309 miles of driving. Of that, 140 miles were the round trip to south Denver mentioned above, another approximately 60 were on medium speed county highways, and the balance of 109 or so were a mix of city and some light lower-speed off-road maneuvering. The weather was clear and fairly cold the whole time.
Note that other trims in the Tacoma lineup are rated at up to 20/24, even with the V6 (there’s a 2.7l I-4 as a base engine on some models but the mpg are virtually identical), although that may be for RWD models. In any case, the manual-equipped TRD Pro has the worst ratings of the bunch.
Toyota has, as with its whole line, invested in updating the Tacoma with its Safety Sense P which includes the Pre-Collision System with Pedestrian Detection, Dynamic Radar Cruise Control, Lane Departure Alert, and Automatic High Beams. Also included was a Blind-Spot system, and LED headlights. Basically, as described including virtually everything above, this truck in TRD Pro form starts at a somewhat eye-watering $44,075. Yeah, that’s a big pill. An automatic transmission seems to add a whopping $2,700 if you’re so inclined. (I wouldn’t be, the stick made the truck for me).
There’s a bunch of little things that were added on as options with the biggest being the oh-so-rad sticker package that just fits this thing but costs $699. The Bed Mat was $120, Tailgate Emblem was $160, TRD reusable air filter was $90, a fairly comprehensive Paint Protection Film package was $399 and the Bed Lights were $149 and could be programmed to come on either with the door locks or not. Various other accoutrements included Door Edge Guards, Door Sill Protectors, extra D-Rings for the bed, a Spare Tire Lock, and an Emergency Assistance Kit.
That extra stuff totaled up to around another $400 and then the Destination Charge was a further $1,175 for a grand total of $47,271. Which isn’t that far off the Tundra TRD Pro total from a few weeks ago especially if the automatic is desired so it would come down to personal preference or more likely what fits better in one’s lifestyle as well as traffic/parking situation.
Tacoma production is currently split between a shared Tacoma / Tundra production line in San Antonio, Texas as well as a dedicated line in Baja California (Mexico). This one hailed from Texas where it likely doesn’t make much difference to Toyota if someone wants a Tundra or Tacoma. At this price level both are likely to be quite profitable and they can adjust supply easily one way or the other as desired. However, sometime next year the Baja plant is slated to become the sole Tacoma site when the San Antonio plant gets reworked for the upcoming new Tundra. At that time, the Sequoia will also be reworked and join the Tundra on that line which clearly makes sense, being as they share so much.
There really isn’t anything in the segment that is cutting edge, the Ranger is basically a decade old design, the Frontier even more, and the GM twins are getting up there as well. The Jeep Gladiator is even more expensive and the Honda Ridgeline is a bit of a tweener. The Ranger’s turbo engine is very good but likely scares some people, the Frontier is due for imminent replacement and its new V6 and 9-speed transmission package is quite good, and the GM trucks have several engines available which should make them popular but I have not driven them myself and for whatever reasons they don’t sell nearly as well.
They do each have their good and bad points, but the Tacoma somehow seems to just dominate the segment and rather than losing sales when competitors are announced, seems to somehow find even more. Perhaps a new competitor gets people out there looking in the first place and then they decide to buy a Toyota, who knows. Given Tacoma’s quality reputation and astounding resale values (with one begetting the other) there’s not much incentive to do much to improve the perceived problem areas but it must be realized that they certainly can be and if that happens, watch out. For now though, whether Toyota or its dealer or its customer actually owns the truck, all of the three have a can’t lose proposition on their hands that they can bank on.
Thank you to Toyota for sending us this Tacoma with a full tank of gas for a week!
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First thought: $2700 for an automatic transmission? Holy Moley!
I have not paid close attention to this segment, do any of the competitors offer a manual? I presume Jeep does since the Wrangler has one, but don’t know about the others. That alone would be a reason for me to chose the Toyota.
One would probably fit me better than it did you, and I will join you in the boggled mind caused by an American-market truck not designed for what has to be the top 40 percentile of the male population.
The only trucks offering a manual are Toyota and Jeep, all the other manufacturers have stopped offering it.
Toyota, itself, has chopped away at the models that are available with a manual, or at least which parts of the country they will make it available. Here in the Southeast you (apparently) can NOT get a manual unless you buy this top of the range model.
Of the Tacoma’s attributes, consistency is one of its bigger ones. Ford quit making the Ranger for several years before resuming. GM did similar with the Colorado. Nissan is Nissan. The Tacoma has a long-lived name with consistent availability since forever. That says a lot.
But having to swing your head 20 degrees? No thank you. I’ve read this will be addressed for the next generation (although it never should have happened for this generation) so there’s that.
A year or so ago I considered a compact pickup for about three days. The dilemma was which appealed to me most. While none really did, a little sleuthing revealed if one could find a stripper Tacoma (not an easy proposition, but possible) the price wasn’t horrific and was (going from memory) comparable to the Ranger.
The availability of a manual transmission would have certainly nudged me toward a Tacoma.
Manual isn’t available in the stripper “SR” and “SR5” models. Manual is only available in certain TRD Sport, TRD Off-Road and TRD Pro models.
I don’t know what it is, but there’s just something about Tacomas; there must be, considering they’re so popular. I’m pretty much a dyed-in-the-wool, Michigan-born, Big Three guy, but every time I see one of these on the road (not all THAT often where I live), I find myself thinking how cool it is. I even love their current colors that look matte but are really gloss – desert tan and dusky blue, even that medium gray.
The fact that they still offer a manual makes it even better.
Toyoda lost me as a viable customer, for life, in 1986 when they chose to stop selling the solid front axle pickup here in the US, yet continued to offer it in other markets.Should have at least left it a no or low cost option. They would have sold buckets of them. So, no, I haven’t priced one. And they are so ugly, frankly I can’t even stand to look at them.
Very interesting review, and one that I can add some of my own experiences to, since (as I mentioned in a comment last week) my wife and I are considering buying a Toyota truck. Just this weekend, we took that consideration a step further, and test drove both a Tacoma and a Tundra. The Tacoma was very similar to your test vehicle; it was a TRD Off Road (not a Pro) with the manual transmission. Our test drive vehicle is pictured below.
We both loved it. In fact, something about this truck’s combination of qualities (being a truck, and with a manual transmission) made me feel about 15 years younger. It was simply fun to drive, not really in any quantifiable way, but just in the essence of what it was. If we were to buy a Tacoma, it would likely be my daily driver as well as our occasional fun vehicle, and I left the test drive thinking that it would serve both roles very well.
Unlike you, neither of us had any problem fitting into to it, though we’re both shorter than you are. In fact, it fit us both very well, and was quite comfortable. The rear seat was a bit smaller than I’d like, but was big enough for our 11 and 13-year-old kids… though long road trips with four people in a Tacoma would be a bit of a squeeze. The 5’ bed would probably be OK with me.
Like you said, the transmission was outstandingly fun, even with its slightly rubbery feel and long throws. Really fun. As in, I found it be the truck’s best quality (the thought of an automatic Tacoma isn’t quite so alluring). In last week’s comments, Paul had alluded to odd gearing, which I also found to be the case… it seemed that 5th and 6th gears were almost indistinguishable from each other. 5th gear seemed somewhat superfluous to me, and I felt that the transmission could work well as a 5-speed simply by eliminating the existing 5th gear. But really, that’s a minor nit and wouldn’t dissuade me from buying one.
Will we buy one? The answer there has more to do with our own inherent frugality than any quality of the truck. If I had to buy a new daily-driver vehicle right now, this Tacoma would be at the top of my list. Oh, and then there’s the Tundra… like I mentioned, we drove one of those too and absolutely loved it, though we’d use that more for long trips and towing than for a daily driver. We’ve got Toyotas on the brain quite a bit right now.
The cargo length in my Golf SportWagen is 180 cm, just enough for my to sleep comfortably in the back. There’s even ample room for my two dogs.
A five foot bed?
In other word, a pickup truck that cannot haul a motorcycle (and I’m talking Triumph Bonneville or 600cc sport bike, not Harley Electra Glide). It’d have a hard time handling a 125cc motocrosser.
In other words, absolutely freaking useless.
Why would you expect an off-road focused edition to hurt its off-road capability with excess length so it can haul a motorcycle?
Other trims of the Tacoma have an available 6-foot bed.
I see these as replacements for the BOF SUVs of the 90s, of which the 4R is the only survivor. 4-doors, high clearance, 4×4, and a cargo area that, even at 5-ft, is still very useful compared to a sedan. I see the short beds all over the place, so this format must be working for a couple hundred thousand people a year.
I’ve had the TRD OffRoad version of this truck, a 2016 which is the first year if this generation. Other than having the automatic and lacking the extra Pro features (really just suspension) and the few updates that were added in subsequent years, such as power seats and power rear sliding window, and Toyota Safety Sense, mine is identical. The 5’ bed is occasionally frustrating but pretty versatile compared to a wagon or SUV. I’ve hauled many a load of mulch and gravel – one yard buckets and a skilled loader operator insure that nothing gets dropped onto the fenders or tailgate. Open the slider, and in some cases the slider and the sunroof, and long pipe or lumber or flashing fits quite easily. Yeah, a long ladder has to hang out the back, but that’s what flags are for. And every time I’m in a crowded parking lot or parallel parking downtown, I appreciate the 12” savings over the long bed (6’) version. And though I’ve never hauled a motorcycle in mine, I’ve hauled plenty of bikes in my previous Ranger and Datsun with 6’ beds and you still needed to put the tailgates down. I’ve seen many short bed Taco’s hauling dirt bikes and sport bikes.
As for the review, spot on and in fact perhaps more favorable than I expected. I’ve never driven this gen of Tacoma with the manual, and I often wish I had found one. But after almost 5 years and 80K miles, I’m used to the foibles and it’s been 100% reliable. Mine has seen many hundreds of miles of desert washboard as well as lots of urban stop-go. It’s been washed about 4 or 5 times and still looks good. Thanks Jim.
Guess what? Not everyone hauls a motorcycle.
My son and his GF bought this exact same truck (with manual) and they are out almost every weekend. In the winter it’s skiing and touring. They have a hard bed cover, and they can keep all the wet gear back there, as well as whatever else the need. And in the summer it’s camping and overlanding. And again, the covered bed is essentially a big long trunk.
If you haven’t figured it out yet, most trucks these days are not used primarily to haul large items, although even with a 5′ bed, they still can when needed. They are sport utility vehicles. Far from “freaking useless”. Can you get used to that idea? It’s about time.
The number of times I see a pickup carrying a motorcycle is almost zero, and for all practical purposes rounds down to zero.
A Tacoma is much more likely to be seen with bicycles in the back with one of those glorified moving blankets on the tail gate so the bicycle can straddle the tailgate.
I should add that my Scout II Cab Top has a 5′ bed and it has carried a lot of things, gravel/dirt, engine hoist and engine, retaining wall block, lawn mowers, recycling ect. Definitely not a do all truck but the small footprint means I can take the load places a longer truck couldn’t.
The cargo length in my Golf SportWagen is 180 cm, just enough for my to sleep comfortably in the back. There’s even ample room for my two dogs.
I think it is pretty funny that people often claim they want an old school mini-pickup when the Tacoma invites criticism by not having as much interior room as a Suburban or a bed that can carry 4x8s with the tailgate shut. I suspect the current generation of Toyota trucks will be the last real light trucks sold, and that’s too bad. The reason the Tacoma keeps its value is because it is a truck built to still be serving its first, second, third or fifth owner when the left most digit of the odometer is a three or a four. Hard interior surfaces hold up better than vinyl sprayed onto foam and cardboard. Engines with redundant port injection hold up better than ones with turbochargers. Simple transmissions have better long term prospects than ones rushed into production to chase CAFE numbers.
Of all the people I know who bought new Tacomas over the last dozen years, only one of those Tacomas isn’t still in its first owners’ hands. One of my friends bought a Pre-Runner V6, extended cab 2×4 to use as a second car in 2008. A year later he replaced it with a TRD Off-Road 4×4, which he still has as his primary vehicle. I do know someone who bought a Tundra that they didn’t keep for more than four years, but it was also a case of buying a base truck and then realizing that they wanted a truck equipped like their luxury cars.
Fun review, and a lot to talk about with this truck despite how long this heavy refresh has been on the market.
Transmission engine:
Very pleased to see a review of the manual transmission. From what I can tell, the poor performance of the 3.5 in the Taco is the mismatch between its narrower powerband and the automatic transmission’s ratios and responses. It has a reputation for being sluggish to downshift, aggressive to upshift, and instrumented tests show a very long first gear that kills off-the-line response. The 3.5 is powerful at the top end but needs a transmission that allows this. The prior Tacoma with the 4.0 could crack off a 7-second run to 60 in instrumented tests, with the old 5-spd automatic. This new Tacoma is doing that in closer to 8 seconds. The manual brings that back down closer to 7. In either case, 18mpg out of this with the advanced D4-S system doesn’t strike me as remotely impressive—the balance between power and efficiency is poor, likely in favor of long term durability.
Seating position and rear
I’d always wanted a Tacoma. They came out when I was a teenager and they were cool. When shopping the 4-door offroader class, I was excited to check this truck out…and it drove me straight to the 4Runner without a test drive precisely because of the driving position and small backseat (kids were still in bulky car seats). The power seat is a recent addition, and helpful, but you’re still driving a roadster 3 feet in the air. My little Fiesta has far more seating space in the front.
Interior quality
Yes, it’s nearly as bad as the Frontier and on par with the Chevro-rado, although I remember some reviews from other outlets panning the Tacoma’s interior and praising the Chevy’s, which I never understood. My 4R has taught me to ignore hard plastics in non-touch areas and pay attention to the touch points of steering wheel and armrests.
Segment dominance
It’s the brand and the intangibles. The Tacoma has been synonymous with durability and off road capability and stayed in the market when others left, so name recognition in the marketplace is big. I also think these just look cool. Not every color and every grill, mind you, but overall the styling is distinctive, tough, and playful without being overblown (e.g. Gladiator). They get noticed on the road in a way the GM and Ford do not.
Overall, I’d be skipping the very expensive TRD Pro for a more modest TRD Off Road, also with the stick shift. Strikes me as the sweet spot in the lineup.
I probably sound a bit defensive in my defense 😀 of the Tacoma, but hard plastics doesn’t mean poor interior quality. That plastic is pretty darn tough, and the armrests and steering wheel are soft where it matters. After 5 years my Taco’s interior is actually holding up even better than my ‘93 Land Cruiser did, though perhaps the lack of small children has something to do with that. One tip for potential buyers is to forego the leather; my experience with Toyota cloth upholstery is that it holds up much better than the non-vegan alternative. I drove a current gen Colorado and the interior felt much nicer than mine, but in the end it wasn’t really better in any meaningful way except driving position. I agree that is just off for the average American male, though I’m only 5’10 and clear the sunroof trim – barely.
It’s funny, when I first sat in this gen Tacoma in ’15 I thought the interior was junky. I had a VW wagon dripping with all the fat VW used to put into their economy car interiors, so my perspective of what $35K should look like was a bit skewed. Then I started referencing all the XLT F150s and Silverados I’d been in and realized those were pretty terrible and cost even more. Then I sat in a ZR2 Colorado, very pricey, and it didn’t seem any better or worse than the Taco. Now, after 4 years away from the VW and the used premium cars I was considering, the Taco and F150 seem fully good enough for me.
Ever consider taking advantage of the resale of that 2016 Tacoma and seeing if you could find a new stick-shift with the power seat? That sounds like a forever vehicle.
I have thought many times about trading across to a 6 speed manual Tacoma. Though I get to exercise my left foot in my wife’s Golf, which does indeed have a MUCH nicer interior. But we recently added a third vehicle to our fleet so I have some decisions to make. I guess I should say fifth vehicle, as I still have my two motorcycles.
Why buy the newest when you can buy an old Toyota for the price of something new?
Very true, out here in NoCal a Tacoma 4×4 TRD double cab just like this but 20 years older and with 250K miles will still bring $10K. I’m not sure how to take that. Its either look how the Tacoma holds its value, look how I saved $35K by buying used, or that is insane.
Crew cab, 6 foot bed and manual trans is the only way I’d want it. And that’s really only because the manual makes it tolerable – apparently the automatic goes to great and annoying driver frustrating lengths to try to eek out another .01 in fuel economy.
Toyota does have the virtue of being the only one besides Jeep still offering a manual. Before the Frontier switched it’s engine/trans options I’d have much rather had a 6-speed manual Frontier Pro-4X over this. The price difference would buy you a lot of fuel.
The outgoing Frontier Pro-4X was a great deal, particularly because of the markdowns.
However, the less expensive TRD Off-Road Tacoma is a closer match to the Pro-4X Frontier than the Toyota TRD Pro reviewed here. Those start at $35.5K for the manual, $37.5K for the auto. The Pro-4X Frontier now starts at $38.5K, auto-only. Looks like leather and some other features are now standard on it, so while it’s still a few grand below a comparably equipped Toyota, the days of those appealing $30K steal-of-an-off-road Frontier are gone.
Here’s the 2020: https://www.curbsideclassic.com/new-car-review/curbside-review-2020-nissan-frontier-pro-4x-crew-cab-old-bones-new-ticker/
I see a big honkin four door car, with huge tires, an open trunk, and doesn’t handle worth a damn. Definitely does not check any of my boxes and it never will since I don’t see the logical point in it.
No doubt your sentiments will cause a sleepless night for somebody at Toyota.
It sounds an ideal vehicle for traversing my old stomping grounds in Oakland. The street treaded tires with thick sidewalls on 16″ wheels (hardly huge) to handle the actually huge potholes on Telegraph and the 880 freeway, a big cargo area to bring parts home from the junkyard for the other cars, and the right height for the window after handling the demanding curves at the BurgerKingRing drive-thru with aplomb. And when done with it in three or so years it’ll be worth more than it cost new. What’s not to like?
Lately I’ve been thinking about buying a “forever car”, i.e. one that will last me the next 20 years and 200k. The Tacoma came immediately to mind.
Over the weekend I stopped by the dealer to look at the absolutely most stripped Tacoma one can buy (1.5 cab, I-4, rear seat delete “utility package”). Out the door, it would be close to $30k, if not over. And for that you get 158hp and 20mpg.
Will it last 20 years? Probably. Would I want to drive it that long? Probably not, and neither would I want to pay that fuel bill.
I am surprised that the tester was equipped with a manual trans. What happens when they get a younger reviewer who doesn’t know how to drive it?
The tailgate badge is $160 and I’m not seeing anything I wouldn’t expect on a standard tailgate?
That younger reviewer will hopefully take the opportunity to have an oldster ride along and provide tips to learn a new skill! 🙂
The normal tailgate has the Tacoma lettering stamped into it and then just presented as a painted panel with depressed areas spelling out the name, the same way the F150 and Ranger do currently. This then has individual letters inserted/attached into those stamped areas. The Tundra a few weeks ago had the same thing but the pictures there may have showed it better.
I just have a picture in my mind of the person who did the vehicle swap driving off with the reviewer running down the street behind them yelling “but I can’t drive this”.
One of the many ways they are laughing to the bank with this truck as there has to be a great margin on that option box, that you can bet most dealers check by default. It does make the stripe package pricing seem reasonable in comparison.
This got me thinking and wondering the age of people vs if they know how to operate a clutch and where the tipping point between most people, of that age, know and most people don’t know.
I hate that, for some reason, all pickups these days are just too big & tall – my late brother had a 2004 F150 that he kept a ladder in the bed just to climb up & down with! When we moved to the PNW I had to get rid of my p/u at the time, one that was exactly the right size for me. It was a 1999 Nissan Frontier 2.4L 5-speed, but we had more cars than people and something had to go. I’m annoyed that the only replacement for it is on the well-used market these days. Chicken tax or not, IMHO the small pickup market is going unserved these days and there might be some money to be made there…
They are so ridiculously high that they offer any kind of tailgate opening like the one on the Ram 1500 , who can swing down or out to the sides or on the GMC Sierra with his MultiPro Tailgate . They could simply just make pick-ups closer to the ground as before the ’90s .
Jim, you started all rational and then fell for its charms. I could tell when you said… “The whole mechanical nature of this part of the truck was revelatory and added a huge amount of character to it; it almost had me considering that maybe driving with my head tilted at 20 degrees isn’t all that bad after all…”
I did, too, and have one on order. Full MSRP, forget any Costco discounts, and it’s going to be a three-month wait. The Tacoma will be my first new car purchase, and I’m middle-aged.
Am I pissed? No, I can’t wait to get it. I don’t think anyone at Toyota planned for this thing to be so appealing. Whenever you do, the offer can come off as forced. Part of the charm is that they tried so little. Take that six-way power driver’s seat. This year was the first time it was offered on the Tacoma, where the average selling price is $40k.
You didn’t talk much about the styling but let’s be honest — the main reason guys like the Taco is its looks. All the other reasons… durability, off-road performance, resale value… are valid, but none are the real reason. It beats the ’92-97 Ford for me. The second-gen Tacoma, with its weak front and soft forms, was a let down after the classic first-gen. So what does Toyota do? A whole new truck? Hahaha. They took a page right out of Lee Iacocca’s “how to succeed at making things sell” book and put on a very long, very tall, very flat hood. Awesome! They reworked the fender flares more square to match. The cab section is almost entirely carryover save for a tiny character line near the mirror. Gone are those horrible droopy flares of the gen-2. The first time I saw one in 2016, I thought, damn, that new Tundra looks goooooooood, and how cool they made it smaller! Then I saw the tailgate, and it said, Tacoma?
The size is perfect, not too big, not too small. The width is narrow, the track wide, and it has a killer stance. The profile looks sporty, like a long-hood, short-deck American classic (I’m getting the Double Cab Short Bed, the Long Bed in profile looks more like a typical truck).
I love the interior. It has a lot of plastic, but it’s all very high quality. The design inside will age well, which hasn’t been the case for the gen-2.
The designers did an incredible job. They even made sure to replace those awful pointy door handles on the gen-2 with beefier ones to go with the new tougher body. The concept of “Tacoma” has always been off-road, not work or mall duty. To make sure the lower line trims with their small tires and wheels didn’t mess up the image of the gravytrain Sport, Off-Road, and Pro models, Toyota made the 4×4 ride height standard on all gen-3s, even on the 4x2s. Great call.
The floor is higher because it gives more ground clearance and off-roading is the priority with the Taco. It also helps avoid a “bubble cab” look like some trucks have. The bed sides are lower than on other trucks, and that’s good for the look too.
So it’s expensive, borderline uncomfortable, hard to get in, has one interior color choice, makes you give up the push-start to get the M/T, which they don’t do on the BRZ. Hmmm, better rent one from Turo before pulling the trigger. That went fine, and I regretted having to return the truck. It reminded me why I like BOF construction so much. There’s no flex in the structure when you pull into a driveway at an angle. The truck is quiet and relaxing to drive. I love the blind-spot monitors and Apple CarPlay. Power is there when needed, but you can’t be afraid to use the revs.
The A/T gear hunting that they complain about endlessly on TacomaWorld.com is not that bad. Post about a problem with your truck, and the place goes nuts worrying about it. The two most debated items are TRD Sport vs. TRD Off-Road and A/T vs. M/T; which should I get? It comes up once a month, and every time people act like it’s a new item. I’m getting the Off-Road. I like the black fender flares better and want that smooth ride from the taller tires.
You hit the nail on the head, Jim, when you said as soon as someone introduces a new mid-sized model, Tacoma sales go up. This is basically the same truck as the gen-2, but the sales have more than doubled, all from a big facelift. I bet free demand is close to 300,000/year these days.
Ironically, the most premium-priced product in the line-up of a company revered for its tech leadership is the ancient Tacoma. That’s why I call it an accidental hit. Buy one now, keep the miles low, and in 15 years, it’ll be the next FZJ80 Land Cruiser worth big bucks.
The dealership loaned me a full equipped Tacoma TRD (snorkel etc) during the white paint recall of my Rav4 . I do 6’5” with a 1 meter inseam. It was just horrible to have so little legroom for such a large footprint on the road .