Classing up a Tacoma interior?

And if you A) can afford it, and B) need a 6+ passenger SUV, or C) have more of a desire for a plush interior than a need for a pickup truck, then the GX would be a better option.

The problem with this interior in a pickup is that MOST pickups are used as trucks, whether hauling houshold items, off-roading, hauling sports gear, etc....
Most of these uses (kids, friends, dirt, etc...) will destroy a nice luxury interior bit by bit.

The Tacoma is not and never has been a luxury vehicle. It's noisy. It rattles. It is lacking in gadgets.

It has come a long way from the rubber floored, cardboard door panel, no-power-anything utility vehicle of the 70s, but even the nicest of today's Tacomas are not nearly as nice as an '03-'05 1st-Gen Tundra Limited.

 

But if Harley Davidson decided to drop f150 and customize taco who wouldn't get one? Ok maybe you guys use your truck for work I use mine as dd and weekend boat hauling hunting off road and side business.

 

That looks like another cheesy Pep Boys add on.

Pretty sure my grandmother had that on her Chevy in 1983.

 

Old guy checking in here. Well, 48 years, anyway. My 2013 has white dashlights.

I kind of wish it didn't, but better than blue. You get over 40, your eyes start having night vision issues, and blue is the absolute worst. White's better but not ideal. I'd frankly like having red as it doesn't mess with your night vision at all.

It's a pretty barebones interior but I like that. My last vehicle was a Lincoln Aviator, which was total luxury overkill; a lot like the Lexus, in fact. It's cool for about a year. Then it kinda gets old, to be honest. Well, except for the seat air conditioning. That is the absolute best invention ever put in a vehicle.

 

I had a wheelskin on my 1995 Toyota pickup's steering wheel.
I think the Tacoma's interior works great for my use.
Anything nicer & I would worry about ruining it.
I do like the way my 2013 interior looks a little less bling than my 2006 plus I always add seat covers because the newer high end seats in the TRD are not comparable to the older sport seats Toyota use to have in the 90s.

 

How low can you go..^...That Low...lol

 

MOST pickups are used as trucks on this forum but I would say in the real world, most AREN'T used as trucks. I would say most people want a Tacoma for the limited time they need the bed but also like it because its smaller and easier to park than a full size truck and gets better mileage than most of them too. Most of the Tacomas I see on the highway don't have anything in them. And think about how many have been sold, over 100k per year? How many people are on this forum, 70k? Thats a very small percentage of Tacoma users

 

Part 2: this. I did some damage to my Lincoln, didn't mean to, but when it's your only car and you do Honey Do work - trips to Home Depot, replacing appliances, toilets, painting, things like that - you're going to trash your pretty little SUV. Got rid of it before I did too much damage, but a truck it wasn't.

My stepfather's got the same Lexus the OP is looking at and his is beat to shit. He's remodeled his entire house. His Lexus looks like it.

 

Having had all 3, OEM, Rosen, and now Kenwood, I have to say that there is not a big difference between appearance of the Rosen and an aftermarket unit with a Metra adapter.
Plus the Rosen/Caska/Ottonavi won't properly fit the '12+, despite Ottonavi's claims that it does, even after being shown photos of how horrible it looks when wedged in there.

Rosen (Caska) has removed the Tacoma units from their site and the remaining inventory was blown out. Whether they will release something for '12+ remains to be seen, but I doubt it.

The Kenwood works very well. My XM reception is miles ahead of the Sirius reception (which is an indictment of the Sirius corporate receiver compared to the XM, which are separate from the HU).

Bluetooth operation is much better. The Rosen was just a simple speakerphone with the mic built into the HU (next to the AC duct, it was terrible).
The Kenwood has a separate mic that can be mounted anywhere. The processor downloads your phone book, and displays battery status. Connected to the Kenwood, you are 100% hands-off the phone to make and receive calls, even to the contact that is buried in your contacts list that you rarely call.

Navigation? Rosen was okay, but the maps are proprietary and out of some Eastern European country that I've forgotten the name of. They will happily sell you an update, and after paying your $50, you find that you were already current.
Kenwood uses a Garmin GPS system, complete with interchange view and support for a backup camera, as well as rear seat DVD video.

Ipod integration? Rosen was horrible, both on Ipod and the internal MicroSD card. It truncated names, it did not handle playlists well, shutting the unit off restarted at the beginning of the track, etc....
The Kenwood is much better. My only complaint with the Kenwood is the USB connector seems intermittent. If I leave my Ipod connected to charge the battery, it'll be fine for a week or so, then out of the blue it will start playing on it's own. I'll shut it down and it'll do it again minutes or hours later. I used pliers to snug up the USB connector and that helped, but it still happens.
When I get around to it, I'm going to cut the USB connectors off and replace them with a male/female Ampenol connector pair, then make a USB pigtail for when I need to use a USB stick for software updates.

 

I'll just leave this here....................

 

Took over an hour to stitch that on there.
The one grandma had in '83 was rubber and bound on with a spiral wrap. My mom had one too.

This is real leather, and that photo was taken right after installation before it had a chance to shrink up onto the wheel. It looks nicer now, if a bit dirtier.

Pep Boys used to sell ONE nice leather wheel cover. I had one on my '94, installed one on my boss's Maxima, and put one on my '03 Tundra.
I have not seen one in about 7 years. Now all they have are those crappy pull-on covers that are 3x the size of the wheel and don't lace on.

I tried one of those on the Taco and hated it... I literally cut the thing off while sitting at a red light one day.

 

wheelskin is nice less expensive than redline but theirs look so much better more custom and cover all the leather parts.

http://www.redlinegoods.com/Tacoma9504leatherwheelcover.php

 

Albeit they don't have one listed for the 2nd gen

 

Started adding/purchasing some accessories.

1) Did LED guage swap to a soft white.

2) Ordered sound deadening for the doors/rear seats.

3) Ordered OttoNavi stereo

4) Ordered TRD Quickshift.

Katzkins seats, center armrest cover and leather door armrest covers will be coming around Christmas.

Pics to come.

 

Pictures of redone dash.

LED swap to white gauges.
OttoNavi Stock look alike Navigation

Cell phone pics really make it look way worse. Ottonavi is a very very close match, I can barely notice it when I am in the car.

Dash lights are no where near as bright as they look in the pictures. I am VERY happy with these 2 mods.

Night


Day

 

Good luck with that

Scan around the threads at the customer issues and his lack of response.

 

I read every thread about the ottonavi system. Most of the complaints seem to be broken stereos from factory or people that expected high end stereo like options.

My stereo is working fine so far (a few glitches whem Navi screen freezes) but I like it and I am more than happy with the options and performance.

 

I had a couple of freezes on my Rosen (Caska) as well.
One of the bigger drawbacks on the Otto unit was the issues with Ipod and satellite interfaces.
Virtually everything from even a basic low end unit can handle an Ipod as well as Bluetooth from a smartphone.

In all, I'm really glad that I spent the money on the Kenwood and my Rosen is now in a box in my garage.

 

I'm with the OP on this one. This is my second Tacoma (had a 1st gen before I bought my 2010 new) and LOVE them. However, I wish it came with more features. I'll continue to mod my interior to make it the way I want it.

 

Me too. When my base model arrived at the dealership I was surprised to see a touchscreen in it. I don't hate features. Just won't pay extra for them. I wanted the cheapest possible 4wd truck possible.