Tacoma gone down in quality?

Absolutely. I have been a Toyota owner for almost 30 years and owned at least 8 (yes eight) different Toyotas in that time, all but one were trucks. When I bought my first Toyota truck I could not believe how many bells and whistles that it had and it was an SR5. I bought a 2013 Tacoma Limited thinking that it would be loaded as well, and it has a LOT less features than my '08 Tundra SR5 did. The oil pressure gauge was a standard feature on the trucks until the late '90s early '00s and I cannot believe they don't have one now. I do almost all of my own work on my vehicles and am constantly finding cut corners on the newer trucks. They are still good trucks, and I love my Tacoma, but I think Toyota is definitely doing as little as possible in the way of improvements.
Ken

 

I had a '94 and my '07 is remarkably comparable, with a slight edge over the '94 (both 5-lug, non-SR5).
'07 has a clock, the '94 did not.
'07 has a fabric headliner, the '94 was vinyl.
'07 came with AM/FM/CD, '94 was AM/FM.. did not have cassette or CD
'94 warped an exhaust manifold at around 90k.

'07 is an automatic, 2.7, with more than enough power to actually accelerate up any grade I've been on. The '94, I had to downshift to maintain 75 on a mild hill, and on a steep grade, if someone cut me off and I had to let off the gas... if I dropped below 55, it was all over... I was dogging the rest of the way up that hill.

Funny... I bought both used from the same Chevy dealership.
Ended up putting over 200k on that '94.

 

Nissan is still building the Z car after all these years. I wish Toyota would produce the Supra again.

 

I see your point, but a lot of those upgrades are due to advances in technology and new vehicle restrictions. Metal is being replace by plastic, and that is not always a bad thing, but the truck bed for instance I would MUCH rather have a metal bed and have the option to put a bed liner in if I wanted to. I could go on and on, but I guess it is just a matter of opinion.
Ken

 

I still go back and forth on the bed material.
The composite is adequate for most owners.
The fears of cracking in cold weather were unfounded. The only time we've seen a damaged bed was from something that would have damaged a steel bed (shock punched through, load slammed the front, etc....)
But I can see the issue with surface appearance for someone who hauls a lot of materials/tools that can scratch the surface. Of course, they'd destroy a steel painted bed as well.

 

I miss a lot about my '04 Tacoma, but for everything I miss there are more things I like on my '13

 

I have an '06 with 90k, no problems!

 

Nope, still a fine machine. I do wish that i had bought a used 1st gen or older pickup at times just because they have a smaller body (newer vehicles are too wide imo) but the same great toyota reliability and build quality as far as i can tell.

 

Between an 07 sr5 4.0L tacoma and my 99 sr5 3.4L tacoma I feel like the 07 had more rattles at 90xxx than mine with 200xxx. Other than that they both feel reliable but the 07 was much smoother (07 on street tires 99 on At's) I think the 99 split bench is more comfortable though. Between the 4.0 and 3.4 I feel like I have to give the 4.0 more gas to get up and going maybe thats just me though and the 07 is quieter than mine. Either way I think both generations are good quality compared to the competition at the time at lease and would be pleased with either

not bashing either just an honest opinion to me both have the pros and cons