Previous v6 owner now driving a 4 cyl.

And I love it!

I used to own a 2009 v6 taco double cab sport with all the bells and whistles. We had our second child and needed more room (including a third row seat).

I traded in the taco for a 2011 4 runner, lifted it and put some BFg at 33's on it.

We still needed a pickup for my landscaping business and a commuter for my wife. I missed my Tacoma so we got a 2011 Reg cab 4x4 silver MT.

I actually prefer driving this new truck over the v6. It's very capable, I have loaded the bed full multiple times with equipment and debris to haul 10 miles to the dump and hardly notice the weight.

It's short wheel base makes parking, turning and just driving in general easier.

This truck is just fun to drive, something I can just jump in and zip to the store and it looks good to boot.

I have nothing to complain about with this engine as of yet and I did have an issue with the v6 auto not being in the correct gear qt times when taking
turns. Seems it would downshift to 2nd, and the rps would rev up like I was in passing gear?

And after reading some complaints about having to down shift to 4 th on hills with the 4cyl, this is true. But my v6 auto would downshift on the same hills as this truck. Same goes for the 4runner, and it has a 270 hp v6, a more fuel efficient and more powerful engine than the v6 Tacoma and it still downshifts on those same hills I drive everyday.

Anyway, I am more than happy with my new Tacoma and enjoy it every time I drive it.

 

About the downshifting thing... the explanation is very simple;

The truck takes X amount of torque to maintain a constant speed, whether it has an I4 or a V6. So what you do is set your gear ratios to give you that torque with a certain amount "in reserve" for varying loads and minor grades. Further, you will want to minimize the engine speed in order to keep fuel consumption under control. Together, this means that the more powerful engine will tend to be geared HIGHER (and thus spin slower) so that it has the same amount of extra torque in reserve -- meaning that they will have to shift out of overdrive at the same point.

Some of the V6 owners with 6-speed MT may note that they have a lot more torque in reserve compared to the I4-MT and V6-AT. This is actually quite true, since for some reason, they chose to gear the V6-MT *significantly* lower than the V6-AT. You will note that a lot of them complain about the reduced fuel consumption caused by this --- that would be *the* tradeoff for giving yourself a greater torque reserve.

In fact, one could simply hold back one gear to increase the amount of torque in reserve.... stop shifting at 4th. It will burn more fuel, but will climb steeper hills without downshifting

In summary, its about the gear ratio, not the size of the engine. I suspect that you could cruise around in 4th gear all day every day, have more torque in reserve than a V6-MT in 6th, and still burn less fuel

 

I4, towing jet ski, A LOT of 3rd and forth pulls gear turning 4000+ RPMs...25 MPG average for a 1500 mile round trip.

 

Not to mention amazing mileage on Fuelly. Do you have a secret, or is it just the truck?

 

I haven't really done much to the truck aside from running slightly higher pressure in the tires and synthetic fluids.

It's mostly the way I drive.

 

In 4th gear at highway speeds the 2.7L is amazingly torquey. The only thing I would change is the MPG... can always use more of those! Well, that and the gear ratios in the manual transmission are spread pretty far apart. This is fine when accelerating up through the gears at a normal clip, but if you are in creeping stop & go traffic sometimes those wide ratios can be a bit clunky trying to find the correct gear to be in for a given speed... if that makes sense (not sure I am expressing well what I am trying to explain).

Anyway, it's a minor issue... and if it meant sacrificing torque to make those ratios closer I would pass anyway. The 2.7L is just a great, great little truck motor.