Initial impressions from a backcountry Tacoma user

Hi all. I finally got to test drive a 2016 DCSB TRDOR V6 Auto. Overall I enjoyed the truck. Here are my initial thoughts on a few item. Disclaimer: I have always driven manual 4-cylinder Toyotas (couple of Tacomas and couple of pre-Tacoma trucks), however, I do have many hours driving my wifes V6 Auto FJ cruiser (similar HP and Torque). Also, I purchase Tacomas to be used HARD. I drive 50/50 dirt roads/highway. So much of my impressions come from this fact. I am HARD on trucks and my dirt road use is not some graded gravel road. It consists of hours upon hours of 4-wheel hi and low on remote backcountry jeep trails. So please no bashing of this review unless you use your Tacoma similarly

1. Power/shift points: With the ETC button OFF power management was unimpressive. The Tacoma seemed to always be in too high of a gear and slow to down shift. Felt very under powered. With the ETC button ON everything seemed great. Power management, shift points and peppyness (i made this word up) seemed on par or better than my wifes FJ. I think if I had the auto in the Tacoma I would leave the ETC button on for the majority of my driving. It simply felt like expected for the HP/Torque that is has once the ETC button was ON. With the button off...BORING. With all that said I will be waiting for a manual prior to purchasing a 2016.

2. Headroom: I am 6'0" and often wear a cowboy hat. The rear seat was fine for me with headroom to spare. I could easily sit back there and have 3-4" of clearance (1-2" while wearing a hat). With the front seat I only had an inch of clearance while sitting straight up and down in the seat. If i leaned a little bit towards the middle I would have 3-4 as the moon roof is recessed a bit. No way I could wear a cowboy hat while sitting in the front. With that said I will not be getting the Tech package when I order (damit I wanted the heated seats).

3. Ride Quality/height: Ride height is what is to be expected for a stock truck. IT SUCKS. No way I could drive this truck like I want with out ruining undercarriage and rocker panels. Suspension seems too soft for any real off road use. Going over off camber bumps made the truck roll side to side a bit. It was better in the side roll than my 2009 Tacoma was stock but still not usable for much off road adventures. Rear springs feel firmer that stock gen 2 rear leafs. For me a mild 2-3" OME lift with new tires would be the first thing completed (first week or two of ownership) so it could be used as a truck.

4. Nice features: Love the Qi, love the heated seats, interior layout is superb, rear seat feels larger than gen 2. I am not a stereo junky but the stereo (non-jbl) sounded pretty decent for a stock set up. Add a subwoofer and it would really be nice sounding. I never liked all the pics of the OR grill but in person it looked fine. Not sure if it has been the camera angles or if I have just gotten used to it but no complaints in person.

5. Annoyances: See pics below for these...Fabric on seats seems cheap. It just does not have a nice feel to it and it already has some weird creases in the fabric (see photo below). I have kids and I am afraid that car seats will really wear the fabric quickly. I am assuming I would need to install Wet Okole covers front and rear. The exhaust and some strange bracing hang WAY LOW below the cross member on the frame. I will dent, bend, tear the living hell out of these when off road even with a lift. Not sure what Toyota was thinking with the placement here. You can see my 2009 in the background and it does not have these items hanging down. Maybe some aftermarket skid plates can cover this up but it has me worried (see photo below).

Overall, I like it. I will buy one. A manual with out the tech package and a lift should solve most of my complaints.

 

This bad boy is a manual. I test drove an auto too and it felt like golf cart at low speeds. Holy crap. I wish someone would do a tank full comparison of MPG with ECT on and ECT off. Maybe to get those EPA #'s they had wussify acceleration. Who knows.

 

Yeah I have looked at the truck above on-line. It is the exact truck I want just the wrong color. I want Silver or Quicksand to hide the scratches better. Yeah...I'm hard on trucks....

 

I tested this bad boy the other day.

 

Why on earth would you do that? I have never understood this.

 

@HaiKarate Why would I do what?

 

Is this a manual? If so how does the power delivery feel in comparison to the Auto?

 

I really want to know the engineer's thought process when they decided to route the exhaust like that. There had to be a better way to do it.

 

It was an auto. First one in my town I live in. I really want to test a manual though.

 

you forgot to mention that Crawl Control is amazing

 

mehhhh...drive a manual and it will not be needed.
In all honesty it is tough to convince a salesman during a test drive to let me drive it down a dirt road where it would be needed! So I really can not speak to it. It is definitely a cool feature for an auto.

 

You aren't an actual owner?

 

First line of my post. Test Drive.

 

Does anyone know if the ECT stays on when you shut down or is that something you have
to activate each time you start-up?

 

You have to activate every time you start it up....default is OFF

 

if going by previous gen's and how this button work. its on or off.

unlike VSC buttons where it reset after each ignition off.


edit : really? they changed the behavior from the old way this button functioned?

 

I am a bit puzzeled here since the ground clearance is identical between the 2nd gen (9.4in, except for the 2x2 AC at 8.1in) and the 2016 (9.4in). With the exhaust laying so low, how could it get the same clearance? Is the remaining of the truck higher elsewhere?

 

well from what I can see in the picture, it looks like it sits higher than front arms on the wheels or (off pic) the pumpkin. but it still would be a hang point depending on how your traverse the terrain.

some skid plates would rectify that issue, but then again that's more $$$.

usually the ground clearance is measured by the lowest point that can hit something excluding running boards/tube steps/mud flaps.

 

^^^not sure on the clearance. I was going to measure but did not have a tape measure. @NoDak is probably right. The lowest clearance is what they are quoting.

I am now wondering if the manual has the same tail pipe routing because it appears the pipe is going around the Auto transmission. My truck in the background is a manual. Someone PLEASE crawl under a 2016 manual and take a picture.

 

I'm sure the "ECT Always ON" MOD will be seen before long.