Car and Driver Comparison: 2016 Tacoma v. 2016 Colorado

At this point the "reliability & resale that people say is better than the twins does not exist. Only time will tell so please stop touting this as "advantage" Tacoma.

Also, please stop with the stories about my brother in law's cousins boyfriend had a Chevy that was a POS.

 

Besides the usual rust at the cab panel, my neighbors 2000 Silverado has 260k and he's had no issues besides regular maintenance.

 

Resale has been proven through the entire history of Toyota and other Japanese cars compared to the American ones. Saying it does not exist is naive at best. Only times this is not true is on special edition vehicles. For instance a boss 302 mustang. It's not necessarily advantage for just the Tacoma but Toyota on quite a few of their vehicles

 

Toyota Engineers focus on reliability "Q D R". They spend more for components to ensure reliability. They know WHY the Tacoma sells, and won't short cut it. If they find something wrong they WILL recall and fix it. Even if no one dies....Toyota replaced both head head gaskets on my Gen 1 with over 80K as a recall. I became a customer for life

GM will do the same.....oh wait.......only if someone dies......and they get caught.

 

Truthfully there are some things I like in the American vehicles. Especially the diesel option. But the chances of me keeping a car from new til death is slim to none and the track record of Toyota speaks for itself. Did the 3rd gen miss out on some things? Certainly. Is it a huge improvement over the 2nd? Depends on what you like,, but yes it is. I've driven them, researched rhem and made the choice to upgrade my 2014 to a 2016 and pay the difference. It also helps that I can get 28-29k on trade in for my 2014 with 23,000 miles on it. Especially since I paid just over 29 for it when I bought it. I know for a fact you can't do that with an American car. Although I admit it is tempting to just get a 4 runner since the prices are so close now, there's a reason I have a truck and not an SUV

 

I also can't help but wonder if they took the time to break the Tacoma in. I've experienced the hunt and peck shifting issue in my most recent test drive, however I drove another one and the shifting was far smoother and cleaner than my 2nd gen. Only difference was the smoother one had been driven a lot more

 

Fuel economy would've been a nice touch. They gave us some but not a lot. Some of the advancements in fuel economy in the American vehicles includes running on half the cylinders or the latest which is cutting fuel delivery during coasting. They're always experimenting to find the next best thing for fuel economy but have yet to prove their reliability which is why people will pay the premium for a Toyota

 

BMW and Volkswagen are another fine example of testing vs actual use. BMW has always been a killer car to drive, crushing its competitors. But you look at the back end with maintenance costs and things breaking. I've heard this from both mechanics and owners. It gets to be extremely expensive. Are they nice cars? No doubt. But they lose in the reliability and maintenance categories which is where the majority of buyers will be concerns in the long run. I don't buy a car to just upgrade every few years. That's way too expensive to do

 

I like turtles? No WAY!!! I love that video!

 

Dafuq..

 

Just read the article. C&D makes valid points -though the review points can be skewed depending on what you care about (e.g., towing #'s was a huge 4 point difference?)

That said, two items: there was zero discussion of the Atkinson cycle switch. Meaning, the mpg benefit didn't show, so no reason to talk about it.

Second, I am so sad to hear the GM had more low end? Ouch.

I don't think Toyota pulled everything off with this redesign that they intended (not meaning spec-war stuff). But, they would never admit that externally.

 

Isn't the Colorado rated at a higher fuel economy than the Tacoma? But they both showed the same?

 

17/24 vs 18/23 in those trims....both got 19.

 

What trims were tested? I haven't seen the actual article

 

Sad since my 2015 with 10k miles and 285/70r17s gets consistent 17-18mpg hwy and city which mpg would be a big consideration for upgrading.

 

Toyota was a 4x4 TRD OR DCSB AT
Chevy was a 4x4 LT Crew Cab Short bed

It would have been more apples to apples if they tested a TRD Sport vs the LT, I think. Prob not enough to change anything.

I personally guess an MT on the Taco would have made impacted the rankings substantially.

 

Testing an off road on a road test....they should've just tested an sr5 or TRD sport.

 

Then the Tacoma pro noted by the report of off-road ability against the Colorado would have been not the case cause now your ruling out the crawl control, added departure angles, etc.

 

Yup, & sorry just ninja edited.

 

That's only one pro but would've likely deleted a con on cornering and mpg. I haven't read the article to know what they tested it on or if they used any of the extra off-road features but most of us aren't going to be off roading our trucks as a primary use for the 2016. Snow and gravel etc yea but not crazy jeep stuff