Ike gauntlet Tacoma 3.5 vs Canyon 2.8 diesel...surprising uphill times

A Colorado Diesel is $50K after taxes in Canada right now. I wish we could have back a cheap useful compact truck class.

 

Sorry, I didn't see your last post before I replied. And chalk up the red font to my OCD. Gotta keep thoughts organized.

And I get it man, I throw around the fanboy comments in jest, just like I've been called in regards to diesels. We can agree to disagree on the subject. At least till tomorrow. Good night sir.

 

Thats why I drive a Frontier king cab now. It's the smallest truck you can buy in Canada, the price was good too!

 

Good point. The F-150 will have a ton of incentives and haggle room, while the diesel Colorado will sell for close to MSRP until the newness wears off and they stop flying off the lot.

 

It was also pulling a trailer that weighed 6,100 lbs not 5,600 like the Taco. Put another 500lbs behind the Taco and it won't be nearly as close.

 

Just an aside, this morning for fun I built a 2016 Tacoma and a 2016 Colorado as I'd like them with the Colorado in a Diesel. Keep in mind I'm in Canada so we pay a little more for our trucks because it's all in CAD (which is actually a little less overall when converted to USD but whatever). Not that I want one of these trucks bad enough to go get one right now but just for the sake of seeing the cost or value of each. A V6 TRD Sport DCLB Automatic (I'd prefer OR and SB but not available in Canada in DC) runs just short of 40 K before any taxes, registration, etc. An I4 Diesel Colorado with roughly the same options comes out to just over 45K. Assuming you can get roughly 2K in discounts on both trucks the Tacoma in gas would be worth about 41K after taxes and the the Diesel would be worth about 46K. 6K in price difference so you can tow a little more, albeit slowly, and gain a few mpgs. Not thrilling to me.

Oh, and I paid 41K OTD for a F150 DCSB XTR 4x4 with the V8 that out tows both of those trucks by a long shot... it also doesn't drag it's ass around town.

 

Did you do the URD pulley swap? I think it adds something like 4 psi to the boost, right? Any idea how big of a power difference it made?

 

And revving out a diesel doesn't help it either seeing as they operate at much higher combustion chamber pressures.

 

Another thing to remember is that the Ike Gauntlet is the steepest portion of the whole run. It's not like the entirety of I-70 is that steep. You won't be running full throttle from Denver to New Castle Colorado. My 2002 Tacoma can barely keep the speed limit on the gauntlet with NO trailer so it's pretty impressive these trucks can do it with 5600 lbs behind them.

 

My favorite things from when we owned a diesel Touareg (2nd gen):
-Since diesels don't have a throttle, there are no throttle losses. This means your max MPG when cruising on the highway is much better than a gas engine that is using much of its power output to overcome its own throttle losses when cruising. The Touareg was a 5000 lb SUV that had no problem getting 35+ mpg on the highway
-~800 mile range on a tank
-Near-maximum power was always available at highway RPMs; no need to wait for the transmission to downshift followed by waiting for the engine to rev up; just stomp the pedal
-VW emissions fraud aside, I like that modern diesels have particulate filters. Particulates may actually be the worst emission from a human health perspective, and modern diesels basically don't produce them. DI gas engines produce lots of particulates but don't have filters (although they should, and probably will soon in Europe). VW wasn't accused of disabling the DPF, just the SCR system (NOx-reducing part of the system)

We didn't do heavy towing (just a 3500# gross utility trailer), so I can't comment on that. But I loved the MPG, range, and "always on tap" low-RPM power. Whether those things are worth the initial upcharge is up to the buyer, but emissions fraud aside, the cost of the diesel option typically doesn't depreciate in the used market. Thus, the overall cost over the ownership period is typically similar to the gas version of that vehicle.

 

Ike Guantlet, sponsored by GM Diesel.

 

I think you are about 10mpg off http://www.fuelly.com/car/volkswagen/touareg?engineconfig_id=508&bodytype_id=&submodel_id=

 

Fuelly shows mixed MPG, not highway cruising MPG. Our average MPG over the 40k miles we owned it was 27 MPG, but that was ~50% city (like Fuelly data). Look at the "Max MPG" value for some of the users with high average MPGs; they are in the 32-36 MPG range. Those tanks were ~100% highway tanks, which is what I was talking about.

 

If you want to talk all highway, my 99' 4runner returned 25mpg, but daily driving was barely 18mpg. How often do you really drive 100% highway? For me a couple times a year, max.

 

You're just proving my point. Sub 2ton gas vehicle averaged 18mpg mixed, 2.5 ton diesel averaged 27mpg mixed.

 

That's Pure BS.

 

I'd have a '16 F150 Supercab FX4 in black if they sold it with a 6spd MT. Great looking trucks at a great price, I just can't get back into automatic. It baffles me that they don't bother with a manual transmission anymore considering all the other options they offer.

Literally the only thing keeping me in a midsize is the manual gearbox.

 

Don't you love it when people make it so easy?

 

Sometimes I find the Diesel crowd on here to be like this:

 

Just stating the obvious. The Taco is NOT a world class performer in every area. Towing with a 3.5 minivan engine ? We should be happy it does as well as it does. America is a gasoline priority economy. We make more then we use. Unless the Canyon diesel sells like hot cakes, Toyota won't get into the game. Engine Longevity for new car buyers is seldom an issue. It's the subsequent higher mileage owners and that's where Tacoma excels. These things are not great heavy weight tow vehicals regardless of what make you buy.

Besides, in this tow test, it was simply the braking features and economy that presented the biggest difference. No gas engine can compete in this segment in these areas. Deal with it. You're using an engine that burns more energy dense fuel to begin with. Get real Taco fanboy's. The Taco isn't perfect. If it was, it wouldn't lag so far behind an f150 in sales.