Tacoma vs. Tundra mpg

Very simple: power to weight ratio. The V8 has more power and gets the extra weight up to "cruising speed" in a timely manner.

17/21 isn't entirely accurate, anyway. I routinely achieve 18mpg city and 23mpg highway.

 

Ya, your right about the 6th gear, i noticed that the other day that it doesnt seem much different than the 5th. If i was to do it again id definately get the auto. I really dislike how these trucks shift. It seems like you have to go so slow to be able to shift smoothly. I realize they arent sports cars but it kinda gets tiring

 

^I agree. I thought the same when I test drove a manual. I got half way down the block and said "Absolutely not." and went with the auto.

 

Sad, huh? I really wanted a manual tranny...

Guess I will just have to wait until they revise it, and then slam it into my Tacoma mated to a D4D 3.0L Turbo Diesel!

 

To be honest, I don't know if I would've picked the manual had I test drove it first. So many people complain about it, and say it's weird or different than other manuals. (Which is more or less true before it's broken in.) But I drove the auto first and said "hell no! Get me the 6 speed!"

The drive home was certainly a shock for me. It was 50-60 miles from the dealer back home and I had a bit of challenge getting used to it. Hell, it took me at least a couple weeks to fully adjust to it.

After I had a good 15-20k on it I really loved it! It took that many miles for it to "fully" break in to me. It smoothed out and I learned not to fight it. Unfortunately, it seems to NEED that break in time to perform best, and there's no way you'll get that new. So, IMO, people that test drive a 6spd and dismiss/complain about it aren't judging it fairly.

 

My complaint isn't really the smoothness (although, I was dissappointed in the used 06' Tacoma that I test drove). My big complaint is the 2nd overdrive not being, say... a 0.63 ratio or at least a 0.75

 

My complaint isn't really the smoothness (although, I was disappointed in the used 06' Tacoma that I test drove). My big complaint is the 2nd overdrive not being, say... a 0.63 ratio or at least a 0.75

 

I drive 22 miles one way in and out of Austin each day and I regularly see 18-19 mpg. I have monitored my fuel economy pretty closely here recently and I have found that my driving habits significantly affect my mpg (accelerating hard, driving faster than necessary etc). Just my $0.02.

 

Should I expect higher than the Toyota advertised 17/22 for my regular cab, short bed, 4 cyl., 5 spd, 4X4? I usually get higher than the EPA due to my driving style...

I think the term the guys early on the thread are looking for is "frontal area." And I love EngineeringToolbox for work and play. Check out their information on drag coefficient and frontal area. We never got into this as much as I wanted in our Fluid Dynamics class.
http://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/drag-coefficient-d_627.html

 

What a noob ^

Yeah, that would be kinda nice most of the time. However, I kinda like it for hills and towing. Don't have to downshift. Then again, 1 gear downshifts I could probably live with, but it's nice setting the cruise without problems like the auto having to down shift.

 

True. I am accustomed to the 4 cylinders, so downshifting isn't an issue.

 

I know, huh? Why would you quote some one twice?

 

lol And a moderator with 4,000 posts still double posts....

 

The Tacoma gets 21.4% better city and 16.6% better highway (or 19% better mileage on average). How is this not a significant difference?

 

I've always been struck by how a lot of people who own large trucks or SUVs exaggerate their mileage. I'm also skeptical of the EPA and suspect that they give big trucks/SUVs a bit of a mileage 'boost' in their ratings as a favor to the automotive industry to keep their fleet mileage higher.....but guess that sounds kind of like conspiracy theory and probably shouldn't go there. However, here's where I would like to go: I'd like to take a new Tundra and a new Taco and drive them at a set speed across an identical course, and I'd be willing to bet $1000 that the Taco would beat the Tundra by more than just a couple of mpg, and that the Tundra would not meet the EPA estimates. I'm guessing that those 2008 monsters are unmitigated gas-hogs.

 

Do they make a regular cab with a short bed? I suspect you mean a regular cab with a standard bed, and if so you have the same truck that I do, 4wd, 2.7liter 5speed. I drive mine probably a bit faster than I should and also do quite a lot of very short trips which is a mileage killer, doing roughly 50/50 city/highway driving, and average about 20-21mpg overall, so I'm content.

 

Yeah, it must be those short trips killing you cuz I get 20-21 with my v6 DC commuting to work up and over hills on back country roads, several stop signs, and city traffic a couple miles before the office.

My buddy with a Ford explorer gets 15mpg commuting 9 miles to work, and gets 18mpg or so when he drives the 20 miles to my house on weekends.

 

You bring up a good point. There is the "getting used to it" factor and you aren't going to get used to it in a 10 minute test drive. I just compared it to the many other manuals I've owned and I just didn't like it. But yeah, I would expect that you could certainly grow into it over time.

 

Yeah there's the getting used to it, but the tranny physically gets smoother as it breaks in. So I think even if I went from my manual to a brand new one I'd have a little trouble until it had a good 10k or more on it. Like the gears wear and round off a bit with use and mesh easier. Maybe the engine settles in a little more too as I notice around 40k I could pull the same hills in 6th instead of needing to drop to 5th. Like it's developing a little more torque used than brand new, even with my larger tires and slight drop in torque from those.

Basically it all translates to getting up to 30mph, putting it in 6th, and leaving it there until I stop, accelerate rapidly, or slow below 25. So I shift it less now, and when I do they're fast and smooth. Certainly smoother than my Corolla... And that goes for both transmission it's had.

 

That's my prerogative.