This isn't a Chevrolet, our first new truck.

We actually have a place in long beach and head that way fairly often. Looking to see what all is out there and at what cost GF has already brought it up twice today and we literally just finished the paperwork on the truck so it's a have to do ASAP item. Along with door sill protectors, dash cam mount for the gopro bracket for a g1w-cb dash cam, and blacking out the "look at me" chrome grill.

 

I had a TRD OR for 4 months and 14,000 miles. My Silverado LTZ makes the Taco feel like a cheap tin can bumper car in comparison. The ride quality is superior in every way. Cabin comfort, suspension, climate..

Not sure what full sizes you are talking about being uncomfortable?

 

lol but people will want to stare anyway. Not going to lie, I like the 3rd gen body style, it's the drive train that irks me. Sounds like you already have a plan. He makes them with or without kickout in the rear to protect the rear panel from an initial hit too if you wanted that. Don't know about price, you would need to PM him when he's back on. Here's his thread for everything he does: https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads...-cmc-hi-lift-mounts-cb-antenna-mounts.374697/

 

Drove a 14 Silverado and 17 Sierra ride was harsh truck was too big for us and similar options was too much. The size was the major issue. Mpg was the same we for sure werent going to get a full size manufacturer wasn't a concern. Had we wanted a full size I would have a Sierra in the driveway no question at all.

 

welcome to TW- you bought a Tacoma and as a bonus you have a membership to a pretty good forum- here's hoping that both these will be good additions- enjoy!

 

Everyone is entitled to their opinions, I have no issue with anyone that doesn't agree with mine lol. Opposing views tend to be eye opening to me because of the perspective change. As for the third gen hate, I know first hand jumping from a 3 or 4 speed A/T to a 6 will feel like a nightmare to anyone not used to it. Been there done that you think the gear hunt is bad in the 3rd Gen drive a 10 speed a/t car you will love the 6 speed. Gm has been putting 6 speed autos in trucks since 07. My dads 2500 z71 has a 6l90e trans and he drives 40% of the time in manual mode because he hates it searching also in many scenarios its decides to leave the line in second gear which is normal and drives him insane. On heavier acceleration the more gears they have the more fantastic it feels because it's living more time at peak hp/tq. The issue is when you are driving along all nice and you decide to jump on it and the trans begins this giant series of math problems to pick a gear mean while you are just sitting there pissed off waiting for it to make up its mind and go. I know and understand, thing is the goal is MPG the government forced their hand smaller motors w/ or w/o power adders plus lots of gears = more mpg. So its just a learn to live with it thing, took me forever. Now I'm to the point I prefer 6 8 10 speed a/t over a 3 or 4 speed when I drive a 4 speed a/t it feels like it falls on its face because of that 500-600 RPM difference on gear changes. Like I said I 100% understand the trans hate I just have a completely different opinion on it.

 

The new 8 spd in the LTZ does little hunting and when it does, it's not noticeable. It's a dramatic difference from my TRD OR that felt like an epileptic monkey was shifting the gears.

In fact it's the smoothest shifting auto I've owned with the exception of my wife's Prius with the CVT. Even the ACM shift from 4cyl to 8 is imperceptible.

If I lay down the accelerator I have 420hp / 460 ft lbs shifting smoothly through the powerband. Toyota should take notice.

Good luck with yours. Mine was not a good experience.

 

I haven't had any issues with up shifting throughout the power band in the Tacoma past about 50% percent throttle. otherwise it's racing to get to 6th as fast as it can just like every other 6 speed auto i have ever had. maybe it needs more time to get screwy lol as for GM stuff
2007 Silverado 2500 Z71 6.0 LY6? - no deactivation 6l90e - hundreds of threads about gear searching
2009 Pontiac G8 L76 6.0 - in stock form 361hp/383tq 6 speed auto 6l80e with DoD (non-VVT deactivation) there are hundreds of threads about how awful the 6 speed searches. so bad GM had 3 revisions to the TCM programming to try and address it. How loud the 4cyl mode is with anything not stock other than 1 exhaust system and DoD causes lifter failure
2013 Camaro 3SS L99 45th anniversary - 400hp 6 speed auto revised 6L80E with VVT AFM cylinder deactivation - hundreds of threads about the 6 a/t gear hunting and the AFM mode noticeably engaging. this 6L80e in stock form is much faster to shift than the same trans in the G8 due to some slight revisions.
Could really go on and on with the same complaint for a different brand. Those dual overdrive gears with the long waited 6 to 3 jump is something i am just calling normal in my life I guess this Tacoma so far is on par shifting wise with the 3 other similar trans GM vehicles i drive regularly so while it is completely irritating to some, so far at least, drives and shifts exactly how I would expect it to for these first 200 miles. The 8 speed does seem to shift better than the 6 speed GM trans but on the test drive i was going about 40mph and i put it to the floor progressively (so from 15% throttle quick push to 75% then to 99%) and it did what I expected from an 8 speed it fell on it's face looking for gears before bucking and taking off. this was a 5.3 SLT

IMO it's very easy to hide crappy shifting when you have more power.

for example the G8 with close to 700rwhp i really don't have to give it much throttle to get the speed i want even if its going 50 mph in 6th odds are it won't even drop down shift past 5th to out accelerate a hyundai, for example, I want to get around
same with the camaro near the same weight as the g8 since it's basically the same car with 400hp it may jump down to 4th to do the same thing
the 07 2500 z71 just shy of 6k lbs and 350hp needs to jump down to 3rd to get the power to go but the truck resists the 6 to 3 jump as that will burn up clutches really quick. So it trys to make you happy without 6 to 3 and goes 6 to 4 and you don't have the power you want so you give it more gas and it bucks around and goes to 3rd.

I have a feeling the issue people have with the 3rd gen is the third scenario. I really think were this v6 making the power lower in the range or making the hp the GM 3.6 makes (308hp @6800) the trans "issue" would be less noticeable to people. Haven't looked to see if anyone has supercharged a 3rd gen yet but i would guess that they would have fewer complaints about the trans then someone that was coming from a similar HP/weight vehicle with an A4 trans to a stock 3rd gen.

 

also the more i read about the 16 i guess there was a TSB on the trans for delayed shifting especially from R to D that was addressed via a TSB and the 17 is unaffected. so it's possible this is where some people's issues lie. This is also the same reason i never buy a "first year" vehicle even if it was used lol. odds are they will have some strange issue that never gets resolved but is corrected in the second model year

 

Unfortunately with Atkinson cycle, I dont think TRD will make a SC for this gen from what I've read. Now I always am looking at Lexus forums and the new 2018 LS500 gets a new 3.5 TT V6. It's a thought, and a big one, I know, but Toyota could easily copy over that powerplant and build a factory Tacoma "Mōkin"

 

Toyota went with roots superchargers because low end instant tq. Otherwise Toyota has such a great argument for TT everything because of the 2JZ. I'm a fan of power adders don't care how you get the power as long as it gets there. That being said my preferred FI is a centrifugal supercharger because it's basically right in the middle of roots/twin screw superchargers and turbos in terms of power delivery. IMO Toyota will always choose reliability over performance, seems like they never want to make a power adder then at some point begrudgingly do. My case and point would be that there was a supercharger made for the 1.5L scion xb at one point. Doubt it is related to the cycle but as I understand it the supercharger program is over for every model as of mid 2015. Basically just like every other manufacturer it either comes off the line with the power adder or you have to get it from the aftermarket voiding your warranty with Toyota.

 

door sill protectors and sun shade ordered lol. also going to take off the grill and plastidip it this weekend to see if i like it any better or if i should just order a pro grill. also sent a PM in reference to the rock slides. still looking for options on rock slides/rails want:

function as a step
powdercoat or undercoated (not sure which you offroad guys think is better) black
bolt on
kick out at the bed

 

Nice Truck!

 

Honestly my 16 TRD OR just had a shitty power band and delivery. It was nice on the test drive in the valley and of course really nice off road slow speed, but in real world Montana 80mph varied terrain it flat ass fell on its face. Upshift, downshift, wash, rinse, repeat.. it was jarring.

Plus my local Toyota dealer refused to acknowledge the trans tsb, the wavy shaking hood, the piss poor mpg- they flat out refused all of it. Pretty piss poor constomer relations.

Some of these 3rd gens are jewels, some of them turds. Actually a lot of them.

 

well I hope we don't end up feeling that way, because currently we love this thing.

 

Lol that's exactly what I PM'ed @Shmellmopwho for but he doesn't ship so fabbing some up myself soon and he's providing bolt placement information. I would powder coat. Get the Pro grill too, all the looks for half the money

 

Seriously I hope your truck is awesome. We really liked the Taco styling and we've owned a lot of Toyotas. This one was a flat out dud.

 

yeah he's 4.5 hours from where i sit right now and 20 min from our regular weekend vacation location so i'm interested to hear back from him.

 

What side of town are you on? I'm just guessing Summerlin. NorthWest for me.

 

i will never make fun of someone that ends up in a GM truck IMO they build the best and longest lasting fullsize. The high reliability and low cost of maintenance on an LS powered truck is hard to argue. I still don't trust DoD, AFM, or whatever they call it now. Leave all 8 on this 4 cyl mode crap doesn't pickup any mpg at least where there are changes in terrain. maybe it's great in Kansas.

Also only my second toyota product the xb being my first. as i admitted at first i used to talk mountains of crap on anyone that owned a toyota especially a truck. I even refused to admit the Scion was a toyota even when I was at toyota getting it serviced lol.