March sales look good for Taco

The gap is definitely shrinking. Once Nissan redesigns the frontier, I'm guessing they'll take more sales away from the others as well.
Resale is what keeps me in toyota's, lots of other good options out there these days.
It's impressing people still love there f series pick ups.

 

You gotta be careful for those article head to head comparisons like from Car and Driver. They emphasize things like handling and power and bells and whistles, and generally tend to ignore reliability. If handling and 0-60 are very important to you then I have no right to tell you you're opinion is wrong. However, I got my truck to be a workhorse and get me to the places I want to go, so reliability is a huge factor for me and easily eclipses all the other categories. I mean it would be a different story if the Tacoma drove stupidly slow or required immense strength to steer, but me and the majority of owners find the speed/power/tow rating just fine. That GMC Denali or Chevy Canyon might look nice on the showroom floor and on a test drive, but frankly I wouldn't trust it after significant miles. Also, if people are placing so much stock on on-road handling and acceleration why the hell are you looking at a truck?

Quality to me isn't how many cool new "revolutionary" features, how much leather, how slick the nav system is, how fast the truck can accelerate. Quality is fewer repairs and less shit breaking down. To use an example, my friend has a 2012 BMW 328i, not that old, and that thing is constantly having issues. Latest issue a few days ago: there's rattling in the drivetrain. Anyways i digress. Things like Tacomas, Glocks (if you're familiar with the shooting world), Macs etc. will always sell well. They work without fuss.

Sure in this forum it might seem like the 3rd gens are breaking down left and right but of course only people that have problems will speak up. Every car forum will have trolls and new gen envy.....Tacoma World is no different......

 

There's a typo in the chart.

 

I'm not going to trust anybody that puts all that information together and then compares March 2017 sales to March 2017.

 

I noticed that yesterday and thought wtf.

 

$52K Denali or Ridge whose sales are pathetic ?
You dont actually believe what you wrote ? LOL

 

The 3rd gen has had some issues not typical of Toyota in terms of quality.

This is my first Tacoma so I can't compare it to the 1st and 2nd gen models but I am a previous Toyota owner. I leased a 2014 Scion tC monogram series prior to my 2017 tacoanc my TRD off road is a much more refined vehicle as it should be because it's a $20k car versus a $36,742 truck.

The howling differentials and the auto trans issues are a big problem and has throttled Tacoma sales a lot since consumers are noticing it but 2016 was the best year for taco sales at 191,000+ units since 2002 so comparing March 2017 sales to March 2016 sales sets a high bar for 2017.

My truck is no longer shift happy but my rear end does have a minor humming sound that I have to turn the radio off to hear. I hope it doesn't turn into a howling differential issue. I have 9345 miles on my truck.

I agree the competition is starting to get fierce in the midsize market which means a refreshed frontier, the new ranger, and a Jeep Wrangler pickup will make it hard for the Tacoma to stay on top with its current specs but I will assume Toyota will do a mid cycle refresh of the 3rd gen in 2019 by introducing a new more powerful V6 and a 8-10 speed transmission.

Overall I am happy with my 3rd gen and sales/popularity aside I am going to keep mine until the 4th gen comes out which won't be long since the competition is going to force Toyota to come out with s completely new truck in the next 3-4 years. The 3rd gen will only last about 5-7 years before the 4th gen debuts due to the competition heating up in the mid size truck market.

 

I hope Toyota is watching...

According to several sources, CR being just one that conducts annual owner surveys, the Tacoma currently ranks last among it's mid size US sold competition. This is just reliability and does not include the overall rating that includes the feel good stuff like the 0-60 time, leather or bells and whistles.

 

But it outsells all others. People dont always believe what they read.
Reliabilty was a tranny flash, wow.

 

You're correct, too bad sales numbers don't reflect build quality and reliability.

 

Reliability ? Such as holes that howl or a harmonic diff noise ?
You make it sound like they are breaking down lol.
As these truck start turning 100 to 200 K miles these type of posts will go away very fast.

Survey probably had people respond for a bad CPS howling holes and a tranny flash update and a noise in the differential which has not been proven to be a problem.

That won't stop you from pulling 300 K.

 

I'm not sure we're talking about the same thing...

I'm referring to data on build quality and reported, statistical, data that consumers of the product have problems with...ranging from electronic issues to transmission problems. These are just two areas that have significantly higher reported problems that other manufactures AND were reported by people who cared enough about the Tacoma to have purchased one...either way, if it's reported and it hurts owner satisfaction it's not good for the reputation Toyota has long worked to hold. But, like you said, not everyone believes what they read.

 

Toyota has been spending all of its time and effort on the 2018 Camry redesign which is Toyota's bread and butter best selling model. They cannot afford to mess up the camry that sells 350-400k units a year which is double the amount of units the Tacoma typically sells in a year so of course perfecting the Camry was higher priority than making the 3rd gen Tacoma perfect.
Now that the Camry redesign is out of the way, Toyota will finally invest more time into making the Tacoma better with a good 2019 update and bringing a great 4th gen Tacoma 2-3 years afterwards. At least that's my expectations. I am saitisfied with the 3rd gen taco but this is my first truck so perhaps the previous gen Tacoma owners are disappointed with the quality and performance of the 3rd gen.

A lot of 3rd gens are being traded in after only 18-19 months since they went into production so a lot of 3rd gen owners must detest these trucks a lot to take a beating selling these trucks after only owning them 6-19 months.

 

Me too!

 

Name the electronic issue other than the CPS which was a bad batch over year ago resolved and the tranny which a TSB fixed.
The radio resetting function doesn't really count either sorry .

 

I would like to think Toyota has the resources to simultaneously develop multiple products but, agree it could be a contributing factor.

I'm definitely a fan of Toyota (and former employee) and I believe it's maybe the best auto manufacture in the business. I just hate to see they have a product in last place when they pretty much dominate every other category they compete.

I've owned several Toyota Trucks and I bet I will buy new again but, until I see a shift in the data I'm not sold yet on a 3rd gen Tacoma.

 

It's not me it's the owners of the product. Toyota didn't get where they are because they refused to listen to the consumer and that means they at least have people in their organization who will admit and fix those problems.

 

That's fair. I do agree Toyota has the manpower, money, and resources to develop and engineer multiple new products at once since they are the 3rd largest auto manufacturer in the US after GM and Ford.
Like I said this is unusual for Toyota to bring out a product with this many hiccups. Maybe that is Toyota's fear with the 4Runner and tundra. Those two trucks haven't been refreshed since 2008-2009 but they are known for solid reliability and the 4Runner sales are up 25% from last year this month despite it being a 9-10 year old design.

Toyota doesn't want to run into the problems they are having with the 3rd gen tacoma's so they are taking their time with bringing out the 4Runner and Tundra redesigns because they don't want to lose their reliability reputation for those models.

I really hope Toyota turns things around for the 3rd gen Tacoma soon and when the 4th gen dies come out I hope similar issues doesn't happen.

 

I hope they are watching too, they cannot just have a cavalier attitude and say oh it is no big deal, the mid sized truck market is about to get competitive and they will lose sales.

 

Agreed. If Toyota wants the Tacoma to remain the best selling midsize truck they better fix these differential issues fast and come out with a comprehensive 2019 update with an updated engine and transmission not just some subtle cosmetic changes like a different shape grille and replacing the tailights with clear ones found on the limited and pro models.
Toyota keeping the best selling small truck is important to them so I doubt they are going to let the competition take over without a fight.