2017/18 Taco TRD Pro - Daily driver?

Hello all,

My first post so take it easy

I'm looking to purchase my first Taco and it has to be TRD Pro. I love every single thing about this beast.

Now, this will be my daily traffic warrior in our busy city of Toronto, Canada. I will take it to fishing trips on the weekends and occasional off road trip.

Any words of wisdom to have it as daily driver in a busy city?

I had my share of SUVs and can't stop thinking about taco TRD Pro. My second choice would be 4Runner TRD Pro..

Spoke to one of the dealers and looks like order books will be open next month

Cheers and glad to be here.

 

I drive mine daily and could not be happier! It rides and drives great. Mine is a manual. I have had it off roading twice and once climbed a 25 degree hill with lose dirt and had no problem in 4lo in second gear. I drive 20 miles to work and normally average between 20-21.5 depending on which way the wind blows. When the windows are up it is pretty quiet for a truck and I have no whine from the rear end, no howl from the rear end or UCA's. I have a heavy duty 5x8 trailer that weighs around a 1000lbs that I have had loaded up with about 2000 lbs of steel and it handled it really well.

I came from Fords and saw the PRO in a magazine about a year ago and wanted one. Found one and went and got it. Paid MSRP (sucker) and would absolutely do it again! I am extremely impressed with the quality of the truck!

 

I would wait for the 2018 just to see what they do.

I mean the 2018 Camry has 300hp on a stock trim level.

 

Crazy to think that the 2018s will be out in a few months. Feels like the 2017s just came out.

 

I've also got the MT Pro, got 20k on it since Dec 1 averaging ~19mpg. It's a great truck.

Comfy to sit in for 10min or 10hrs. There are a few peeps on here that complain about the lack of seat height adjustment (and rightfully so) but it's not an issue for me. I'm 5'10" and it hasn't been a problem.

I've done long road trips and bumper to bumper traffic 5-days a week. I take it on the beach in DE all the time and on off-road trails every once and a while and it handles like a champ. I haven't done anything "extreme" but I've had a few TJ and JK jeep wranglers in the past on these bumpy beaches and this truck is rides like a cloud compared to them, on and off the road.

I added a Revolver X2 tonneau cover and the PopNLock tailgate lock so that I can lock it from the fob and it can't be broken into (easily). Those 2 things are must-haves IMO.

Hope you end up going with the Tacoma. I know I'm glad I did.

 

Thanks a lot for you help everyone. I'm pretty much set and just waiting for August to put my deposit once order books are open. Hoping Cement Grey will be back or black will be added.

I'm 5'9 and hopefully lack of seat adjustment will not be an issue lol.

 

I hear they are adding a blue, but I think that FJ green would be super popular.

 

I think you are talking about the new 4Runner colors.

 

What would be a concern as a daily driver in a busy city? It has wheels and it goes. Won't matter what you drive if your stuck in traffic anyway.

 

Gas mileage and comfort.

I'm also looking at 18' 4Runner TRD pro as plan B.

 

Gas mileage isn't great unless you're doing 50 to 65mph on a flat straight stretch of road. City driving MPG is about the same as the previous generation. If that bothers you, I'd look elsewhere. Also I'd avoid the automatic transmission entirely.

Seat comfort is also an area of criticism by quite a few folks. Unfortunately you won't know from a 30 minute test drive.

 

20+ mpg if actually driving on the freeway, crap in city though.

Seats are comfortable enough. Did a 3 hour trip one way recently and had no concern however YMMV.

 

Search for Seats Uncomfortable in Turd Gen Section Only yields 6 pages of results. After about 30k miles, I find that the seats are suitable for trips of less than 2 hours. Anything longer and we take the wife's 2016 4Runner. The 4Runner is a much more comfortable road trip vehicle.

 

BTW Welcome to TW, this is smitty...we try not to make eye contact with him.

 

Do it.

 

Don't listen to a lot of the generic complaints here about the 3rd gen. A lot of the members are comparing it directly to a 2nd gen and many of them don't own a 3rd gen, and as is with every car community, there is a wave of older gen owners bashing it with "horrid looks, terrible reliability, not comfortable, bad ride, etc." Also, if you search for problems on any forum everything you find is compounded heavily and seems far worse.

Test drive it, test it again, haggle it, haggle again, go to a different dealership, do it again, and if you love it, who cares. Buy it, enjoy it, and be happy, or don't. But.......... if you are going to mod the crap out of it start with an off road or sport, don't throw money away on the stuff you will just rip off.

 

i have a 13 and live in philly. the biggest downfall of the truck is that its not an MT. if youre gonna do it, get an MT, and wait for the 18 if you can. see what the difference is.

 

Mines a 17' dcsb or; make sure you like the seats before you buy, the seating position is different from most trucks, I don't have a problem with it but some don't like it, I have the back of my front seats raised up 1/2". If you're anything like me (Los Angeles) you'll have the ect button on most of the time, otherwise a car will be cutting in front of you about once a minute.

 

Yep when you step on the gas she stutters and sometimes feels like it will stall. Will definitely raise the Pucker Factor if you're trying to pull out into traffic and it does that to you. Really an annoying characteristic of this Motor/Transmission combo. Also the Lag in throttle. Push down on the pedal...hesitate...hesitate.....slooooow acceleration.... push down a little more....still slooooww....push down to 75% throttle and then it fucking redlines like a leaf blower WAY too much throttle. Not smooth shifting at all. Avoid auto trans.

 

Take plenty of test drives to make sure you like the truck, it's features and the way it drives.

Some people complain about seat adjustments, some complain about low end grunt, some complain because the transmission shifts in a certain way they don't agree with. Some people buy them and wish they had a diesel or V8. Some people buy them thinking the truck's popularity and resale reputation make them perfect.

Those are the people that still buy the truck then come here to complain about what they don't like. Those are the people that make me just shake my head in wonder.

I like the trucks but have very realistic expectations aboutwhat they are. I've been daily driving them for 30+ years so I have a pretty good idea what to expect. I'm comfortable with them and I'll keep driving them til Toyota gives me a reason not to like them.

But they're not for everybody. Make sure you like everything about the truck before you buy it.