2nd Gen owner considering upgrading to 3rd Gen

Understood, but keep in mind that not all kids are created equally and they each learn and grow differently. Possibly differently than ourselves.

For my son, I told him his job is to do well in school and work hard at that. Success there brings rewards. He learned to work hard, take on risk, success and fail differently than I did. Giving him a reliable safe mode of transportation was easy because he made it easy by doing all the right things. I told him that less than his best in school would mean a lot of privileges would go away.

This technique wouldn't work for all kids. For mine, he far exceed our expectations by being successful in school, on the athletic field, in church, and in service to others.

Being a parent that is tuned in to your kid will help you determine the right path for your family.

 

I drove a 2015 DCSB MT and really liked it, but for the money I then went to drive a 2017 DCSB Sport MT. Well as you can see I choose the 2017 and I thought my truck was night and day better. MUCH smoother shifting, I felt the same power, but at 3500 the 3rd gen takes off, MUCH nicer interior, and have come to find out my 3rd gen gets much better mpg's. I have never driven a AT 3rd Gen, but I love my truck and highly recommend it. Very happy with my decision to go 3rd over 2nd - I would have been bummed seeing the new truck if I bought the "older" model. Overall, go for it.

 

I love my truck...

I suggest not paying any attention to 3G bitch/Toyota sucks threads and those giving unsolicited parenting advice...

 

No matter how good a kid may be,that does not translate into driving experience.

 

Since the 3rd Gen has been out a few years now you should hopefully be able to find a used one to test drive. I think the dealers will be more apt to let you do a thorough extended test drive in a used truck.

 

It's personal preference. If it was me I'd keep the 2nd gen for a lot of reasons.

 

Great leadership and mentorship. I suggest not giving any lower ranking military members any advice or career counseling.

 

If you're drawing parallels between your posts and mine, that's your issue...

 

I’m keeping the 2nd Gen for certain. It’ll stay in the family until it stops running.

Just selfishly thinking of myself with this post and wanting “truck focused” feedback on whether you’ve found the 3rd Gen as reliable, comfortable and fun to drive.


I tend to disregard parenting recommendations since that wasn’t what I was asking for in the OP.

 

While I've never owned a 2G, I had a Tundra before my 3G...I find my Tacoma to be all the things you mentioned.

EDIT: Save for reliability...can't comment on that, as mine is new and with 1500 miles now. SFSG...

 

I have had great luck out of my 3g so far. I feel the comfort, fit and finish on the interior is much better than the 2g. The 3.5L has plenty of power compared to the 2g you just have to get the RPM into it’s operating range. I have driven the 3g auto transmission and I own a manual trans 3g and would not even consider the auto over the manual. The manual is just a great compliment to the 3.5L along with its 4.30:1 axle gearing makes the truck a riot to drive. $.02

 

I like my 17' DCSB OR JBL truck, about 11k miles so far, hauled a lot of stuff in the bed, it's worked pretty well for me.
Truck Trend magazine had a "first drive" article about the 2016 3rd gen Tacoma, from what I understand; some of the major differences from the 2nd gen:
-higher strength steel in the body and frame
-better sound insulation; door seals, glass, etc.
-slightly better suspension
-better axles
-new 3.5l engine (which works fine for me)
-new 6 speed auto. trans.
-new transfer case
-exterior improved (23 less lbs. of drag)
-interior improved
-7" nav screen
-crawl control and multi-terrain on the OR
http://www.trucktrend.com/features/1508-2016-toyota-tacoma/