Am I crazy? Considering trading my '18 F250 for '19 Tacoma Off Road

Just moved from my 2005 F150 FX4 to a 2018 Tacoma DCOR. I love the smaller size and the Off road capabilities.

 

If you think the interior and interior quality is shit on the redesigned Rams then you’re just out of your mind dude. Have you even sat in one?

 

I sat in one a few weeks ago. Definitely up to par with my platinum

 

Yup sure have and the interior is shit. It's like they didn't pay the vendor to de-bur some of the plastic parts. The rear is also coil springs which aren't worth a fuck unless you just want it to ride nice with nothing in the box. Dodge interiors have been shit for decades.

 

I'm gonna play devil's advocate and say maybe a Tacoma isn't right for you. The question I have is...What did you buy the super duty for? Do you tow or have heavy payloads a lot? Biggest issue with a Taco other than interior room is the low payload capacity. Maybe a half ton truck would be better for you? Kind of a trade-off?

I'd love a half-ton but maybe that's because I'm really feeling the lack of space in my single cab, coming from a Grand Cherokee...

 

What do you do for a living? I work construction and would prefer the larger truck simply for the 8 foot bed. The taco is better on gas. Barely.

 

I don't know dude, Ram and Jeep are FCAs bread and butter, they actually put some investment into these products. My mom's new 18 JLU Rubi,has nicer interior components than my 19 Tacoma. The new 2019 Ram got crazy acollades for its new interior from pretty much every review. I've sat in prior gen which is maybe what you drove and agree that one felt cheaper, but not the new 19s.

 

I traded in my 15 wrangler for a 19 tacoma. The tacoma seats are WAY more comfortable. I'm 6 foot.

 

Dodge or RAM has a legacy of interiors that fall apart. I dove that new truck around and found the quality of the interior to be shit compared to my 2014 F150. A lot of the plastic parts on the door had sharp edges like they weren't de-burred like they left the flashing on them.

 

Just don't get any mid-200s Chrysler product lmao I had an 05 Grand Cherokee and my brother has a Dakota. Really not that many issues but...Meh

 

15 JK is completely different than an 18+ JL.

 

Exactly. I fall in love everytime I drive my mom's new JLU Rubi. Jeep knocked it out of the park.

 

My 14 JKUR had some comfy ass leather seats though. Couldn’t complain lol

 

That new Ranger with the FX4 package is an interesting offering. Also, Nissan will be refreshing their Frontier and Mazda will bring a new midsize truck with their awesome SKYACTIV-G 2.5T engine (which makes over 310 lb-ft of torque at 2,000 rpm, perfect for an off-road truck) and is based on the Isuzu D-Max, which has proven to be a capable off-road platform overseas. Tons of cool things happening in the midsize segment.

Keep your F-250 and reassess in a year or so.

 

I personally have an HD truck and a trd sport Tacoma. If you don’t need the HD truck for heavy towing then I honestly prefer driving my 2017 4x4 double cab trd sport Tacoma over my 2018 4x4 Chevy crew cab LTZ duramax 8 days a week. The Chevy has a few more tech features than my Tacoma does but I’ve never really cared for those things much. There is definitely a huge difference in power obviously but my Tacoma shifts great and has plenty of go to it. I love my Tacoma. I like my duramax. They both are great for what I bought them for

 

Don't forget that Jeep's releasing the Gladiator pickup soon...

 

Go to the 5th Gen Rams forum (2019 model) and take a look at their reliability surveys. It is crazy the issues people are having with those new trucks. Leaking interiors, missing trim pieces, completely inoperational infotainment systems, clunks and rattles, jerking, collision prevention systems activating all of the sudden in the middle of a clear highway.

Now the new FCA vehicles are way more refined inside and out than ever before but the build quality and reliability remains as it has always been--not good at all.

 

You are entitled to your opinion. I happened to have had a 2009 Ram 1500 that I kept for 8 years. The interior was fine. Better than my 06 Tacoma interior. As far as the coil spring rear. Your correct, it makes for a nice ride. I also hauled firewood and never had a problem with the rear sinking down too much or having the ride degrade. The new Rams are nicer than my 09 Ram. In the 8 years with the Ram I had no interior issues. Mechanically I had one repair to the rear diff which was covered under warranty.

People like to bash other pickups and take the stance that whatever they are driving is the best vehicle. Tacoma is a nice pick up but pricey. In 2016 Toyota was not negotiating much on the Tacoma. For the price I went with a Nissan Frontier. Yes its dated, but proven. I keep vehicles long enough that resale value is not much of an issue.

 

That's a tough one. How often do you really think you'll need the bed, how often are you going to pick up a load of 10-foot dimensional lumber, or a cubic yard of mulch? On the other hand, how often do you sit in bumper-to-bumper traffic, and how many times a month do you parallel park on the street?

My advice is to tolerate the Ford just a while longer, sell it just before it rolls 30 thousand miles. The buyback price won't be much different than now, therefore you'll gain more value out of it. If you can really be patient, sell it before it hits 45 thousand.

As for the ram debate, I owned an 08 ram. I don't even want to look at a new one. For a solid year i would be driving along the interstate at 75 mph, the engine would randomly quit. I'd shift to neutral and push the clutch in, hit the ignition while still at speed and it would start right up again as if nothing was wrong. It happened once a week when it started, it was twice daily when I sold it. I took it to two shops that both said the same thing, "sell it, it's gonna take forever to find that gremlin."

 

I agree