2019 Tacoma TRD Offroad - An Honest Review from a Ford guy

Lost me at why anyone buys the sport. But yes they are great trucks, have had them all.

 

Lol Tacoma World is the only forum where someone can say something nice about the vehicle the community is based on and people think they’re being paid to do so.

I owned and loved my 2013 F150 for 6 years, at about 70,000 miles she started to fall apart. I also took a look at all of the midsizes and the Tacoma won for me hands down, and I was never a Toyota person beforehand.

 

Welcome to TW and Toyota! I drove both the OR 4 x 4 and Sport 4 x 4 and for the type of driving, hauling and off roading I do, the Sport was more suited to my needs. I guess that's why Toyota makes all the trim levels...you have to appeal to the masses. By the way, it's not unusual for mine to average high 23's to high 24's in the mileage category. So far, it's been one hell of a ride.

 

Great write up, OP! Well, besides calling it TRD Offload...LOL

Being new to Toyota myself, I agree with all your points: the smooth ride, the quiet cabin, the styling, the uncomfortable driver seat!

I also would rate Tacoma first, GM a close second for its great interior comfort and car-like ride and handling (although I do like the Canyon’s styling better than Colorado’s) and Ranger 3rd. Frontier and Ridgeline don’t even compare.

I too found having all the safety nannies included in the price to offer a great value. Although I am not as enamored with ACC or lane departure, I appreciate BSM and rear sonar.

I am not as impressed as you are with Entune, but I don’t think it is that horrible either. Jeep’s Uconnect is amazingly easier to operate. I do love the quality of the JBL sound, though. Much crisper and clearer than anything I got from Jeep.

I took my Off-Road wheeling for the first time yesterday. After spending 10 years in Wranglers this is the good and the bad:

The good:

• Driving to/from the trailhead the Tacoma is much easier and comfortable. This is partly due to a much quieter cabin, but also a more carlike on-road demeanor.
• Off-road, the Tacoma O.R. feels surprisingly comfortable and confindent inspiring. It started pouring down by the time I hit the trailhead so I didn’t air down. Even at full air pressure, the Tacoma interior was quiet and comfortable, without the constant head-bobbing characteristic of Jeep’s solid axles.
• It is nice having a factory rear camera to backup on the trail.
• Engaging 4-H, 4-L and the rear locker was easy enough.
• The Tacoma used barely 1/4 of a 20-gal tank there and back. My last Rubicon with 35” tires used 1/2 a 22-gal tank there and back.

The not so good:

• For a truck so easy to drive to/from the trailhead, it is a shame that the driver seat is such a torture device. I did stuff 1/2” worth of washers under the rear seat tracks and it helped: my leg didn’t cramp up after 45 minutes. But seat comfort remains a challenge.
• The truck feels huge compared to a Jeep. Turning it around on the trail is like navigating the Titanic. Thankfully the rear camera helps a lot.
• Although the Tacoma feels surprisingly comfortable and competent on the trail, it feels a little detached from what is going on outside. On my Wranglers I knew at every moment what each tire was doing; there’s a little more guess work going on with Tacoma. Perhaps the price to pay for added comfort...
• BEEPS, BEEPS and more BEEPS! OMG, the stupid truck beeps even when I fart! There’s a bunch of beeps for engaging 4-H, more beeps for engaging 4-L, even more beeps for engaging the lockers. And if for some reason something didn’t engage, the beeping and the flashing is NONSTOP! Toyota must think that we are a bunch of morons. And every time I got out of the truck with the fob in my pocket to take a photo there was even more beeps!
• I found the ESC/ABS weird: every time I started moving in an uphill, the truck would roll back and the ABS would start groaning and flashing. It did it every time. At one point, I simply tuned off all the beeps and flashing lights and did my own thing. Still pretty annoying.
• Crawl Control is an annoying gimmick. The thing groans like it is giving birth to the point that I turned it off. I much rather set it in 4-L and hold the gear in 1st or 2nd gear. Much less drama.

I do miss Jeep’s feeling of fun. But overall I’m very pleased with this truck. Tacoma’s quieter cabin and better on-road dynamics means I was half as tired getting to the trailhead, and the same coming home. Driver seat discomfort notwithstanding, it is much less tiring driving the Tacoma, period. When you add the comfortable ride on the trail, confident off-road manners, and the good sound system, it makes for a great afternoon.

 

For those who find it mind boggling that OP would praise Entune, you have to remember that he came from Ford's Sync systems. I just ran away from a 2017 that was having all sorts of engine troubles and, while the Sync 3 system did have Android Auto, Entune is much easier to use and more responsive.

 

A Toyota engineer explaining how Entune navigation works.

 

I'd love Car Play, but Entune actually does everything I really need. Nav has never driven me off a bridge and since I do most of my driving in town, my music is pretty much relegated to listening to the local sports talk stations and a few select music stations. Blue toothing my phone's stored music works well and satisfies what I need for longer trips. The hands free phone function is also pretty good. People never know I'm driving and talking through the car speaker/mic.

As to ride Sport vs OR. I've had both and my impression is the Sport has a stiffer suspension which, on hard smooth roads, handles really well. Not like a car, but the stiffness gives a feeling of "one with road". On bumpy roads it's a PITA though. The OR is softer and will handle a few road bumps without rattling your teeth. However the difference is felt when cornering at any aggressive speed. Just depends on what you like. Currently have an OR and I'm happy with it.

 

good post OP! i agree with all of what you said. the entune is great IMHO. And that is coming from the mustang's sync3. Honestly, the sync3 and all the various controls via the dash/syn3/steering wheel is just too much. I like simple. The taco is simple. I can set my a/c on or off and at any level by using only the 3 knobs on dash. Not some weird ass combination of dash knobs and syn3 touch screen crap. Too much. So the entune rocks. Some people gripe about the navigation not being as good as android auto/waays or whatever. I like a normal old school gps so i can use my phone or not use it as i see fit. the builtin nav is fine for me. and don't get me started on quality. i came from a 2019 mustang gt with the notorious engine typewriter tick and 3000 rpm rattle that ford said is all normal. Nope, not normal , just too expensive for them to refit 100's of thousands of 5.0's. in the 35k i had in the stang, i felt like it was just wasted on a 1 trick pony. sure, the stang could get to 60 mph in 3.94 seconds but big whoop. I don't do that all day or even ever. My taco covers many many more bases than that mustang could have. I feel this taco should last me well into 15 years. I have an 07 xterra 4x4 that i bought new in 2006 with 145k miles and she is perfect. I expect the same from the taco. Only time will tell.

had my taco almost 1 month now and loving it!

 

Why is that?
Smaller engine? ...that happens to have more power? Or is there something else that you have reasoning for? Just curious.
I'm sure Ford guys were pissed when "their" truck came out with a V6 that had more power (and better MPG's in their case) than their manly V8's.

 

define more power though. for an offroad truck, you need torque and at the lower rpms. The old 4.0's in the 4runners and older tacos have more low end torque than our 3.5's. HP is only good for speed. Which i truck like ours is not designed for.

 

Some bilstein 5100’s on the front will still maintain a comfy ride but will vastly reduce the body roll and nose dive. I highly recommend them

 

Haha yeah those torque monster 4.0s are crazy while wheeling at 5mph.

 

This gets brought up quite a bit, and although the statement is technically true, its really almost immaterial difference, in my opinion. 4.0 reaches peak tq of 266 @ 4kRPM. 3.5 reaches 265 @ 4.6k rpm. We are not talking a big difference here. You want torque, look at the Duramax - 369ft/lb at 2k rpm.

4.0L: HP = 236 @ 5,200 RPM and 266 TQ @ 4,000 RPM.

3.5L: HP = 278 @ 6,000 RPM and 265 @ 4,600 RPM

I've had high HP and engines with gobs of torque. I am perfectly happy with the 2GR.

 

Entune > UConnect

 

i have uconenct in my patriot 4x4. it's fine. but it's no etune.

 

i would be curious to see the torque for each motor at say 2000 rpm or so- about where you would be in 1st gear climbing a hill or something?

 

They both do fine in 4Lo. I do wish Toyota followed Jeep and had a lower range xfer gearing for the offroad trims (4:1 in the Rubicon).

 

Umm.. ouch! I wrote the post because I was surprised how my experience with the Tacoma was so vastly different from all the reviews on YouTube from Edmunds, TFL, KBB and the like. They all ranked the Ford and Chevy over the Tacoma, and made the Tacoma seem like a truck from 2007. I felt compelled to stop the madness - and it seems like I created more!

I don 't see how my old version of Sync 3 can be compared to Entune. However, please note that my version of Sync didn't have navigation. Entune also seems snappier than Sync 3. Sync 3 gets amazing reviews online, and I'm just surprised Entune rarely gets any press. Maybe part of the reason I like Entune so much is that I was expecting very little. I also like the free navigation on Entune - knowing it doesn't use data like Apple Maps is a plus.

After I wrote the review.. I knew to suspect some folks defending their Sports. I could have easily bought one - I'm in it for the comfort though. I agree with one of the posters that the Sport is more connected to the road. The truck felt more "upright" to me as I drove it (in a positive way). I felt the Sport ride was a slight downgrade from the F150 and I didn't want to make that sacrifice. Had I bought the Sport, I'm sure it would have felt fine to me after a weeks worth of driving.

I never had an issue either of my F150s (outside of 5-6 recalls combined). But, like some here, I have friends that own 15 year old Tacomas with 180k+ miles and all they did were brakes, tires and fluids. I don't know many Fords/Chevys with that reputation.

Ok Toyota marketing - it's pay day. Where's my check? LOL

 

Welcome to Tacomaworld club.

Third gen owners who are satisfied with our trucks tend not to discuss this on the forum, for reasons I won't mention....lol

Just kidding, thanks for taking the time to create the thread, glad you are happy and good luck with the new ride.

Cheers!

 

Yes, Rubicon’s transfer case is da bomb! A real crawl ratio with no gimmicks, no groans...and no beeps!

But that 4-L can be a bitch to engage. Eventually you get the hang of it.