New Tacoma, crap transmission, sorry dealer. Shoot me now.

When I went out to San Diego last week we have this long hill going up to Alpine I left it in auto first to see how the tranny is doing uphill boy what a pain in the ass it constantly shifted up and down. I understand why it is doing that so I used the man. option shifting up/down and it worked fine for me. As far as city driving my 19 is okay most of the time but I will have the fluid level checked next time I see the Dealer. What really irritates the bloody Holmer out of me is that the truck goes in 4 when you shift from auto into man. before you can man. up shift.

 

Quote ( I feel like some people have differently wired brains. You give an extremely logical breakdown of options (obviously the best option is get the manual). The ones asking for advice then shame the guy for giving a well thought out response. What is even better is that all the given options are cast away as "well all those won't work what else do you have for me?".

"That is it, there is nothing else.

1. Get latest ECM calibration from Toyota via TSB at the dealer.. OR.. do it yourself with Techstream and the appropriate .cuw file. (FREE)
2. Buy OVtune ($700);
3. Re-gear ($thousands);
4. Trade for a manual (take a bath - maybe);
5. Get rid of truck (take a bath).

Just sayin. Lots of ppl are re-geared AND tuned. They have REALLY big smiles on their faces I guess?"

Modify the truck so you like it more or get a different truck. ) end of quote

Nice summary of options just want to point out about the manual.
(obviously the best option is get the manual) I would love a manual, although I have no problems with my auto. However I have a person in the family that has a bad left knee and can't operate the clutch. I loved my 6 spd Acura. Point being everyone's situation is different. I know when I took my Acura into Portland traffic the manual was a pain, so depends on your limitations and where you are driving. All in my imho.

 

check this. #41 : https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/tips-and-tricks-on-the-3rd-gen-tacoma.411911/
When driving highway speed, move the shifter Left and Forward and it will shift into 5th instead of 4th like normal.
You can then quickly tap to sixth or hold forward to get to sixth

 

6MT

 

I guess Tacoma owners aren't the only ones that bitch about the transmission. A lot of Chevy owners bitch about the transmission in the Colorado too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fds...kQcFEBmTObtItw1SUhsfhREV4C0OEcDeqEG5mdxsiSUmg

 

Thank you I will try it.

 

I so wanted a 6 MT but the G/F has a bad knee on the left leg and once in a while she drives the Truck so I had to compromise. I had 3 options buy a MT get rid off her but her German Cooking is not bad for an Irish Girl.
Listen to her bitch on long road trips and control my urge not to shoot her or buy an auto shift. Well the rest is history. Sometimes you just have to pick your battles.

 

That’s how it is. My 2015 was just as bad. at least my 2017 really reacts at 90-100mph. I drove under 65 for my break in period. Now ? I stomp on it. High rpms and it runs great. sometimes a good ass kicking will help. I do 70-90mph on my way home and usually avg 20.9-22 mpg on a tank(real math at the gas pump)

Also the computer does the math. Most of the time it's near the #’s I get.

Yes at certain times(on hills with cruise control) it isn’t right gear. I usually give it a quick pedal mash and it corrects it.

 

I'll be one of the only ones here to agree with OP . In that this transmission hunts for years and just sucks overall. In my opinion, the real issue at hand, is the engine is way too underpowered on low end. One has to wait until 3500 rpm for the thing to move. Why does the Camry with the same 3.5 V6 have way more horsepower???

My 96, 99, 05 4runner and now my 04 Lexus GX470 drive beautifully. No crazy down shifting, no dead pedal, no lag, just GO.

The 3rd Tacoma is like a 600cc street bike. One must down shift 8 times to hit the powerband. I wish it was more like a 1000cc street bike, you don't need to downshift as much to move.

 

A handful of us sold the 3rd Gen...I bought a Ranger. So far so good. No noises, Perfect drivetrain. That's not to say I would not buy a Tacoma. I am anxious to see the redesign of BOTH vehicles within the next three years.

 

I was torn between the two, but I couldn't find a Ranger in the trim/color I wanted, so I bought the Tacoma. Like you, I'm going to wait the next 2-3 years and see how the dust settles, lots of new stuff is seemingly coming in the next few years.

 

their trans ending in 2016 were apparently very bad. This video is of the newer version with an extra gear. apparently the older one was a real dog

 

Transmissions today can have 10 gears or more.
They shift, and more often. It's not 1965.
Give mine gas and it puts you back in the seat better than 2nd gen did by far.
So what's the problem ?
Get pedal commander, OVTune, or use ect and s mode.

 

I was in the same boat you were in man. I bought a 19 off road 4x4 and the test drive went smooth. I obviously did my research before buying and read up on the tranny issues and when I test drove it, it didn't seem bad at all. But then when I started driving it to work on the 5 in San Diego there is a lot of hill climbs and the truck seemed laggy going uphill and wouldn't want to downshift and it would struggle to go uphill. But once I hit a little over 2k miles on my truck the tranny feels great now and it is much more willing to go uphill and now I don't have any issues whatsoever. I would recommend waiting till about 2 k miles until you try anything different it probably is just still getting broken in like my truck and the tranny has that learning feature too.

 

It might feel faster than your 2nd gen. Look up drag race videos of 2nd vs 3rd. 2nd gen is faster, by far. Here's one below if you want to see for yourself.

https://youtu.be/jbmOYTMirrw

 

amazing since he is racing against a "sport" with a hoodscoop.

 

Off the line and that's it. 3rd catches up and ties.
Look at some more reliable data than a home video like this link.
https://www.zeroto60times.com/vehicle-make/toyota-0-60-mph-times/
That catching up 3rd has equates to faster passing times. You can't beat the 20% extra hp once its up in rpm's, sorry. You will never pass a 3rd gen in a 2nd unless he lets you.

 

I am very happy with my Tacoma also. Remember for the first 1500 miles or so the tranny is adjusting to your driving habits. But really this is a truck not a sports car. I must say for a truck when you bring the revs up it’s not slow at all. I’ve never seen so many complaints in my life. The shift points on the tranny are set very low in the rpm range, and this motor being NOT a long stroke motor needs rpm to build power so when the trans keeps the motor at a very low rpm for the sake of economy the truck feels slow. Couple that with an electronic gas pedal that opens the butterfly slow ( again fuel economy) it compounds the problem. PRESS THE GAS HARDER , and let the truck break in. I have a 2019 DCSB and absolutely love it . Give things a chance before you go waste your money on all these gadgets.
I owned a couple of cars in the 1980’s that on a steep hill if I didn’t get a good running start would literally stop dead on the hill, because it didn’t have enough power to make it up. How about a brand new Trans Am that I bought in 1988 that I drove home for the first time and when it rained overnight the T Tops leaked several gallons of water on my brand new interior, and then the same car at 10,000
Miles was burning a quart of oil every 500 miles . I can go on and on about real problems.
Toyota makes great trucks and you can drive them for lots of miles and when you are ready to sell you will get great money for them.

Just my two cents

 

You're on to something. Many complain about many models. The reality is; Gov pushing for more fuel efficiency and less emissions, so programming, gearing, and multi speed (6-10 speeds) transmissions are just something some need to get used to.

 

LOL dont you know when you drive a Trans Am a hat is a must EQ rain or shine to keep the interior dry.