2020 Tacoma, an unexpected improvement

About ten days ago, my 2018 Taco was totaled when Karen in a minivan decided to run a stop sign. I decided to pick up a 2020 to replace it. I had absolutely no plans to replace my truck with a new one and went into the purchase thinking the 2020 truck would be hardly a noticeable upgrade. Well, I was surprised. After about 1000 miles, here is my take on the 2020 Tacoma over the 2018. For reference, I put 37,000 miles on my 2018 in the 17 months I owned it; I do a lot of driving.

Interior: The new, larger head unit with Apple Carplay is a big improvement over the previous unit in every way. The physical buttons, the larger screen and new maps are all so much better than the previous equipment.

The interior also seems to be much more quite. The sound of the motor is much less noticeable while idling and driving. The typical diesel engine sound is barely audible and it idles very smoothly.

The seating with the new electric driver’s seat surprised me. I did not expect it to provide so much more room. I’m 6’1” and I now come nowhere close to hitting the ceiling. Being able to adjust the angle of the seat also makes it so much more comfy on long trips.

Lighting: The new LED headlights and fog lights are a huge improvement. Honestly, I was skeptical of them being worth the price of the upgrade but they are so much better than the halogen bulbs. They are a perfect white color and project much better. They look amazing on the truck and are absolutely worth the upgrade.

Driving: I did not expect a positive change in this one aspect. For reference, my previous truck ran OVtune 2.0 with 93 octane fuel. Returning to the erratic shifting, poor highway performance and the dead pedal that my previous truck had in stock form was not something I looked forward to experiencing again. To my surprise, my new truck drives great. No crazy shifting. No pedal lag. Nothing at all negative. At highway speeds at 65-80 mph, the truck runs really well. It holds 5th and 6th 95% of the time and only hit 4th on steep and long hills. This new calibration was a massive surprise and a big improvement over my ’18 factory calibration with factory equipment. If my ’18 had this calibration, I doubt I would had ever considered OVtune. While my ’18 with OVtune 2.0 was amazing, this 2020 calibration leaves little to complain about with the truck in its stock form.

Overall, I am happy to say the 2020 Tacoma is an unexpected and welcome improvement over the 2018 that I lost.





**2500 MILE UPDATE**

I have had the truck now for about 3 weeks and I have put about 2500 miles on it. I have about 80% highway miles due to my daily commute to work. At this point I have zero complaints. I really like this new truck.

At this point with my 2018 I was wondering what was wrong with its throttle response, crazy shifting on the highway and had some buyers remorse due to these problems. I can honestly say, this 2020 displays none of the issues my 2018 had.

- Highway driving is great and is the most noticeable improvement from my 2018. Traveling at 70mph-75mph, with or without cruise control, there is no gear hunting at all. The truck holds 5th and 6th gear VERY well, only jumps to 4th when needed and up shifts as one would expect when cresting an incline. The truck also predictably downshifts when throttle is applied to pass. No more 6th-5th-6th-4th-6th dance my 2018 always did at highway speeds. Overall, a MUCH more enjoyable highway driving experience than my stock 2018.

- Throttle response in general is improved from my 2018. The throttle on my previous truck always had this weird disconnected feeling, poor response to input and required A LOT of input to down shift. This 2020 has none of that. The throttle feels great with no strange disconnected feeling and requires much less input to modulate vehicle speed and down shifting.

- The LED headlights are amazing. I've received many questions and compliments on them. They should be standard on all Tacoma models. They are huge improvement over the halogen units and well worth the cost. If you get a 2020 truck, get the headlights.

- Apple Car Play is great. I wasn't sure I would care much for it but I love it now that I've been using it.

- The power adjustable seat has made my commuting so much more comfortable. I've gotten the seating position exactly where it should be for me. The non-adjustable seat in my 2018 was never perfect and would become uncomfortable on extended trips.

- Small things I really like:
- The new remote start feature is super handy.
- The bed lights on this truck are great. They are super bright and I've very happy my truck had this option. 100% would recommend.
- The head unit allows the user to select whether or not the A/C is automatically activated when the HVAC system is on. I personally love that I can set this to OFF and not have the A/C compressor activate anytime the system is turned on.

 

Glad you were not injured and happy with the new truck.

 

Glad you and Karen are ok. Wow they totaled your truck for that. It doesn't look that bad in the pic.

 

Yep, I hit her going around 55 mph.

 

According to Allstate your Tacoma should have taken that impact much, much better...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CO-_cmXiBL4

Glad you both are OK. Going to throw your old wheels on the 2020?

 

I thought about putting them on the new truck. I'm going to give a few thousand miles before touching anything though.

 

You know you can reflash this truck with your existing OVTune license.... just send Matt the new vehicle id

 

This guy has the best job in the world and congrats OP on the new truck.

 

Ohhh Karen.., not again

Her's is def totalled!!!

Thx for the write up!

 

Tacoma engineers want to put OVTune out of business with the 2020 version

 

Glad you are OK! Great to hear that you like your new Taco - thanks for the report on your new ride too! I guess she'll be known as 'Karen Krunch' from now on!?

 

Damn, Karen looks hungry.

 

Congrats on the new truck. Sounds like you got yourself a keeper.

I don't know if the shifting issues on the older third gens was a tuning/programming as opposed to a mechanical one; but whatever it was, I think they did finally get it right some time in 2019.

My OR is a 2019 and shifts exactly as you described. No issues whatsoever.

 

I'm pretty sure software for the 2020 doesn't yet exist.

 

Why would he want to do that? He just said it shifts perfectly.

 

Same, my 2019 shifts great also. No need for ovtune.

 

Just shot down a 2700 page thread in one paragraph...cool

 

Did you hook up your cable and identity the ECU? What version is it?

 

I know this is anecdotal, but my 2019 shifts just fine as well. With 33's my highway driving is fine. I tow a boat uphill every week without massive shift issues. Maybe they fixed something, maybe they didn't, but for whatever reason I don't see the same issues on the OVT thread.

OP: Glad you're safe. Fuck Karen. Show off the LED headlights for us!

 

Karen's, along with Susan's, are the worst, just terrible people.