Is this our fault?

Anyone else find it strange that they used the least expensive Gladiator trim for these tests while using the middle or best available trim from each of the other brands?

The trim selection is all over the place. Useless.

 

Oh my god... I hate tree rats (thank goodness we have no bag limit on gray squirrels here) but dayummmm... I can't help but feel sorry for that guy.

 

GEES, lighten up. This is a truck forum.

Your logic is a flawed as the typical comparisons.

PEOPLE BUY WHAT THEY LIKE

 

Here’s what the chart misses: reliability, resale, and the Tacoma is by far the best looking of the group. As the chart shows, top of the pack off-road performance.

 

They used that trim on the Gladiator because it has the highest payload, which would be at the top of the list for selecting an overland vehicle.

 

I own an AT Taco, but if they had tested a MT Taco, they would have won the final drive contest, giving the Taco 2 wins.

 

If its not from twitter or professional athletes than its probably not real.

 

They're still #1 in my book, regardless of whatever comparison thrown

 

This is what's gonna happen

 

In the case of the Gladiator, I'd much rather have the lockers than a few extra pounds of capacity. The Rubicon is obviously much more capable offroad than anything else on the entire list, which is why I was surprised that they went with the Sport.

 

Yeah, I think the thought process was that you can add the lockers but you can't really add payload. When you consider overloading, it usually involves a lot more road/dirt road/medium duty trails etc than rock crawling, so the off road capability of most of the trucks on the list are just fine. Actually keeping the vehicle as stock as possible is one of the golden rules to building overland vehicles. Modest Ground clearance mods/tires and suspension mods are usually all you may need for 99% of what you may encounter.

 

One category that was left off is the how does it look at the Mall....It would have been a close one between the Gladiator and Tacoma, but in sport trim vs TRD Pro I would give that to the Tacoma....

 

It's almost like the ones who have a beef with the article, didn't even read it. Here are the Cliff Notes on why the Tacoma rated below the others: transmission tuning and low payload capacity. Basically what everyone on this forum complains about all the time and/or spends all their money correcting.

If you read the article, Chevy and Nissan have higher initial and 3-year reliability ratings than the Tacoma has currently, which makes sense when you think about how many bugs the 2016 and 2017 model years had.

As for the reason why Tacoma's continue to outsell others, my money is on looks, the 3 gen is a badass looking truck.