Cheap plastic

Dang man, you let them ride in the cab like normal people? That's what the composite bed is for.

 

OP is right. The Tacoma interior durability is a joke. After 30K of normal use my interior plastic looked awful. Especially were the b-pillar & seat belt buckle contact. It reminds me of plastic you would find in a 80’s domestic. The overall interior doesn’t remind me of a $40k truck & this was one of the reasons I sold mine. May seem petty but it really bothered me on a daily basis.

 

Well, the bed is full of soap making equipment, usually.

 

Yeah, I think its kind of funny the bashing other makes get, but when something comes up that is a legit issue TW gives it a pass and bashes anyone who brings it up.

 

I would love to see a Toyota engineers perspective on this. At the end of the day its a mid sized truck built to a price point, not a luxury car. I also wonder if there could be some sort of recycling or environmental initiative that limits their material choices.

 

Oh, I'm sure there is. I'm thinking that the comment about softer plastic = quiet plastic was probably the reason. Still. My 2002 S10 was actually a pretty quiet truck and it had better plastic.... at least until the sun baked the dash and stuff started cracking... we did have that truck for a long time. I now use sunshades when the temps get up.

 

your 34000 truck is a 24000 pest control truck that had 10k worth of options put on.

 

Yeah the plastic in my 2000 taco is pretty good too, I wonder if something changed production wise in the 2005ish timeframe.

I know bailout era GMs have horrible dashbl cracking problems.

 

Ours didn't crack, but the vent louvers did. They snapped in. Still, not cool.

 

Cost savings is bound to be part of it. All vehicles are built to their perspective price point. Sit inside a $100k Land Cruiser or any Lexus product. Then sit in a Corolla LE. Not bashing the Corolla (we own one). But there's a reason you can buy the Corolla for less than $20k

 

Buy a pre 1970 truck.

 

What vehicle has non-cheap plastic? And how much does it cost? $34k seems like a lot for a car but it’s pretty much the norm now.

 

Stomp on it and find out the hard way.

 

It’s amazing is what it is... I miss the switch being there.

 

Gotta be careful with the all-black plastic in mine but I don't get worked up about it. However one time I had my backpack sitting on the seat next to me and had to hit the brakes. It slid off and hit the glovebox and the zips raked it pretty good. Has anyone found a solution to masking or fixing the scratches that in their experience works?

 

0000 steel wool used lightly. Then dab a black paint marker on a damp paper towel. Not perfect but less scratch and gray showing. Keep in mind anything you “buff” will show graying.

This was a deep scratch. Still need to add more “color.”

 

I'm withholding judgement until I have issues with my own plastic. I've seen how some people treat their vehicles and then complain that it's the vehicles fault something didn't stand up to their particular type of usage. "The seats stain super easy, they must have used cheap cloth! What? No, just move the 4 empty McDonalds bags and those fry boxes and you'll see what I mean!"

My plastic fwiw is fine. Some minor scratches here and there from wear and tear, to be expected on a 4 year old truck. What were y'all expecting? Leather wrapped dash?

 

Cut them talons. Good luck with your cheap plastic interior.

 

I can't believe an entire email was wasted on this reply.