2020 Automatic Opinions

I think every single Forum I have seen had people bitching about their auto Trans. Tacomas? Problems! F150? Problems! Nissans? Problems! Chevy /GMC? Problems! I've owned 15 different new cars and according to the Internet they were ALL filled with horrible problems (that I never experienced). Just test drive it, if you like it, just buy it.

 

I went from a 2013 automatic to a 2020 automatic. I, too, heard all the 'horror' stories and was very hesitant. Now, I have no idea what the problem is. I think it runs perfectly fine. I'd concede it's got a little less acceleration from a stop/low speed than a 2nd Gen, but that's with the gas pedal in about the same position. Just add more skinny pedal. Or push the ECT if it means that much to you. I noticed that it holds its gears better on inclines than my '13 did, too. Maybe there's nuances there that I'm too dumb to pick up on, like how people with better hearing than me say the audio sucks.
In the end the truck fuckin moves when I push the pedal.

 

I had the automatic in my 2016 SR5 and I actually thought it was pretty good for an auto, no real complaints other than i found it boring to drive. I also decided I wanted a double cab so I traded it for a 2017 manual and recently traded that for a 2020 manual. Also my dad has a 2019 AT that he is happy with and it also seems fine the few times I've driven it.

 

Agreed!

 

Met with someone to buy his wheels last week. He had a 2016 and then traded to a 2020. I asked him about this and he said it still tends to shift a lot. He didnt mention it being a significant improvement but from what i hear, many people do say its noticeably better.

 

Although its only a little over 2 weeks old, my 2020 TRD Sport is much much better than my 2016. Less gear hunting and shifts way smoother. Loving everything about this truck.

 

Used to have the 2019 put just under 15k miles on it. The thing was constantly trying to shift into the highest gear possible no matter what. Had to drive in S mode all the time.

Traded to the 2020 so the wife could see over the dashboard with the vertical adjustment on the seat. This truck will actually hold gears. Yes it’s the same drivetrain but the programming is definitely different, and because of it I get way better gas mileage as well and have yet to throw it into S mode once

 

The Gen3 autos are fine. Use the ECT and the sport mode when you want to work the gears for hills and twisties etc.
I just bought a 2020 4Runner with the older 4 speed auto for my wife, and although the old 4 liter engine is a sweet motor, I far prefer my Taco's 6 speed. No complaints.
Never drove either on a freeway, though. And I hope I never do.

 

2017 Auto here with 20k on it now (not my first auto, but essentially every other vehicle currently in the barn is manual)

In my opinion, it isnt that the auto shifts excessively, it's 3 different issues.

1) The fly by wire throttle has significant delay and nonlinearity, and responds differently day-to-day. I have found it impossible to really 'learn' exactly how the truck will respond when I push this much throttle.

2) Transmission races to 6th driving around town. It does it for efficiency, but I personally dont like when you stop advancing the throttle for a slight moment and it decides to shift up 2 gears, knowing it will need to shift back down 2 gears in nanosecond.

3) double overdrive gears that are really close ratio. Juat seems to make 5th kinda worthless. Florida Highway 'hills' (overpasses) are a double down shift due to this gearing and cruise control with a gain set to 1 gazillion degrees throttle per mph.

That said, I really dont mind it. It's a truck. It's our automatic in the family of manuals.

 

The 2020 drives great. I've driven a 2017 and owned a 2018, they had some shifting issues for sure.

My 2020 has none of the drivability flaws the previous year models did. This truck is what they should have released from the beginning.

 

I’ve had both.

I had a 2005 4.0 automatic I drove for a few years. I was ready for an upgrade and was holding out for the 3rd gen. IMO there were a bunch of nice upgrades so I followed it very closely through all the rumors and announcements. There was a demo day I went to when they were doing promo over the summer before they actually became available that fall.

I had planned on getting a manual but I couldn’t wait 4-6 months for one to arrive (all the early builds were autos) since I had sold my taco and winter / hunting season was coming in the Midwest. I did a lot of looking all over the region for something optioned how I wanted. I found one and they sold it out from under me. Found another one and headed there on my way back from work. Took it on a 30 minute test drive and didn’t have any complaints. Went home with it that evening. Truck was purchased 11/2015 so was a very early build.

Things were all well for a while, until spring rolled around and I was doing a lot of traveling for work. Then I started noticing things. And more things. I was making regular trips between Iowa city and Sioux Falls (6-7 hours each way). Some trips were good, others had a light breeze and it seemed to be losing its mind doing the 3-4-5 dance. And never seeing 6th gear. Some days I’d see 20+ mpg. I had a few days of 13-15. Truck was stock - no lift. No added weight. Factory tires. I was traveling all over the country and as the miles piled up, it was still unpredictable.

did some complaining to the dealer and ended up discovering I was .5 qt low on trans fluid. After filling to spec, it felt like a completely different truck. It definitely drove better but the shift logic was still questionable

after some time the first ecu TSB came and eventually convinced the dealer to apply it for me. This made a pretty noticeable difference.

I made a work trip with a coworker and we took his gx470 and I drove so he could be on some calls. After a while, I noticed it hadn’t shifted, like at all while on the interstate. At this point I seriously started considering what I was gonna do with my Tacoma. I was coming up on 50k miles so needed to either commit to it or trade it off.

I stumbled across a used 16 with manual at a local dealer. I went and took it for a drive and I was sold almost immediately. It was a completely different driving experience. For a long time I thought the truck was doomed by the 3.5 but at this point I realized it wasn’t the motor that was the issue - it was the gearing.

started talked to a couple dealers who were willing to order me what I wanted and the deal was done and the wait began. Took almost exactly 2 months until it arrived

once I got the new truck, travel had picked up for work and I was doing about 1000 miles a week. It quickly became evident I had made the right choice. I could hop on the interstate and cruise in 6th gear all day. I was also getting 1-2 mpg better than my auto ever did. And it was consistent.

I had done some towing with my auto (7x14 cargo trailer) and it was not an enjoyable experience. I averaged about 10 mpg and saw as low as 6 on one trip. Towing the same loads and routes, my MT was seeing 12-14. I could drop in 5th and it cruised great. Once again, it was a night and day difference between the two trucks.

In stock form, I’ll take the manual every day of the week over an auto. Is the manual perfect? No. There’s some weird throttle response. The clutch is funky sometimes depending on how you drive. Powerband is 2500+ rpm.

all of these are easily fixable though (ADM + OVT).

being a 17, there has been one ecu update and there’s supposedly another one that just landed. 04b13 fixed a lot of the weirdness. OVT gave my truck the low end power I missed from the 4.0

I had right at 50k miles on my 2016 DCSB TRD OR AT and I’m a little over 100k miles on my 2017 DCSB TRD OR MT. I would absolutely do that trade again. Zero regrets.

all that being said, I have no doubt the auto is “better” now than when I had it. There’s been a bunch more tsbs (pretty sure I was 04b00 and finished on 01 or 02). Tuning was not even being discussed when I traded mine off. Gears were still in development.

I didn’t necessarily hate the auto, but it didn’t work for me for what I needed a truck for. If you stay under 55 mph, i really didn’t have any issues with it. Most of my time was spent at 65+ and it was super inconsistent and typically got less fuel economy than my 2005 did.

I’d be curious to drive an auto with the newest code but the gearing is still a problem. I think if I bought one again, it would go straight to 4.88s. If you are doing lift / tires, 5.29s no question. its just too tall from the factory.

In the end, it really depends on your driving style and expectations. If you spend a lot of time in your truck, you’ll find things you don’t like about either drive train. If you spend a lot of time on the interstate, towing, in the mountains, the issues in the AT will be much more serious than to someone who only uses their truck in town and on short trips.







I also have a tundra with a habitat camper. I’ll never understand why people mod tacos and drive around getting <15 mpg when you can drive a tundra and get the same fuel economy and have an extra 17 gallons of fuel, payload, space, etc. I thought about getting it for my Tacoma but then it would be too tall to fit in the garage, would need suspension and would decrease fuel economy. Sure the next gen tundra may be awesome, but based on my experience with the 16 Tacoma I’m not gonna be the guinea pig. I’ll gladly spend the extra money in fuel for the reliability and performance of the current 5.7 until the next gen is proven.


If anyone’s got questions I didn’t cover, let me know. I’ve probably spent more time in each of these trucks than most have.

 

2020 4runners have a 4 speed auto??

 

The fact no one has figured out why the 2020s drive better is The reason I Haven’t tried OVtune yet. Hopefully someone figures it out. My truck drives great but sometimes I swear the Accelerator pedal itself just stops working on my ‘18

 

The gear hunting was fixed With an updated ECU tune in 2019 and more refined for the 2020.
There’s no more gear hunting starting with the 2019 model. Anyone complaining about gear hunting on the 2019 or 2020 models is hallucinating and don’t know what they are talking about.

 

Yes. In many regards the 4Runners are dinosaurs. But lovable, very comfortable & functional ones. Especially for hauling a bunch of people or stuff that can't get wet over bad roads.

 

Pretty sure all 2020 4 runners have the 5 speed mated to the 4.0.

 

IMO if that's the biggest complaint with these trucks Toyota still did well. I haven't heard of anyone having transmission problems yet but time will tell I suppose.

 

I think the biggest complaint I have with how the transmission behaves in the 2020 is I can't just give it constant throttle input and have it accelerate like every other automatic I've ever had. It seems like I have to give it slightly more throttle input after each shift to keep it accelerating smoothly, if I don't it seems to bog down. ECT makes it act opposite of that.

 

My 2020 Pro has no shifting issues and no gear hunting... I am also running a 285/70/17. Love the truck and glad I went with the Auto over the Manual.

 

Yep. 4Ruuners have a 5-speed auto.