Are Gen 3 Tacomas as unreliable as Tacomaworld makes them seem?

look how many old tacomas you see on the road vs. old trucks from other brands. MIC DROP!

 

Hi, I’m from Quebec too and I just bought my 2020 sport premium 3 weeks ago after researching for a year. I friggin love the truck. No it’s not a full size. No it’s no a sports car. No it’s not a hybrid. But damn this thing is awesome. It’s a very solid vehicle. The transmission is just like any other automatic I’ve driven.

I’ve got a friend who’s a master mechanic at an independent garage and asked him what he thought before I bought it and he said if I was going to keep it for as long as my other vehicles (decades) don’t even think about anything other than a Tacoma or a tundra. But the Tacoma fits 99.999% of my needs so I went it. And very happy I did.


Vw? I’m an aircooled enthusiast.

 

Ugh, I want one. This is the plan for my next BMW when the kiddo gets older

 

I think you’re crazy if you don’t actually test drive the Tacoma AND all the other options in the same class as the Tacoma or even bigger (I.e. test drive the Tacoma, frontier, f150, ram 1500, tundra, etc.)

 

Not sure I'd buy something that didn't do 90.0001% of the things I needed it to!

 

Nothing you listed would bother me, or be unreliable.

My friend has a 6 month old Colorado thats been back to the dealer 5 times, now thats unreliable!

Another friend has a 2 month old Ranger with a coolant leak.

As bad as a Tacoma is(not bad at all) they are still way more reliable than the other brands.

 

Welcome to TW.

I have '17 double-cab, short-bed, automatic, TRD Offroad with over 56k miles and I have had zero issues with it. I really enjoy the truck and would recommend to anyone who doesn't need a full-size pickup. For what you want to do it seems the long-bed version would be better suited for you.

I believe the issues you have listed are NOT the norm and frame rusting was an issue with the previous Tacoma version.

 

all models have vehicles like this. My friends 2017 Tacoma is being lemon lawed ATM. You can’t pick two examples and make it the standard, just like I can’t take my friends example and expect all Tacoma’s to be the same.

 

I read it on the internet! Yup, uh huh.
I looked on TW before buying a 2019 OR 4x4. I'm glad I had two Tacoma's with over 100K miles on each that i was really happy with. I bought based on my experiences and discounted 99.9 what was on here about problems. It was a very good choice.

 

The internet is weird man. I'll tell you this, I'd bet my left nut that the 3rd gen is more reliable then anything BMW has produced in the last 30 years...

 

I have two small kids and they love riding it in.

 

@tomwil

Please, ignore all of the other forum members and keep posting. I'm sure that you'll continue to post up very intelligent and insightful banter while informing us all why your 2nd gen is so much better than all 3rd gens. Don't stop, I have faith in you.

 

In 30 years I've had:
3 Hondas ('84 Prelude, '90 Civic, '11 Odyssey)
1 Mazda ('90 RX-7)
2 Jeeps ('85 Wagoneer, '99 Wrangler)
2 Acuras ('88 Legend, '90 Legend)
4 VWs ('87 Jetta, '95 Jetta, '97 Jetta TDI, '69 Beetle (still have it!))
1 Subaru ('00 Outback)
1 Saab ('05 9-5)
1 Audi ('07 A4)
2 BMWs ('06 330i, '14 328i Wagon)
3 Toyotas ('84 Pickup, '11 Highlander, '17 OR DCSB 6-speed manual)

Point being, I've had problems with just about every single one of them, from engine swaps to tracing electrical gremlin nightmares. American, Japanese, German - it didn't really matter. The Toyotas have definitely been the most reliable across the board (Honda and Acura are not far behind). I told my wife that along with the '99 Wrangler that I had for 15 years, the Tacoma is probably my favorite/most versatile vehicle. No issues whatsoever. Of course, since I'm posting this the transmission will probably drop out tomorrow. Good luck. Every new vehicle is a bit of a crapshoot.

 

Already at a crossroads with this truck after 3 months and 2000 miles.
I test drove one in the upper midwest several times and loved it despite hearing about the whole "gear hunting" thing.
I am sitting here at my other home in PA right now after driving through the little mountains across I-80 on cruise control to get here wondering if the transmission will even make it back to Wisconsin without exploding.
If the kid didn't want it, I'd be trading it in while here on another F150.
I'm seriously thinking about ending it already.
I have 5 days and am dreading driving it back across PA. And I may not. Just take the beating and trade it. Or drive it back with no cruise and let my kid have it. It has no issues on the small grades.
The truck simply can't handle it. I don't know how people in mountain states deal with this.
Probably the biggest buyers remorse I ever had. I had big plans for cross country trips in this truck. I don't know whether I'm more pissed at this piece of shit or myself for buying it.
It's a sad joke. There is NO way this thing was ever designed to run on nothing but flat ground.
Should have bought the Ridgeline. My Pilot makes this 900 mile trip in comfort without breaking a sweat.
I feel like a sucker for buying the hype.
It's bad when my wife, oblivious to anything outside her glitter filled bubble and would drive a vehicle until the wheels simply fall off, says....." What's wrong with your new truck? Is it supposed to run like this?"
That told me right there it was bad.

 

1st gen owners say 2nd gens and 3rd gens aren't reliable and then 2nd gen owners say 3rd gens aren't reliable Too many electronics Blah Blah Blah. Truth of the matter is yes the more features a truck has the more likely it is to fail. I wouldn't say the trucks are unreliable but probably have more issues due to the increase in features available.

 

Too many electronics? Such as TSS ? I cant think of anything else.

 

Tech package,VVT, Electric seats, TSS, Crawl control, Im sure theres alot more that wasnt on gen 1 or 2 lol

 

It's these threads that make me love my problem-free '16 more and more.
Not every truck is gonna have every issue unless you're just that unlucky. Most of em are fine, but the ones with issues speak the loudest, in long paragraphs with caps lock on.

This guy gets it.

 

I didn't read the other five pages. Think about it this way: your sample base is already biased as you aren't going to see posts saying, "Hey my truck doesn't make noise!" My experience has been, 3 years of ownership and no problems that weren't operator error. 45,000 miles on this one. It has seen, highway, towing, offroading (trail, mud bogging, rocks), high water (hurricane and general flooding), used heavily around the farm, and two accidents. Short trips and long trips. It has kept me safe and got me home. The transmission was weird for a little bit but then me and the truck got in sync (all new vehicles are this way to me). If the truck was totaled tomorrow. I would replace it with another one.

My only major compliant is the OE leaf packs were noisy after offroading and required extra attention with cleaning. When clean they weren't noisy.