Toyota Needs to Step Up!

I bought my Tacoma because I wanted something that was rugged, capable, and reliable.

 

I'm gonna add some stuff in here if you don't mind. bold statements are to help the skimmers find the key remarks, not me yelling.

It's bad to compare an auto company trying to stay profitable with constantly changing market and regulations to non-street legal recreational toys and expect anything remotely the same. The reality is that Ford builds more Raptors (36k trucks in 2018) than Toyota uses TRD Pro badges (12k-15k ish, including Sequoia) each year. Ford sold 986,000 trucks in 2019 out of 2.41 million total vehicles globally. 40.9% is how much of Ford's sales are trucks. Toyota sold 249,000 Tacoma's in 2019, only 2.3% of their 10.74 million sales globally. We are lucky they let the TRD engineers develop the PRO lineup to sell 3,000 PRO badged Tacoma's a year. Toyota lets the TRD engineers make a specific offroad focused model that makes up .028% of their global sales. Raptors make up 1.5% of Ford's total global sales. All Tacoma's sold per year is less than 3% of Toyota's global sales. Toyota would have to sell 161,000 Tacoma TRD Pro Ultimate Edition trucks at $60k-$70k each on top of all the existing sales to justify the same sales Ford does with the Raptor. Our market is not big enough to sell that many trucks, nor would anybody buying a $70k truck want to see that many "special" trucks when driving it around.

The TRX is only existing because Ford is selling 30k Raptors a year and Fiat got the Hellcat engine that they stuff in every other car/SUV/truck they build. The truck was made just to be slightly "better" than the Raptor. The Raptor is too wide for most people so they made the TRX 2" wider, a half inch more suspension travel, 100lbs more towing capacity, and 100lbs more payload. They are making a big deal about edging out a truck that has been on the market for 4 years that will be getting refreshed/redesign in the next year or two. Oh and the cheapest TRX starts at $70k with cloth interior. My local Ford dealer got a base Raptor with cloth interior that stickers for $54k. There's a reason you don't see Camburg Engineering, Baldwin Motorsports, Brenthel Industries, or any others that build trophy trucks or pre-runners that run HEMI's or use anything Fiat. Camburg makes long travel front for nearly every truck built in the last 20 years except Rams.

Look at the Tundra you can build with $69k.
Used Double Cab 6.5' bed SR5 $34k
Camburg Engineering Race Long Travel (2" more travel than a TRX) w/ dual shocks $8k
Deaver spring under, Camburg bed cage, 3.0 16" shocks $5k
Glass Fenders $3k
Wheels/Tires $3k
Armor/Bumpers $6k
Magnuson Supercharger $7k
Regear/rear locker $3k

That would yield you a 550hp Tundra on 37s with 15-16" suspension travel that can get hammered a lot harder/faster than any OEM built truck. And do it for a lot longer (insert Toyota reliability here). There's some holes here, but cost to capability, I think it stands. But, most don't need all that driving their Raptor like a Kia Optima around the suburbs like I see all the time. I know there are two Raptors in my area that get pounded on, the rest might see a gravel driveway.

*edit: font color

 

With numbers like that you'd be a fool to pay the extra for a diesel.

TRD Sport M/T with a little bit wider open air intake and OV tune will put 290 torques on the board.

 

Toyota owns 17% of Subaru.

The smallest USA Hino 5L 4 cylinder weighs 570lbs. That's 100lbs heavier than the 5.7L V8 from the Tundra. They couldn't get a commercial engine to meet consumer emissions. Its 210hp. Get the Magnusion blower to get nearly double that hp without needing fuel delivery upgrades or suspension upgrades.

Toyota and Yamaha have been working together since the 60's on the 3M (2000GT), the 4A-GE (AE86), 2ZZ-GE (2000's Celica, Lotus Elise/Exige), 3S-GTE (Celica GT4), 1JZ-GTE (MKIII Supra Turbo), 2JZ-GTE (MKIV Supra Turbo); just to name a few of the best known.

The precursor to the first gen 4 Runner was the Trekker that was a colab between Toyota and Winnebago.

Nearly every vehicle has parts or assemblies that are from colabs with other companies. Colabs are as old as the industry itself.

 

I think GMC was always a bit more expensive than Chevy, at least with the full-size trucks. I watched quite a few reviews comparing the current Colorado and Canyon. They're 95% the same truck, with most reviews saying the Canyon's interior was a tad nicer.

 

All those things @Woodzyzewski suggested are what other companies are doing to TRY and catch up with Tacoma and largest seller of full size trucks.

 

I agree with you. I think they are attempts at catching up. That’s why I stand by what I’ve been saying the whole time. I don’t want to Toyota to change a thing. I love the product they put out there and I hear you all loud and clear that you buy Toyota’s for simplicity, reliability, reasonably priced, huge aftermarket, etc... Im right there with you.

My initial thoughts were I would just like to see something IN ADDITION TO what we have now to peak the interest of those interested in over the top, Premium Package Off Road vehicles and see what Toyota could come up with. Also, I feel like our trucks are really, really good but would like to see something different about them in 21 vs 16 other than minor grill changes and Apple CarPlay. Give me something over the top, that may be expensive and won’t appeal to everybody but is damn cool.

 

The new fancy bed coolers?

 

Toyota wouldn't be able to add the Option for "33 or 35" tires on vehicles because some states have lift laws and I don't think they'd go down that road. Most buyers don't ever do any mods to their trucks, most of the Tacomas I see on the road look stock.

 

The market is limited for $100k trucks. There is a ton of room for improvement in the $25-40k price range though.....

 

100K? Come on lol nobody asked for that.

 

I would say at least 1 of every 3 I come across are lifted to 33s or 35s. Not the majority but quite a few. I don’t know anything about lift laws so you may have something there, idk.

 

Tacoma's always sell well, and now there's a shortage. They sell hundreds of thousands each year, why follow other brands that have to give feel discounts to move units?

 

diesel are not about HP

torque is the true motive power

off idle in the rocks a diesel will pull a idle where U have to throttle a gas engine

 

GM is reportedly going to drop the diesel engine:

https://www.thetorquereport.com/new...do-and-gmc-canyon-may-drop-the-diesel-and-v6/

Guarantee Toyota will never add one to the Taco due to emissions.

 

agreed not n North America

 

OP. Toyota is slow to release any new changes. Usually a few years behind the rest for obvious reasons.

 

Toyota does it pretty well, to be honest. My biggest gripe are the tires they chose for the TRD OR and TRD Pro. I would love to see a diesel option though, but the EPA is why we won't see one any time soon.

 

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Those tires are a joke i agree. Great for city driving though.

At least put some toyo AT3s, ko2s or duratracs or something.