Amanita Yota Taco TRD Pro very soon... Taco TRD Off Road just as great?

Hey, Ya'll!
I'm about to take the leap into Tacoma World and finding it tough to spot a Taco TRD Pro, especially with manual tranny. The sales reps are trying to redirect me to the more widely available TRD Off Road or TRD Sport. Thoughts from anyone on that?
Thanks in advance!
Amanita Taco

 

Honestly, Pros are a waste of money, functionally speaking. You can get crawl control on lower models if you really want that, although I'm of the opinion it's better to focus on driver skills, rather than trying to remember what button you're supposed to push. I have A-trac on my SR5 4Runner.

If you're new to the offroading gig, even a bone stock open diff SR5 is going to be more capable than your skills can likely take you. All that extra stuff IMO is marketing fluff, although I fully expect to get plenty of hate mail for saying it.

If you were to be truly "financially responsible", you'd buy an SR5 4x4 for $10-$15k less than a Pro, and take that savings and add aftermarket locker(s), bumpers, winch, skids, lift, tires, etc... Oh man, the build you could do for 15 grand. Long travel, 35s, etc... Or, just save a bunch of money and just focus on some decent all terrain tires and a mild lift and recovery gear.

Don't get me wrong, the Pros look badass, but if I'm going to spend $50k on something I'm going to take wheeling, I want it to have the tires, skids, bumpers, lifted suspension, winch etc, that you actually need for serious offroading.

 

@jbrandt Thanks for the response! I test drove the 2021 Taco 4x4 Off Road and had a very mediocre experience this week... Partly it was the underwhelming cloth interior, but the cabin also felt smaller than I expected and the blind spots were much worse than I remembered... I wonder if I just looked at a different interior trim level whether it would feel differently. Drove like tank though, as predicted!

 

It's all about tastes I guess. I prefer cloth. I'm also a first gen fan, at least for off-roading. But I highly doubt a different trim level will feel that much different. Same size, just different colors and whatnot.

I prefer my 5th 4Runner for road trips, towing my camper trailer, and there's more room inside for a wife 2 kids and a dog. But when I first test drove it, I hated it (because I was used to my 1st gen).

As for blind spots, they're different for every vehicle. They aren't bad neccessarly, just different. Although I rive a Jeep Patriot at work, and that thing's A pillar has got to be a foot wide. When I hop between my Taco and my 4Runner, it always takes a few seconds to remind myself of the blind spots.