Why All the Recent Blasting of the Tacoma's

I have a friend that sold a high mile 2004 Tacoma to purchase a 2018 F-150 rather than another Toyota. In fact, based on his own uses, I agreed with him. There is a reason the F-150 is (usually) the number one selling truck in the US. It has a quiet, smooth ride with a modern interior, plenty of power for most uses, and better gas mileage with the EcoBoost engines. That said, when I complimented him on his choice, he said, "this is not a Tacoma, and not an off road 4x4!" BUT on the chip sealed highways we traverse, it is a pleasure to be able to have a normal volume conversation!

Me, I am on my third Toyota truck. And an F-150 will not fit in my garage anyway.

 

why waste your time reading reviews about a truck you already own?

i love my tacoma, and if something were to happen to my truck, i would replace it with another tacoma. i dont care how 'outdated' some internet nerd thinks it is.

 

As others have said, reviews are snapshots in time for an allegedly "unbiased" source. That's obviously up for debate, but here's my man on the street view of it. In a one day road test the Tacoma will suffer against the competition.

• Compared to a Ridgeline the on-road ride isn't great because it's a BOF truck that ranges from a borderline contractor truck to a Limited that uses the same bones but isn't loaded full of extra deadening,etc. The Ridgeline is effectively a mid-size family SUV with the trunk chopped open. A lot of effort went into making the Pilot to make it ride nice. Of course it will transfer to the Ridgeline.
• Compared to more modern vehicles the Tacoma's fuel economy is pretty dismal with the F-150 often cited as an example.
• The Tacoma has an odder seating position than the Colorado or the Ranger, more car-like but not car. While I cannot cite how much the power seat helps, it's always been a slightly funky deal.
• The Tacoma hasn't been truly overhauled since 2016. Yes, my 2016 lacks CarPlay, the power seat and a powered rear window, but 99.9% of my truck's parts interchange with the new ones.
• The automatic shifts funky

These are items that will easily show up on a one-day road test. So it's easy to say, the Tacoma isn't a good choice because compared to the Ridgeline it rides like a truck, or it gets terrible fuel mileage, etc. This is what people who don't have a brand preference read comparison tests before. I have to believe the average TacomaWorld user didn't cross-shop the competition seriously prior to purchasing the Tacoma for whatever pre-determined reasons. When I bought my 2016 I didn't even test drive it because I had a 2013 and nothing else in the class got me any level of excited outside of maybe the ZR2.

It's easy to see why the press wouldn't like the truck but the owners do.

 

Full size fuel mileage without full-size capability is my biggest complaint. I wouldn’t mind the 15mpg if I got 300hp out of my truck. Also 12-15 auto transmission is a joke. Goes into overdrive at 25 mph and lugs out then takes 45 minutes to downshift to the right gear. I’ve heard 3rd gen is even worse, I couldn’t imagine that. I wish they made a DCLB in a manual. I love the Toyota reliability though, been in a Toyota for over 10 years now. Would be cool to see a updated power train without the high rpm making van motor. Also get rid of all the stupid safety and gps garbage that all the new trucks are coming with. Even my 13 has to much electronics on it, can’t even kick it sideways and play in the snow when I want to. But if these are my worst complaints then how bad of a truck could it really be? Most of those writers don’t know anything about trucks. They probably drive ridgelines.

 

Funny story, my brother was on Facebook knocking around w/ his buddy and accidentally hit the group button,then it went out to the whole FAM! Lol

 

Who gives a shit about an article? If you like your truck and it fits your life, enjoy it. No reason to be insecure that a magazine had some gripes.

 

Insecurities

 

A 1970 Impala could carry more in the trunk than a Rigeline. Plus it came with a hard trunk cover.

 

This.

The 2G guys love to jump into the 3G thread and just dump all over the 3G trucks, which is fine, that's their perrogative. That being said, while I'm sure it's not as shift happy as the 3G my 2G would clunk in and out of lock-up at 35-45 MPH all day every day and drove me nuts. I'd lock it out of OD and watch my transmission temperature jump up. I didn't see how it was good for the truck. Plus every time it would go into OD/lock-up at low speed I'd ping unless I had 93 in it. There was a TSB for that but getting a dealer to apply it was impossible.

I empathize with those 3G owners who have shifting issues, but the 2G wasn't flawless either.

 

Tacoma... they run forever and the resale price is crazy.

 

Because the people who write those aren't truck people. Sure, the Ranger and Ridgeline will beat a Tacoma on-road... take anything offroad, or work it hard, and the Tacoma comes into it's own.

 

Written by a soccer fan, what would you expect?

 

Transmission seems fine to me, find it impressive that it can lug the truck around in overdrive at low speeds. Can always lock out the the overdrive gears in Sport Mode, or shift it yourself like a manual. Feels like the best of both worlds. Have owned Toyota trucks for 30 years, and was a long time manual holdout, really liking the auto. People dog on the mini van engine like it is a bad thing, those vans get abused and neglected. Toyota’s always had revvy engines, happiest around 3500 rpm and up.

Diggin the GPS and safety features too, comes in real handy in dense fog. Love the GPS for the work commute and seeing what the traffic is like, use it to take alternate routes to avoid the bullshit. Machines are supposed to make our life easier. Jumping back into my 1st Gen after driving my 3rd just concretes that even more so. Kinda lost the desire to drive the 1st Gen anymore.

As for the OP, grew up driving trucks from the 60s and 70s, 3rd Gen rides like a Cadillac to me, has a good blend of new and old tech. Articles like that just tells me the writer as very little experience.

 

Advertisers and writers have their own view of vehicles. I just laugh at the recent commercial for VW. It says it has the lowest ownership cost for the first 3 years. Well VW pays for all maintenance and repairs for 3 years. It’s not that it doesn’t break because they do and do it bad. If you are planing on keeping your truck for 3 years go buy a Chrysler product. You get a lot of bang for the buck and it will last 3 years. After that it’s a crap shoot. Writer will say they have no issues for 3 years. At 4 years the tranny will eat itself, it will start burning oil, and the electrical will be possessed with demands.

No author writes about a 10-15 year old vehicle. Have them do that and then you’ll feel better.

 

I sold my 04 to buy my 13 (I’ve had lots of Toyota truck, Tacoma’s and 4runers) and I miss my 1st gen. I guess I just miss the older trucks that made the Tacoma such a good truck. I’ll take that first gen off your hands

 

Personal experience..... what other car or truck can you pay 29k for it (2007 sr5 pre runner), abuse the crap out of it as a work truck/camping truck for 10 years then it gets stolen. The insurance paid out 21k on it.
So, I lost 8k in 10 years on it. I don't know of a better resale/recovery value on the market better than a tacoma.... unless we are talking about antique/classic cars.

 

Well after owning a gen1 tundra, the new ones are way to big for my needs, if toyota brought back the gen1 tundra with better fuel economy i would have one in a heartbeat, but the tacoma i now have is the next best thing. The transmission is nicer, its got decent power, and fuel economy is always ok being over 20 mpg for a 4wd mid size truck. I have to accept the ride will never be as smooth, but imo, its very acceptable. I'd probably buy another over other brands if it ever came to that.

 

This forum is hardly the place to seek out unbiased opinion's of wether or not the Tacoma is worth the ever increasing MSRP.

Its laughable really.

I will say that the qualities that have made Toyota trucks the benchmark for reliabilty are slipping away. Still love the Toyota vehicles i own, but the days of old are gone.

 

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