TRD Pro VS Off Road

It's not. I have a Tacoma and my wife has a 4Runner. The 4Runner is definitely the nicer truck but it's marginal. I still prefer to drive my Tacoma anyway.

 

If you are coming from an SUV, you may find living with the Tacoma a little difficult. The interior is very small once you start living with it.

 

Very much a true statement!

We had our home appraised last year Mar/Apr 2021 for estimated $338K for our Refi/Cash out--we bought it 15 years ago for roughly $250K.

That appraisal was before we did our kitchen remodel/appliances/all wood floor install (approximately $50K spent altogether).

Wife still wants a remodeled master bathroom...and I want a new roof.

So, as you said...appreciation in value is the best investment!

 

I have a 2018 4R Limited and a 2019 Tacoma AC OR. IMO:

• Ride quality: Overall the 4R Limited is both smooth and firm compared to the Tacoma OR, which has more bounce on pavement and dirt, so yes Tacoma wins on dirt. However I don't think the 4R is at all rough on dirt. Tacoma OR also drifts more in lanes.
• Seating: 4R (leather) seats are firmer, and I find less comfortable, but you do sit more upright. Tacoma seats have more padding, but legs are higher up and a bit odd.
• Interior: 4R has great visibility! Tacoma has less visibility, head is closer to the ceiling, and I think the double cab had less visibility over the access cab (that I have). I also find I hit my head sometimes when getting into the Tacoma after driving the 4R (I'm 6').
• Transmission: I prefer the 4R's 5 speed as I think it's smoother. Tacoma's six speed, when you hit the gas peddle, it has hard down shifts, and a bit of lag.
• MPG: I find Tacoma is generally only +1 mpg. Maybe +2, if you keep it or under 65 mpg. 4R has less variance in mpg depending on speed than Tacoma does.
• Overall: I love the 4R slightly more, plus the 4R Limited full-time 4x4 is great for mixed road surfaces. However the Tacoma has a truck bed for hauling and dirty stuff. Interesting enough the 4R has a higher payload!

 

You are correct. I meant to say the mechanics and tech are the same. Nearly all of the other features can be added after market, except for maybe the body stamp of TRD. If you want the tech (BSM, Mulit-VIew, Crawl Control) and the ride of the TRD you can achieve it for a lot less.

 

I agree, if the price was close I would have gotten the PRO (even though I hate the faux hood scoop). At my dealership the TRD 4x4 OR with Premium and Advance Tech packages was 45k, the PRO was 50K, but all of the PRO vehicles had about 8k in dealer add-ons (wheels, tires, tube steps, etc) that I did not want. So it was 13K more to get a PRO. So I bought the OR and just added an OEM PRO grill and a TRD CAT back exhaust and will probably add the FOX shocks later, and maybe even the TRD wheels. At that point, other than badging and some red piping on the leather, I don't know how different my truck would be from a PRO.

 

Your logic is sound. For me the difference was only about 5K. I would not have paid 13k more. Also the fox shocks in my opinion are the most critical difference

 

Yeah it allows you to be in gear and crank the key using the starter to get out of a tricky situation.

 

Yeah, kind of a cool feature; hopefully I'll never need to use it, but it is nice to know it's there.

 

I have a 2018 4Runner and 2019 Tacoma. Tacoma is less comfortable, wind noise is the same, Tacoma has better gas mileage and Tacoma interior is holding up better other than the seats. 4Runner has Softex seats and they’ve held up extremely well.

 

I know, apples and oranges...to help make clearer my point, I am referring to the common denominator of it all which is the person, or more specifically, the potential for greed of the person.

I don't advise other people in spending more than they should with having the mind set off reducing someone elses profit margin as the underlying reason, but rather to be thrifty or to stay within a budget...I don't make it a point to state the intent is to not give a dealership any extra profit it can potentially make because I want to avoid looking like a hypocrit when I would sell a flipped house for a large profit in a heartbeat. The subject matter I am comparing is not the products, but the "advisors" mindset on their approach of instruction and advice...

So...again, my advice to the OP...be spendy and get the TRD Pro, use the hell out of it until the parts wear out then upgrade them when necessary. If you get a good deal or can't avoid the market value mark ups, just try to enjoy your ride.

 

In 2020 I bought a Trd Or with an msrp of 44.5k for 39k. I wanted a pro at the time but they were all 5k over msrp here in AZ so there was a big difference and I couldn’t find one anywhere. Move forward today and people are paying msrp for OR or 1k over so it’s about a 6k difference. The pros I have Tacoma and 4runner I paid 4K over and 3.5k over respectively. So looking at the difference when things return to some normal while the pro on paper costs more in the end what’s the better long term value. Just saying don’t look at the initial outlay if you can afford it. I don’t even drive my lime manual in 7 months I have 400 miles on it. But value wise it’s doing better than stocks and gold at a 2.09 interest rate.

 

But unfortunately a lower towing capacity.

 

I bought an OR that the dealer had already slammed the TRD Lift Kit on it (so pro grille, skid plate) and exhaust. It lasted all of 6 months before I put a Fox 2.5 RR setup on it with 35's and an SSO bumper. My OR has advanced tech, premium, yada so interior is identical to the Pro and now the suspension and stance is better (for me) than the Pro.

That is to say that +1 if you ever intend to mod your truck or do some serious wheeling, you probably want the OR because you'll destroy everything that makes the Pro a Pro pretty quickly. If you never mod your vehicles and you like the stance/suspension for some reason, go the Pro.

 

Supply & demand doesn't mean much if you're dead set on throwing time value of money out the window, eh?

For those folks who don't care about such things, be sure you at least pick up gap insurance on your vehicle. Paying over MSRP is a very quick way to end up underwater on a vehicle.

 

Yah, I got mine for 46k out the door because my dealership doesn't markup and it's a manual transmission. If I had ended up with the OR, I would have modified the suspension, etc. differently because (for the price) you can do better than the pro FOX, TRD skid, ridged fogs, and so forth. I'm sure I saved money not getting an OR in the respect. I do think the wheels and heritage grill are king, though (an easy swap as you've discovered). All that being said, they are all great trucks, irrespective of the trim. Legos for adults.

 

My only real requirement was leather seats since I have kids and didn't want to clean cloth. I was going to get an OR with the tech package, but came across a new Pro for less than what dealers near me were offering on a OR or sport. The caveat is I had to fly to Utah and pick it up, but it was waaay cheaper. And I got to drive back to CA and break it in along the way. The cool thing with the Pro is the suspension is pretty good. Not as good as a true mid travel, but definitely better than the OR and sport. I added a westcott kit and I run 33" with no rubbing so I love it. If there was a huge mark up I would have gone with and OR or sport and just upgraded the suspension eventually, but its kinda nice to have some of the stuff out of the door. I'll eventually upgrade my 2019 suspension, but so far its been great. If you want a heads up on that dealer I'd be happy to give you his name. Hands down the best dealership I've ever been to. He even took off money because it was a stick shift and no one really wants them. The dealer near my house told me Tacomas stopped coming in manual in 2015. Idiots.

One of the lame things is the Pros in manual don't have some of the bells and whistles you get with the automatics which perplexed me. No JBL system and something else I believe.

Either choice you make will be the right one.

 

Quite a few people are going to find out pretty quick what being under water on a vehicle feels like, the used vehicle prices and auction prices are dropping at record speed, almost in a free fall, Carvana is on the verge of bankruptcy (we shall see how much next month when they report) with an inventory so large it will probably send some pretty big waves thru the market.

https://seekingalpha.com/article/4540432-carvana-bankruptcy-may-be-inevitable


A lot of dealers are underwater on their inventory right now, they are trying to hold tight and hope an unsuspecting buyer comes along but they are starting to run out of buyers and with the steady drop in auction prices weekly, they are running out of time to dump their inventory and try to cut their losses.


All those mark ups will not be absorbed in the market by a miraculous increase in value, the value is set by the original MSRP for the most part, 2 years from now when people trade a truck they paid 10K more than they should for, it will not be taken into account. It will just be another opportunity for banks and dealerships to make money once again writing bigger loans at higher interest rates absorbing the negative equity.

 

This I respect.
Just straight up numbers without the need to voice an opinion on who deserves to be undercut of profit.

 

I was at a Toyota dealer today and the market is changing fast.

When I was there 3 weeks ago truck shopping, they had no new 4Runners, no new Tundras, no new Tacomas, and used prices were higher than new. They had 2 used 4Runners. One was a 2019 SR5 similar to mine for $42k.

During the summer, I had a dealer offer me $42k for my 4Runner.

Today, there were half a dozen used 4Runners for sale, with the one being similar to mine still there and reduced in price to $38k. They had a couple of new Tacomas and Tundras, and the Tacoma I was planning on buying, and which I was told was there, was not there and won't be there until middle of November.

KBB value on my 4R for trade is just over $33k.

Dealer offered me $31k. I was pretty upset. I told him I wanted $36k or I was walking. They countered with $32k. So I walked.

He told me that they were seeing slow downs and the used values are dropping while interest rates were rising.

My response is that I didn't need a new Tacoma that bad and would just wait it out until the recession hits hard. It will be interesting to see what things look like in a year. It's comforting to know that I have a vehicle that will go 200k miles easily and should be a good vehicle for the collapse of society, lol.