Four years in a Tacoma, a frustrating experience

You are objectively wrong and apparently don’t know your own truck. Marginally faster than the Prius C? The Prius C zero to sixty is 10.9 seconds, the Tacoma is 7 seconds. 4 seconds is an eternity that’s not marginally faster lol.

 

My experience is different from your experience. Therefore, either your expectations are unrealistic or what we consider to be adequate for daily use is vastly different.

I also spend quite a lot of time in Southeast Asia and I have driven much slower trucks in much crazier traffic.

 

go look up 0-60 times and then look up 5-60 times. In the real world people don't do clutch drop standing 1/4s for every single merge.

 

The tacoma v6 certainly isn't faster than a speeding v6 frontier....I found that one out.

 

Then the times will be marginally reduced but the baseline still stands. I have driven both vehicles, you would have to be oblivious to not notice how much slower the Prius accelerates. If you can’t merge fast enough in the Tacoma then that’s user error. It isn’t a fast truck but pretending it doesn’t have enough power to merge at highway speeds is false. Take it to redline you should have no problems.

 

We have a prius. While its good economical transportation, it's slow compared to my v6 tacoma, plus its not very exciting to drive.

 

Not once I thought my taco lacks power to merge/pass/accelerate, whatever. It actually surprises me everytime, even on 33s and 650# of constant weight.

 

Just read through this first post. I think most of your criticisms of the v6 Tacoma are valid. I sold my 2016 for most of these reasons. I lifted it, put on bigger tires, tuned it. I basically turned it into a truck that was getting Tundra MPGs on premium fuel and I wasn't even that aggressive with lift height or tire size. The bed on 90% of the trucks is this shallow 5 ft composite nonsense that doesn't really help you get any real work done and you'd probably be better off towing with the 4runner specs be damned.

HOWEVER, I got a 2.7 later because I still like the truck for what it is. (Very light duty and a good offroader) Its low tech where it needs to be and high tech where its nice.

 

Likes:

• Good offroad unless there are substantial inclines. Doesn’t get stuck, goes anywhere. Smaller footprint allows it to be nimble on trails. E-locker, crawl control, etc work great. Good approach, break over, departure angles for a pickup. Good ground clearance.
  
  Yeah though I wish reverse was better geared. I've always wondered who needs to go 40mph backward. Always wondered why vehicles don't just have it similar to 1st
  
  
• Generally pretty easy to work on myself.
  
  Seems like a bit too much plastic
  
  
• Pretty good MPG and general road manners on flat ground.
  
  Most full-sized pickups do better
  
  
• Phenomenal aftermarket support.
  
  Si
  
  
• Plenty of cup holders.
  
  Could have more
  
  
• Old school in the right places, new school in the right places. Love the ebrake.
  
  I have a hand brake
  
  
• Well built. Takes abuse and still looks new.
  
  Depends on the abuse
  
  
• Looks fantastic. Such a handsome truck.
  
  Sexy as hell
  
  
• My 2019 was built in USA.
  
  Assembled
  
  
• Cheap price when I bought it.
  
  Doesn't seem especially cheap or expensive

Dislikes:

• Primary issue: The seating position is simply atrocious. I’m 6’ 1”, athletic build. My head hits the ceiling if I’m sitting up. I can’t even see the horizon out the passenger window on flat ground. I can’t see red lights if I’m the first or even second in line. My legs are cramped up on the surprisingly high floor. My legs have no support. Elbow support is all wrong and mismatched on either side. It’s the worst seating I’ve ever experienced in any vehicle. I thought I could deal with it, but I’ve found I cannot. It is so, so, so bad. Shame on Toyota for designing a truck that only fits 5’6”~5’10” people.
  
  I'm 6' and have a ton of headroom. I tow long distances and have no complaints really
  
  
• In stock form I trailered 1400 miles across the country. Inadequate passing power at low elevation only towing 2600lbs.
  
  I literally wanted to shoot myself before I got 5.29 gears. Still, I barely go 60mph at most to keep the transmission happy
  
  
• Noisy on highway. Diff whine, wind noise (esp. with crosswind). Amsoil helped but it’s still there.
  
  I run MT tires and like the noise, which honestly I haven't noticed
  
  
• Low oil warning off road the second it points downhill. Oil at full mark. TRD “Off Road”? Uuuh, ok Toyota.
  
  I haven't gone up anything super steed yet so this hasn't happened to me if it is going to. I have heard of some of these blowing up, so I'd check that out
  
  
• Radar cruise control redlines the truck constantly when switching lanes out from behind semis. Also totally inadequate acceleration from 60 to 75. The cruise control is dog water, at best.
  
  You gotta baby it. I have a pretty good idea when it's going to downshift to 5k rpm, so I cancel and set it again when I need to
  
  
• Poor performance at high altitude above 8,000 ft.
  
  I was just at 9k feet and didn't notice anything. I have 5.29... idk
  
  
• Maybe it needs gears? Put 4.88s in. Highway MPGs went way down, moderately better on hills, no substantial increase in highway acceleration. Cruise control is still on crack.
  
  It needs gears. But it will never be great at highway speeds
  
  
• Everyone talks about tunes, OK. Easy, I work in tech. Got a laptop, cable, and tuning software. OVTune 2.0 and KDMax - a little better responsiveness, but MPGs are now in Tundra territory while acceleration still feels in 1990 Tercel territory.
  
  I have no tune
  
  
• Stock/modified - it doesn’t matter. Not nearly enough power. 1100 lb payload is pathetic.
  
  I would have paid extra for a v8. But the universe hates people like me

 

5ft composite nonsense?

 

I have less faith in that tape than a Hollywood marriage.

 

Ha!

That tape doesn’t hold anything. It’s there in case something decides to fly out. Those 3 ratchet straps held everything super tight.

I’m really good at securing my loads.

 

WRONG! I do.

 

I carry a lot of stuff in my truck. A canopy, all my camping gear and a roof top tent. Not to mention bunch of tools, shovel and two axes. I drive like a grandpa so lack of power is not noticed by me. I am 5'11" and the seating position bothered my until i installed seat jackers. Now i don't think about it. Is it perfect?, well no has a lot of what i call quirks. I test drove the Ranger, Colorado, f150 and a Jeep wrangler 4d. For me Ranger had the best seating position and better dash esthetics. In the end I choose Tacoma for the reliability and longevity. When I buy cars I usually drive them to the ground. Last two cars I owned I donated to the aspca. Still ran fine, but too many miles to be worth anything. In the end Tacoma is not for everybody. Some will love others not so much and that's ok.

 

My dislikes with my Tacoma is that I've had $38k worth of repairs done over 4 accidents and now I am basically waiting for a meteorite or UAV to take it out.

 

Ex wife says the same thing

 

I knew this could’ve happened.

 

Tacoma's are made for small guys/midgets,a full size truck is for big American guys.

 

You bought a truck:
-called turd gen
-small, even shorter if it has a sunroof
-anemic and problematic N/A engine
-problematic trans at least in terms of TCM mapping

history shows they began making them worse (and continued to) since 2005

not sure what you were expecting

 

That's bad karma to say that.