Four years in a Tacoma, a frustrating experience

Commercial vehicle inspection guys will love you rolling through an inspection haha A for effort though!

 

From others that owned these tacoma's i've spoken with here were perfectly happy, till they read this online crap that others are whining about, which you'll never satisfy. Maybe there is small variations between these trucks, but I have to believe most are fine.

 

I love driving mine!

 

Man I feel like I lucked out with my used 22 TRD OR. Bought it with just under 14k miles have only put on ~6k so far and love it. I hear about the gear hunting but I don't know what that is exactly, although I can guess. Anyway mine does not do any funky stuff as far as shifting other than it should and is expected and on top of that it feels peppy to me. And like a previous poster stated - I take care of her maintenance wise but I drive her hard.

 

We need to sticky some information regarding gear hunting because people still are lost regarding this topic.

Gear Hunting Defined:
The transmission shift logic does not mesh well with the torque delivery of the motor under certain driving conditions. This causes what we deem an unnecessary amount of down shifts and up shifts to meet the vehicle speed demand the driver is targeting.


If you drive on flat surface roads of iowa, you will not experience gear hunting most of the time.

If you’re climbing to 10,000 feet in the mountains out west, you will likely experience what is defined above as gear hunting.

Radar cruise control
If you use radar cruise control during the climbing scenario, the truck will absolutely downshift very frequently to match the speed target, much more than if you were regulating the throttle. Every single truck in this forum will show that behavior, it’s not a batch of bad trucks.

If you don’t believe this, go set your cruise control to 80mph on a mountain road where you’re speeding up and slowing down due to traffic, incline etc, and watch your truck redline gears to meet demand.

holding the cruise control button for 3 seconds switches it to the standard non radar cruise which alleviates some of these hard downshifts as the truck isn’t actively trying to regulate speed by all means possible.

Vast majority of excessive gear hunting is avoided simply by not using cruise control.

If you want to minimize “gear hunting” in high load demand situations, turn off cruise control, turn on ECT button and enjoy your normal driving truck

 

In my time on here I've tended to find the opposite. Cruise control helps the situation while inconsistent throttle control from not using it causes gear hunting. The vast majority of these issues come down more to owner expectations and past experiences. I'd bet most of the trucks that are complained about function the exact same as the ones that aren't complained about (not factoring in any driving habits the truck has learned from). What one person will complain about, another person will easily be able to ignore. After getting used to the truck, I don't have any drivability issues that I'd consider to be issues with my truck. Getting used to the shifting, for me, was more a matter of getting used to the 6 speed vs the 4 speed I had before as well as that the engine makes power at 3500 RPM instead of much lower RPMs of non-direct injected engines. I use cruise control pretty religiously, but my truck also doesn't have radar cruise.

 

I agree with your thoughts on user experience dictating potential complaints.
It pretty much applies across the board.

person A: I’m 6 feet and the Tacoma seating position is excruciatingly painful.

person B: I’m 7 feet 2 inches and this is the most comfortable truck in the world

 

Well, I'm 5'10'' and the seating position is just right.

 

I've never owned a truck in my 30yrs of driving but in 2020 I decided I'd get one to use as a daily driver. I bought a brand new 2020 TRD Sport 4x4. About 4 months and 4,200 miles later I decided a truck as a DD just wasn't for me. Don't remember it really being the Taco as the problem but more that I just preferred an SUV so I traded it in. (Unfortunately just before used car prices went nuts).

I decided recently that I could really use another small pickup to use as a spare vehicle so I've been watching used Taco and Canyon/Colorados prices for the past month or so. I was obviously leaning toward getting another Taco based on fact I had one a few years ago and I've owned tons of Lexus/Toyotas over the years with zero issues. Decided I better drive another Taco just to refresh my memory before committing to buying another so I drove a 2022 TRD Sport w/ 12K miles yesterday and I was quickly reminded as to why I may have traded the last one in. The ride quality and power were just very blah for the price you're paying. I absolutely love everything else about the truck but the jarring ride and severe lack of power has me seriously reconsidering getting another Gen 3.

I do want to see what the new Tacoma looks like overall but I'm guessing it's going to be awhile until those actually come out and I'm not looking to put off buying a truck for 6 months. I'm guessing the Gen 4 prices will also be on the rise so not exactly sure what I'm gonna do at this point.

 

Have you broadened your search criteria. A good used Ridgeline, Santa Cruz or Maverick? If you don't find the Tacoma to your liking take one of these other products for a test drive. I had originally considered the Ridgeline and a F-150 Eco boost for a daily driver, adventure, exploring vehicle.

 

Chicago has them, they suck. It’s the only place I’ve ever seen them.
A huge amount of Chicago drivers consider them one of the many, optional rules of the road though so......

 

Chicago? figures, consider the source.

 

Are you talking about on-ramp metering?

We have them here in California.

 

Have them in Denver as well. Thought they were pretty common in higher congestion areas.

 

OP it sounds like. Tundra would resolve most of your complaints and would be a perfect truck for you.

 

Allot suffer from a bad gasket between the seat and the steering wheel.

 

Yep, I refer it to the most common faulty component that these trucks can have.

 

Sounds like you bought the wrong truck.
Sell it and get a full size something
Act upon it, and quit complaining

 

My daily driver was a 2012 two-door civic.

The Tacoma is a powerhouse after driving that damn thing.

 

Apparently some folks on here have problems merging on the highway…

I find it very hard to believe haha.