Power Tailgate

There have been several posts in different threads complaining about the power tailgate and I find the vehement dislike for this feature amusing.

Yes it's slow, I timed it at 6.6 seconds. But, if I'm standing next to the tail light, push the button, and walk to the center of the tailgate facing forward, that takes 2.6 seconds. Only have to wait four seconds.

But if I start standing next to the tailgate, walk to the center of the tailgate, face forward, put my hand on the handle and simulate lowering the tail gate, that takes 4.6 seconds. So it takes two seconds longer to lower the tailgate automatically vs manually. Granted, if I was approaching the truck from the rear, the manual method would have a 4.6 second advantage.

But how often are you opening the tailgate that this is an issue? If you are loading or unloading multiple items, you open it once, load or unload one or multiple items as necessary, then close it. You don't open and close it for each item. How many times a day do you open the tailgate? Two or three? So you're losing 4-6 seconds a day? Closing the tailgate shouldn't be an issue because it would be closed before you were behind the wheel or it can be closing as you walk away.

On the other hand, if your carrying a double armload of stuff to the truck, you can bump the button with your elbow and not have to set the items down. If the ground is wet, this could be a handy convenience. I think the trade-off is worth it.

 

It's about the money, honey.

I wouldn't want to buy something that I'd never need.

I'd never need a power tailgate.

 

Doesn't play well with caps. Also, try this. With tailgate closed and locked. Tug and pull on it like you are climbing over the back. Does your dash now indicate the tailgate is open? Mine does. Now go to sleep. In a few hours your anti-theft alarm will go off at random times while you are dreaming of beautiful trails without a powered tailgate. Happy dreams!

 

Pretty much this. I wondered who the respondents to the survey were. My wild ass guess would have been that truck people don't need this kind of assistance. it was for the SUV/minivaners. I guessed wrong.

 

Lightening the tailgate using aluminum sort of defeated the purpose of a powered tailgate. The old one was like a bench press. Now, it flips up with one pinky.

Opinions will vary on its usefulness, so I wouldn’t necessarily fire the guy who came up with a power tailgate (or seats w shocks), just fire the guy who decided to make that stuff standard at additional cost, and not optional.

 

Sure it's light so you don't need the power to lift the tailgate, but it doesn't matter how light it is if your hands are full because of what you took out or are putting in. Having auto capability is the benefit.

It costs more but if you can afford the Premium/Pro/TH trims you're probably not counting pennies. I would have preferred to not have a moonroof but Toyota's manufacturing philosophy is to make limited option combinations. The efficiency benefit probably gives us a bundle discount when we want most of the options. If you could order your Tacoma a la carte, not getting the power tailgate probably wouldn't have resulted in a much lower price.

 

How am I supposed to have an opinion without verified times to the 1/10 of a second when approaching the tailgate from a 45° angle more than 30 minutes after end of evening civil twilight on a down-sloping driveway with a partially torn rotator cuff?

 

I like mine. Going from a 3rd gen that needed a physical key to lock it to a power door lock linked, power open close tailgate is great. It’s useful at the airport picking up or at the nursery getting bags of mulch.

 

You know, if you like something, there's no need to write a business justification beyond "hey fuck you, I like it."

This will be my 25th consecutive year of truck ownership. I've never had a need for a complicated tailgate, ever. Not a power close, auto open, not a folds-in-half, not a compass on the stock and a thing that tells time. My next truck purchase will not have any of those. I have my doubts that my next truck will even be a Tacoma.

But that's okay. There are things on my truck that are silly as hell, some of which I installed myself. I don't try to justify them beyond "hey fuck you, I like it."

 

Since you have no interest in power tailgates, why click on that thread? And don't call me honey.

 

If you hang out here long enough you learn to browse as the wind blows.