What don't you like?

All that wood trim! Is that a Bentley? Rolls Royce?

 

OK you have a few pounds on me but in the same range. I paid attention to how I got in my truck today. First as I stick my right leg in I kind of duck my head as I am going in. I have my left hand on the steering wheel and right forearm on the center console and using my left forearm and left leg kind of lift my ass up and over the side bolster (is that what you call the side of the seat) and into the seat - I do not drag my ass over anything - I just plop into the seat. My right leg just follows - I'll have to pay more attention to how that works but it ends up inside the truck somehow. It is really just all one motion that I never though about before.

 

No, I can't tell you why I've been reevaluating the motions of ingress and egress a lot recently. Why do you ask?

 

These are my personal observations about what I like, versus what I wish was different. I have only ever owned or driven this one Tacoma, so I am not making any comparison between other years / models of Tacomas. 2017 Off Road Double Cab 6 speed manual, short bed. Many of the dislikes are personal preference, not necessarily limitations of the truck itself.

Likes:
* Larger than my 1980 Hilux, much roomier inside for me, more comfortable.
* I actually quite like the body style / look / design.
* I actually love the OEM wheels on the Off Road model.
* The Double Cab is very nice, I can take passengers in the rear seats with reasonable comfort.
* I was able to get it with the 6 speed manual transmission.
* Sliding rear window has a power open / close capability.

Not Likes:
* Even though I have the 6 cylinder, it has very little power.
* Fuel MPG sucks. My 1980 Hilux with 4 cylinder 20R engine and 4 speed manual got around 18 MPG. My 2017 Tacoma gets anywhere from 14 - 16 MPG. You take the same engine and out it one of Toyota's passenger cars, you can easily get 25 - 30 MPG.
* Probably will never be a 4 cylinder diesel engine option.
* Toyota does not sell a manual transmission equipped truck in the long bed format. No technical reason for this, they just don't do so. Huge pet peeve of mine. I want a truck, not a Tercel. Give me all the bed space I can possibly get.
* 2017 model year still uses drum brakes in the rear. ??????
* VooDoo Blue was not available as a Tacoma color option in 2017.........

 

*trd sport offered in manual transmission long bed, access cab
Us only,
Canada gets the off-road with the manual trans and aclb.
Tony knows
@tonered

 

You know it.

 

I have a 50k miles '22 TRD Off-Road with a manual transmission that I bought brand new and I do have some minor dislikes with two sorta major dislikes (the top three). Still not enough for me to sell the truck, and I recently had an amazing time taking the truck all the way up to British Columbia from California.

Dislikes:

- The drivability. The power my 3.5 makes is nice on the higher end, but I wish it wasn't super anemic on the lower end, and I think it can also be smoother. For context, I drove my friend's '96 4Runner with the 3.4 V6 & 5-speed manual and it basically felt like it had the same amount of peppiness on the lower end. A tune is under consideration, although not a priority as I got some other shit going on

- Gearing. For some reason reverse gear is geared really tall, so backing up trailers requires slipping the clutch a lot. 2LO mod is in my plans

- As mentioned before, the power steering components suck. Although I haven't experienced groaning yet and I hope not to, it leaks a tiny bit.

- Ergonomics. I'm not tall (170 cm), so not a huge deal to me, but it's still not ideal. The power seats the 20+ Tacomas come standard with help especially with height adjustments. However, once I got my seat at a height I like, my knees feel close to the steering wheel. If I have my seat lower, my legs feel parallel to the floor of the truck.

- Infotainment. It's a bit laggy, but I didn't expect much from Toyota back then before the new gen came out. I barely play with the infotainment system and all I needed it to do is to fire Apple CarPlay, so also a minor complaint from me.

- The Qi phone wireless charger is useless. The charger is very slow and whenever I come across bumps, I have to readjust the phone for it to "charge" again. Not a huge deal as I ended up leaving it off and use it as a storage area, and I just charge my phone using wired Apple CarPlay instead, but I wish Toyota would've just leave it as a basic storage area without the charger to save on cost or make the wireless charger actually useful

- Super minor complaint as I use my steering wheel controls way more often, but the volume adjustment knob on the head unit. I wish there's notches so I can feel how much I'm adjusting.

Likes:

- Looks. Both exterior and interior. Very cohesive. Still my favorite looking Tacoma gen along with the 95.5-97 and the 01-04 Tacomas

- I do like the interior materials used for high touch areas considering what the vehicle is

- Available manual transmission. I wish we have more manual transmission truck options here in North America, but that ain't happening. Kudos for Toyota for continuing to keep it and that's a bigger reason why I'm still with Tacomas.

- I also feel like it has the perfect blend of tech without being overbearing. Apple CarPlay is awesome to have. The only gimmicky features I found in this truck are the Qi wireless charger and the lane departure assist, both can be left off. Otherwise, every other feature is useful to me.

- The truck is also very off-road capable, but I feel like that's also the story with a lot of newer 4WDs. Still though, all I needed was tires, skid plates, sliders, good to go. With me having the rear diff locker, I probably can go to places where the truck shouldn't be LOL.

- Aftermarket support. The Honda Civic/Acura Integra of the truck world.

I'm still keeping the truck long term for the foreseeable future