Classing up a Tacoma interior?

Said best...

"I'd rather have a vehicle that is going to last and never leave me stranded and have a bland interior. Rather than having an amazing interior with every single gadget on earth in it, then to have the vehicle leave me stranded somewhere. Have bad re-sale value etc. But some people find different things more important in a Tacoma then others."

We got rid of my wifes VW when I had enough trips to the dealer for BS stuff. I had a Cadillac DTS with every option known to man, doors that even closed themselves. All those gadgets eventually broke within like 2 years time. No way would I ever go Euro or GM again. My time is to valuable to be spending at the dealer even if the warranty covers it.

We now own 3 Toyotas and while I do agree the Tacoma's interior is pure crap, the Katskins look great and would be a good upgrade, but wood might look cheesy. I even complain about my Avalon. I looked at the Lexus LS and ES and couldn't fathom spending the extra premium on literally the same car with different gadgets and improvements. I like that I own 3 bland cars, stock Camry, Avalon and Tacoma. Never get tickets (knock on wood), no worries or issues about who's gonna steal my wheels, accessories, etc and where to park because my car cost me a small fortune. At the end of the day, it sits in my garage and I could care less who saw it.

My wife still wants that Range Rover someday, shes on her own as far as I am concerned, I want a vehicle that gets the job done and gets me there and Toyota has been doing that for me for the last 30 years with no major issues, I can deal with the blandness and while Tundra offers more bling and I admit I am jealous, I feel my resale value is much better and I can park in the garage!

PS- I have had the ottonavi unit for almost 3 years now and if you want plug and play it gets the job done, I put it in in like 20 min. But the above poster is right, alot of crap issues, like freezing periodically, bad map data and you have to go online and hunt foreign updates down, etc. And whether thumb drive or hard drive, playing music I constantly get the "low memory" errors which are derived from the operating system which is WIN CE with a crappy 64 MB on board and can't do nothing about it. If I had to do it all over, I would go Pioneer or Kenwood high end Garmin unit no doubt, worth every penny, I just don't have the time. BTW, Rich91710, your unit looks great, thats what I originally wanted, I bet you have zero issues!

 

It's a truck, I always had trucks. probably 10 so far and they use to be the cheapest vehicle on the lot, then the yuppies came and started ordering everything on them and the price just kept going up and up until they past most cars. Guys wonder why they cost so much.

 

My xmas break is quickly approaching.

Sound deadening will be going in, and I am just about to order heaters for the front cloth seats.

Slowly she is coming around.

 

I have a buddy that added the seat heaters then added katskin leather. It was super nice! You won't be disappointed.

Keep us updated on your sound deadening I'm interesting in doing it

 

A truck is a truck is a truck, period. If you wanted your truck to be uppity you should have just got an escalade. Yes, ppl want creature comforts but in the end it's a Tacoma, not a B!tch truck catering to uppity b!tches. JS

 

well said.

 

I agree with you, Nothing wrong doing it yourself, I just don't want Toyota doing it, Look what Ford did with the 150. You can't find one on the lot for under $45,000 and everything you want to do they are over $50,000 The same would happen with the Tacoma.

 

I agree, my truck is LOUD! I'm always amazed how quiet it is in my girlfriends trailblazer, both the wind and the engine/exhaust. I've come to accept the wind noise on the highway, although sometimes when it's raining hard it hits between the access cab doors and almost sounds like it's coming in but never does, weird. The exhaust is another story though. I actually took it to a shop to see what was wrong with it and they swear there's nothing wrong with it. I know it's a truck, but still, I always feel like I'm the loudest thing around.

 

Eh? What kinda car was it? What kinda issues? I've own an '82 Rabbit, '85 Jetta, '92 Jetta, '92 Passat, and my girlfriends has owned two MK4 Jettas. I've loved every one of these cars and never had any out of the ordinary, make me hate the car issues that weren't operator / old car problems (blown diff, fried rings, rust, ect)

 

I also agree, but I guess this is how they keep cost down.

 

steveo27,


VWs...
We had a 00' Jetta and a 05 Toureg. My wife was totally into VW/Audi at the time. I will admit they were solid, fit and finish outside was great, and the Jetta was the 2.slow with 5 speed and that thing had exceptional gas mileage and great torque in the downshift on the highway. Maybe we were plagued, but we had every recall/TSB under the sun which VW fixed but it kept us in the dealer at least 4 times a year minimum the first few years.
After warranties were up, finding a mechanic even here in LA was difficult as no one seemed to know how to work on these cars, especially since we had major electrical problems constantly. We took that Jetta to Hawaii and it got worse, finding someone to work on it was nearly impossible and everything started to go wrong, window clips broke several times, coil packs, rear trunk solenoid, MAF sensor was replaced like 4 times in the life span, which I thought was ridiculous. Many other numerous sensor and plugs related to emission or CEL light, etc. An a trip to the shop guaranteed me at least 600 bucks or more every time.

I went to pick my extended family of 6 up in the Toureg one day at LAX major traffic and the whole car cut out and died in the traffic line for arrivals to pick up. It was the coil packs and it only had 40k on it. VW dealer tells me "Oh yeah this has been happening alot". Once you leave me stranded without notice of any sort, I lose trust. Trade in took place the weekend after it was fixed.

We got rid of that Toureg for my Cadillac DTS which has all bells and whistles, boy was that a bad idea. GMs fit and finish stink and was no better, everything from dash pieces to electric sensors and even a wheel bearing would go out all before the car was even at 40k, traded that in for my Avalon, had zero issues since, I am at 89k.

I love the older VWs and I think they seem to be more road worthy and easy to work on, but the newer stuff just seemed to plagued with silly electronics that required the all mighty "VAG-COM" to work on. I installed an aftermarket Pioneer unit in the Jetta and it was plug and play worked great and then the next year I couldn't pass emissions inspection and after research, I find It was due to a wire in the harness that connected to the radio that sends an signal of some sort, I mean come on man WTF!!!! I mean who puts an electric solenoid that can break and did lock me out of my trunk on an economy car that competes with Accord/Camry? What happened to a simple pull cable? that works. It seems German companies try to hard to add all the little cool buttons and quirky things when the minimalist stuff gets the job done..I guess I cant blame Germany, my Cadillac was the same crap, self closing doors were the first to go bad!

My wife now wants a Range Rover or Audi, she loves German cars, I love the handling and tightness of the solid ride I will admit, but I need cars that will run and I can rely on, not cool looking cars that everybody notices, but keep me in the shop...My wife thinks Toyotas are boring and I agree sometimes, but I got no time and patience for troubleshooting and toying around with cars anymore.

Mind you, I have always been a Toyota/Honda guy, so I am used to changing oil and nothing else and riding them until they die!
My 93 Camry has 280k on it and same tranny and engine, that thing got us home from Sedona AZ with a leaky hydraulic power steering pump that required a quart every 150 mi in the hot desert sun.

So I would rock an old school VW in a heartbeat, always liked the older Jettas from the 90s, my VW mechanic gave me a ride home in his once and told me if you could find one with a 5spd, they are solid and easy to work on. I just lost interest with all the silly stuff that happened especially when the cars haven't even reached 60k or so yet. I guess I am old school, but I believe a car should get me at least 80-100k trouble free miles before some weird stuff starts to occur. I can handle a few things (Tacoma leaf spring/JBL sub TSB) but thats it. Sorry for the rant!

 

Sucks to hear.

I love my GF's MK4. Its a 2.0 5 speed. We've swapped a full GLI Recaro interior into it, put air ride on it,Work VS-XX's, and a buncha other stuff.

I have a 92 Jetta with a VR6 swapped in it from a MK4, a full GLI Recaro interior, Corrado transmission, UrS4 brakes, coilovers, BBS RS', ect. Its a fun car, when its not in pieces.

I can see where your coming from though. I couldnt imagine paying a mechanic to work on these cars.

:beer:

 

Took 2 hours, the entire interior is stripped. A lot
Less hassle than I thought it would be.

Doors will likely be done tomorrow.

I will keep everyone posted with dB ratings from before/after at every speed and a detailed DIY for the interior removal. I will not cover the doors because there are already 2-3 DIY's out there.

 

Very, very interested in the outcome.

While "it's just a truck" and I don't expect it to be a Lexus, it would be nice if a couple hundred bucks could make for more pleasant road trips.

My concern is that deadening the sheet metal may not help much with wind noise from the door channels.

 

Took 6 hours total to do the floor/rear of cab and got a few nasty cuts from the tinfoil like edge on the MLV.

2 hours for removal of interior
2 hours for RAAMMat install
2 hours to reinstall.

The package 1 from RAAMMat was enough to do the floor and maybe 2 doors. I will need to buy more MLV to ensure I can do all 4 doors.

So far I can barely notice the difference, I can no longer hear the tranny make noises as I shift, but wind noise is still pronounced.

I worry that you are correct rich, and that much of the sound comes from the windows. I will be attempting to get all 4 door done tomorrow, then I will write my review after a trip.


So far with my iphone dB ready the cabin dropped 1-3 dB from my run from 50km/h - 100km/h (30-60mph). I was hoping to see 5-8 dB's when I am done.


Seat heaters will likely take place on wednesday or thursday.

 

The rear of the truck for a double cab (Storage/Seatbacks) take the most work, easily spent 60% of my time solely on the rear of the truck.

 

I think that, and the roof is where the most benefit will come.
Large, flat panels, and on my RC, the only thing covering the rear panel is my emergency pack and machete.

 

Add a chain steering wheel and some fuzzy dice.

Aren't toyotas known to have thin windows that let more wind and road noise in. You could also add in floorboard lights like older cars had.

Does suck that mine doesn't have lumbar support and a cargo light though. They seems more useful than a touch screen radio.

 

Chain wheel is derp, but fuzzy dice rock!

 

I do wish the tacomas had the two separate glove boxes like newer cars have, and a remote start. But even if they had them as options I'd be to cheap to get them anyways.