Talked to a Toyota manager about the 3rd Gen

Regarding the Toyota engineer's "all-new except seat belt bracket "comment....

What was the old Dominos Pizza jab at Pappa John's in that commercial after the "better ingredients, better pizza" lawsuit?... I think Papa John's lawyers argued it was a legit tactic called "Puffery".

I'd say the Toyota peeps' verbiage reference this subject is legally ok under 'Puffery' rules. Lol

 

The good thing about dropping a Lexus motor in the Toyota is that Lexus is really one of Toyota's strong points. Their quality ratings are among or at the top of the auto industry in pretty much every survey you see.

 

No question lexus has a great parts warehouse to pull from. The toyota people should simplify these designs down so that they can be reliable offroad. Thats my only worry is that the parts are too fragile or complicated. And the center console looks cheap in that pic compared to my 06.

Those TFL trucks reviews are so stupid. They test like two old men...."oh the seats arent too uncomfortable in the tacoma...i like the colorado seats much more."

WHY!!

I personally sat in a new colorado and the seats were so shitty the plastic near the bolster went right up my crack when i tried to slide in. Sure the Colorado is better if you like the brand new foam in your seat to feel like an 89 crx would today. I felt like i was sitting in a homeless dudes makeshift la z boy.

In addition the cab space of a quad cab colorado feels much smaller than my current access cab tacoma.

 

Spoke to my salesman today when I swung in to get nitrogen in my wife's tires. Suspicion is that the 2015 prices will start coming down only when the GM lots have more inventory on hand. Because they don't, there's been no incentive to mark down the 2015s,

He is wondering what's up with the San Antonio plant currently, as they haven't been able to get their full dealer allocation for the past two months. They normally have 20-25 Tacos on the lot at this time of year, and they've only got 6. Got gobs of Tundras - 40 or so. I wonder if they've already started retooling the line, or at least parts of it.

He has promised that pricing for the 2016 Limited will be equal or less than the 2015 in direct response to the twins. Toyota sales is working on a "counter Colorado campaign" just in case, through he doesn't think it's going to be necessary. We'll see. Should be an interesting spring.

 

I find it extremely hard to believe it will cost the same and especially less. More options and goodies that costs money, toyota isn't going to cut into current profit margins. Not to mention dealers are idiots they know less than most of us on here. I will send you money for a beer if I'm wrong but guarantee a price mark up. Gotta think the GM twins push 40k (though they do have incentives). Its simple business toyota will not lose on current profit margins. That tech costs more, some sort of price increase. Simple business/math.

 

Dude, I'm only passing on what he said. Take it as you will, and wait for the 2016s to come out with the rest of us. I'll take you up on beer money, though!

 

No worries. Just find it difficult to believe it will be priced the same or less. Yep, looking forward to hear the specs soon.

 

If the engineers did their jobs well, they could possibly sell it at or near current pricing.
How much of that new tech already exists in some other Toyota or Lexus model?

If they pull the exact same part to share across multiple vehicles, the increased volume will lower the per piece component pricing. If they've tweaked it though and every piece really is "all new", it's hard to say how price or profit might be affected.

And as far as low availability of 15s, they better be in the process of tooling up at the plant if they plan to start selling 16s this summer. Ignoring whether or not they do validation runs, they at least have to get 2016 inventory built up and ready to ship out a bunch of them at launch.

 

The 3.5l paid for itself long ago in the Lexi IS350 & the GS350. Variants of that engine albeit with a simpler port injected system have found their way into everything else such as the last gen RAV4, Camry, Avalon,Highlander, a Lotus with the IS350 engine on a transaxle, RX350, am I missing any?

It's a good engine based apon the 36K miles my wife and I put on our 06' IS350 and I Always thought that the engine / trans combo would have been great in my X-Runner. It had the power for 5.2 0-60 / 13.7 in the 1/4 mile in a 3600lb car. It was a top end engine for sure, yet still had good low end and festive mid range. It also got as good as 31mpg at 70mph with no a/c. It wanted premium, but ran fine on regular.

I feel that it would be a fine engine from the maker of APPLICANCES.

This engine has no "soul". It goes, but is dull at the same time. I for some unexplainable reason can't really put it any other way. Maybe because it was so muted from Lexus, no intake or exhaust note to speak of.

I'm shocked that the 4 banger remains, unchanged but hooked to a new trans. Holy conservative Batman!

 

The 3.5L in the RAV4 is a great engine. It was a Wards 10 best in '06 I think. It has the perfect combination of power, MPGs and refinement.

It really is a lot more HP than the RAV4 needed.

I thought for a long time why hasn't Toyota dropped it in the Tacoma.

I have no doubt it will work great in the Tacoma; new technology may create reliability problems tho.

I think it will be in the next 4Runner.

 

I can believe it would take 5 years for a redesign for the simple fact that Toyota has done a lot in those 5 years across the board.

Vehicles with true competition all got refreshes and redesigns in that time period, corolla, camry, tundra, highlander, rav4, 4runner, plus the trd pro line, none of which received a new engine and transmission... that I know of. My guess is that they were pretty busy and since the Tacoma was successful as is and dominates it's class, it could afford to wait longer than the others to finish.

 

Wow...fanboy much

 

What often occurs is that the new model may carry a slight increase but include items that were previously extra cost options. So comparing them similarly equipped the new model could be less.

 

Ya but some of these items will now be standard with what was the offroad package, etc.

 

Perfect? As in there is no other combination of HP/TQ/MPG/Refinement/Powerband that offer a better set up?

Tyler

 

Dont take things so literally...its the internet

 

Oh boy, that's wonderful news....

 

I'm just talking about the last-gen. Since 1993, the Ranger underwent 2-3 facelifts, interior refreshes, cab enhancements (like access doors that open)... Some call the 1998-2012 version "3rd gen". Sound familiar?

There was a crew cab version with a 4th facelift we never saw in North America (because it would have overlapped with the Sport-Trac). Looks almost unrecognizable until you examine the side view mirrors, A-pillar profile, and the cab beltline.