Interview with 3rd Gen Designer Kevin Hunter

http://www.trucktrend.com/features/1509-interview-with-2016-toyota-tacoma-designer-kevin-hunter/

Mentions TRD Pro at the end... hmmmm mistake? Accidental leak? Let's discuss this ruggedly questionable design is yet ANOTHER THREAD

 

Did they ask him if he was drunk while designing it?

 

He mentioned that when they design a new gen, the're designing it for 3 years from now, give or take. I think that's why new generations take a bit of time to warm up to. It makes sense. They look at design history, fads, geometry and apply these things to what they believe is going to look good in the near future among all makes and models designed with the initial intent. No one liked the 2nd gen when it arrived... people eventually warmed up to it and it was highly praised and looked relatively current for over 10 years. To pull that off in this fast paced world must be extremely difficult, so props to that dude. Same goes with the 4Runner. I mean, looks are subjective so I imagine it's a tough field being a designer because you will never please everybody. You can design based on current, more so, future technologies, fads, ideas, all while staying somewhat close to home, but will have to turn out a product that will hopefully eventually be accepted.

My point is, give it some time. I am optimistic.

 

Seems unfair to summer sausages . . .

 

Don't waste cheese ever.

 

I think frozen blocks of tofu would be a better choice. No one will miss the tofu....or him.

 

If Toyota were to approach all of you nay Sayers with an offer to trade a comparable 2016 for what you are driving now about 99% of you would jump in with both feet. and not look back. I know I would.

 

I'm a 1%!

 

Mang, that must of been one hell of a bender!

Hell yeah I would...then I would drive it over to Ford and trade it in on a F250.

Sock party...

 

Yes Kevin Hunter's design philosophy is from the Homer Simpson School of Industrial Design.

 

LMAO!

 

My truck has 102k miles on it. While you are 100% right, your point proves nothing.

I'd only buy a 3rd gen because of one or more of the following....

• It is replacing an older vehicle I thought NEEDED to be replaced
• It looks better than my 2nd gen
• It performs better than my 2nd gen
• It gets substantially better gas mileage than the 2nd gen

Problem is, my truck is just fine as is, I'm not certain the 3rd gen looks any better, I'm thinking it won't perform any better, and the jury is out on the gas situation. Meanwhile GMC says their diesel Canyon will get close to 35mpg on the highway. Hello, Toyota, anybody home? Where you at?!?!

 

GM has not yet said the MPG #'s officially on their new Duramax. Speculation says it will be north of 30 mpg but I don't recall GM ever saying it will close to 35 mpg. Please drop a link here if you have that info, would love to see it.

 

Toyota is resting on its laurels. They have no incentive to change. I just saw the sales numbers for June on pickup trucks.com and the Tacoma is still outselling the GM twins by a good margin.

I hope longer term, the announcement that the chicken tax will be dropped will bring in some competition.

 

The numbers are up because everyone is buying a Second Gen before they are all gone. My dad has been bugging me for about a year now wanting me to sell my 2011 DCSB to him, so I finally decided to pickup a new 2015 DCSB for myself and sell my 2011 to my dad. Personally I wanted to get one of the last proven Tacomas. I might in the way off future upgrade to a gen 2.5, but not until it is proven reliable, they do something different with the front end, and they add a power sliding rear window like the Tundra.

 

You're exactly right, GM keeps saying "north of 30mpg for sure" which is my book has got to be a good bit over 30 if they're that confident. Hell, even if it's 30mpg that's still bloody fantastic. And although final numbers haven't been released, GM can be quoted as saying over 30mpg so I doubt they intend to miss that mark.

If I could average 27mpg in a diesel that would be 50% better fuel economy than I get in the Tacoma. Think about that for a second...

 

No, they aren't. Maybe you are, maybe a guy you know is, but everyone is not buying up 2nd gen before they are gone. The biggest complaint from the window lickers is that this new gen is really just last gen. Even you refer to it is as 2.5. Its either a radical revolution or not, and if its not, then it is already proven. Toyota has not changed their modus operandi - conservative design, engineering to optimize reliability over flashy spec numbers. This is why I bought a toyota pickup and a 2nd generation tacoma. It's why I bought a 1978 FJ40. It's why I could sell my 2013 for nearly the price I paid for it 2.5 years later. I want a truck that does everything I need it to and that I can sell for 75% of purchase price after 6 years. That's what most Tacoma owners want and not a goddamn thing has changed.

 

Obviously I'm right, but in case you want hard number evidence - 2015 sales are flat from 2014. They are slightly up, but all truck sales are up due to low gas prices. Tacoma has lost market share while still increasing sales. What you are contending just has no basis in reality.

 

While I love the 3rd gen, no force on earth or heaven could get me to trade my 1st gen for any Tacoma newer than 2004. Unless I can afford to buy one outright someday, I will not part with my 1st gen double cab for one. Every day my truck becomes even more rare and unique, after only being made 4 years they are starting to become rare as hell. And the guys that have em don't want to part with them.

 

Rare is subjective. I own a car that there are only 4000 of and even then I don't consider it "rare as hell". I agree they are getting harder to find but that's because a lot of them get exported believe it or not.

Hold onto that 1st Gen but mark my words the new Toys will someday be wanted just as much... Especially when they are all electric. Guaranteed!