Question for owners: anyone removed that front lower platic valence? Does it serve any purpose?

Have a 2016 on order and I was thinking of removing that lower front valence.

 

Get the TRD Off Road. It doesn't have one. Makes it easy for ya

 

Its an air dam or front spoiler. It is intended to reduce the amount of air getting under the truck which reduces drag leading to improved fuel economy. On this truck it should be good for about 3-5% better fuel economy at highway speeds.

 

its a snow plow

 

It's to slow you down and help the front disque brakes since drum brakes stopped working on rear axles after 1995.

 

Interesting that it's not enough to make the mpg ratings different between the Sport and OR

 

Dude, all the posters to this thread are wrong

The real reason is because it's really ties the truck together

 

8/10 Good Job!

 

Toyota just put the air-dam on there to troll everyone on TW.

 

It could have been a splitter. That really would have been sweet. All the new Toyota's have splitters

 

Kimi Raikkonen

 

I don't get it. I checked one out at local dealer and seems it comes off cleanly. Like stated it is not on the off road. do....not sure why it's on the sport. No difference in off road or sport mpg. Mine will be coming off

 

Car companies are not required to test multiple models of the same vehicle with the same engine as long as a certain percentage of them match the tested vehicle. So as long as the TRD Off Road model is less than 70% of the sales, they are not required to provide a separate test for that.

For example, take a look at Jeep Wranglers. The Rubicon lists the same MPGs on its window sticker as the other models. Have you seen those mud tires? I'm sure the MPGs are reduced, especially at highway speeds. But they are not required to do a separate test.

Also, the test vehicle for the Tacoma was with the tonneau cover. Regulations require that at least 30% of the sales must include the tonneau cover in order for them to do the official test using a vehicle with it. So that is why Toyota is included it with many of the configurations, in order to meet that quota. My guess is just having the tonneau cover was enough to make at least 1mpg difference or else they would not have bothered.

So an off road model is probably going to get slightly less on the highway. The amount of difference is unknown as it is not required for Toyota to test that.

 

those splitters will work, id drive the hell out of em .... the new Tacoma aint got a splitter... just a air dam for little girls who want a truck.