Why pick 2016 Tacoma DCLB over F150 DC (supercrew)

For what's it's worth, I have learned the 4Rs are made in the same factory in Japan that they have been made in since 1984. That gives me some peace of mind. Many other models, including Tacoma, have changed states countries, etc. where they are manufactured.

Anyway, the F150 is Ford's flagship vehicle. I think they put more resources on it than any other Ford model, and think it's a great choice for a full size. I'd get an F150 over a Tundra.

 

That's probably the one underlying thought that helped me deal with switching to an unfamiliar company with year one of a newly redesigned model.

 

Just FYI we had an Ecoboost 3.5 L sort of give out today at 150K. I say sort of because it's a long story. Basically my manager didn't run synthetic in his Ford and ran a 10K OCI. His truck suddenly lost power this morning at highway speeds but was still drivable to the dealership. Ford thinks he has so much sludge in the engine it through off a few sensors and now the truck is in limp mode. Apparently the crank sensor and the oil pressure sensor are both giving erroneous readings. They don't know if they want to hot flush the engine right now because of the turbos which they fear may have a bunch of sludge in them as well. Ford is going to call me back once they figure out the next course of action but the truck is likely going to die if they clean it with tearing it down because it could free up the sludge deposits and jam them in the turbos or other nasty places.

Long story short, a lack of proper maintenance kills Ecoboosts. Which I've said about a million times on here.

 

I was just thinking the same thing... why are you comparing a Tacoma to a F150? The F150 is massive, Tacoma is much more nimble. F150 will always win the capabilities category. If you're comparing Ford to Toyota, get in the Tundra forum, at least you'd have a truck better matched to the abilities of the F150.

 

Whoa, why the hate for the Taurus?

My dad has a 2013 Ford Taurus V6 company car and he has put 200k miles on it. Drives it like a tank (off-road, over curbs, etc) and he has had absolutely zero problems with it. Also, he gets oil changes every 20k miles or something ridiculous. Getting a new one in a couple weeks and has no complaints.

Everyone knows Ford wasn't great in years past but 2010+ is a different story entirely.

 

I'm comparing the Tacoma to the F-150 mainly due to price point.

I prefer a mid-size truck. I don't need a full-size. But given the cost of the new Tacoma, it's less than $2k to jump to a better equipped F-150. Tundras are almost never discounted around me, so they are out of my price range. I can get an F-150 for $12k off sticker, making it similar in cost.

I prefer the Tacoma's size, and mainly the ability to get a manual Transmission. While the Tacoma has many pros, the cons are also numerous:


- No height of rake adjustment for the drivers seat.
- Only 17/21 rated fuel economy (waiting for real life numbers, hoping these are conservative)
- New, typical Japanese motor with high revs, no torque
- C-channel rear frame that flexes
- Drum brakes

Also hoping that one lie Mike Sweers didn't tell was the elimination of the wheel shimmy.

My comparison is a Tacoma DCSB, 4x4, TRD Sport with Manual Trans (V6 Tow Package, Carpet Floor Mats) to an F-150 SuperCrew, XLT, 4x4, 5.5' bed (302A, Tailer Tow, FX4, Sport Appearance).

I don't need a full size, but the F-150 has more options, more towing ability, bigger bed, faster, and better fuel economy for a slightly higher price. Plus the same warranty coverage.


I've owned two Chrysler products and never again. Not a fan of the GM interiors.

 

The turbos are water-cooled so oil won't affect them. What year is the truck? Sounds more like water in the intercooler which is a known issue on the 11's and 12's.

 

The 3.5 L Ecoboost turbos are both oil and water cooled IIRC. Some people have said they are just water cooled which is where most of the cooling comes from but, from what I've read, they are also fed their oil the same way most turbos are. Basically this gives the turbos nice cool coolant that continues to flow through the turbo passively when the engine is off and prevents the oil in the turbo from cooking oil after hard operation then shut down. Anyways, I'll see what Ford says. It doesn't make sense to me for an engine to throw warning codes for the crank sensor and oil pressure sensor unless it had something to do with the oil but I'll see what Ford comes up with. Our dealer takes good care of us to say the least since we run mostly Fords.

My point was that likely this will turn out to be a maintenance issue of one sort or another on this truck. F150's usually die from lack of maintenance in my experience and not a factory defect or poor quality.

 

Because I'm only considering those two.

 

From my experience in local, county, and state government for over 36 years, this statement is not true. Governments do spend taxpayer dollars. But I can assure you maintenance costs are relevant. Having been involved in vehicle purchasing and maintenance, purchasing of vehicles is not random. Bid specifications are prepared and competitive bidding is performed. Government agencies typically have different options on the brand vehicle purchased depending on the contract. From a maintenance perspective, at least the agencies I was involved in, an effort was made to purchase vehicles with the least amount of issues, resulting in lower maintenance costs. The town I was involved in typically leaned toward Ford trucks and cars (public works, public safety, law enforcement) as they proved to be the most reliable with the fewest issues and best dealer support. And this was after some trial and error with other brands.

 

Ford works best for our fleet. By far the lowest cost of ownership when coupled with reliability figures. Toyota could be right there too but they ask for way to much money for the Tundra and it's operating costs are high as well.

 

This was our experience as well. Other than the Prius for hybrid vehicles, Toyota never seemed to want to bid on local or state contracts. NJ, as many other states do, award state contracts for different types of vehicles that other county and municipal government agencies can purchase off of. The town I was involved in tried Dodge trucks and cars. The trucks weren't bad, but had more maintenance issues and were less reliable than the Fords. As far as police cars go, we tried the Dodge Chargers when Ford first gave notice they were going to discontinue the Crown Vics. The Chargers did not hold up and were maintenance nightmares. Dodge Durango's didn't fair much better. Since the demise of the Crown Vic's, they've switched to the Ford Police Interceptor SUV's with good success. Chevy Tahoe is in the mix also and aren't bad, but not as roomy.

 

Most local departments here went to the Charger as well after the Crown Vic disappeared. Now they are switching back to the Taurus though I don't know the reason why. The local cops and RCMP have always used the F150 4x4 as the police truck of choice.

 

The problems we encountered with the Chargers were visibility, lots of complaints that you couldn't see real well out of them, lots of blind spots, lack of room for the driver and no room in the back seat once the barrier between the front and back seats was installed, as well as wheel and brake issues galore. The city I live in now (Virginia Beach) is big into Chevrolet. Tahoes, Suburbans, and pickups seem to be fine. The Chevy PPV's (police pursuit vehicles, the Caprice replacement built in Australia) isn't great. Again complaints of lack of room and problems getting parts.

Oh, and,

 

Allow me to throw my 2 cents in. I have owned a Chevy Taho S10, Dodge Dakota V8, two Ford 150 V8 Lightings, and a 2006 Tacoma 4x4 Sport. I guess it boils down to the individual and their desire taste when it comes to a truck. For me, I greatly value realiabilty as oppose to size or engine performance. I use my truck as a daily driver and a trucks dependability means a lot. The american trucks I have owned did not provide me dependability. All of them i brought brand new and most of them did not last 50,000 miles before I decided to get rid of them. The Chevy S10 I got 146,000 miles out of it but I had to keep putting money into it to get to that point. Also, not to mention it left me stranded on the highway a couple of times. The Tacoma is the best dependable truck I have ever had and the only major thing I have had to do to het is replace the gas filter and new shocks. She currently has 215,000 hard driven miles on her "city, highway travel, snow, farm work". Not once has she let me down or left me stranded. It just seems to me that American trucks are pretty good for about 3 or 4 years then here comes the problems. I am not throwing american truck makers under the bus, but from my experience and what fits my life style Tacoma is the only way to go for me and my money.

That is my 2 cents and I am sticking to it.

 

I think I said earlier the Tacoma never left me stranded. While it didn't, I forgot it left my wife and kids stranded 200 miles from home when a wheel bearing went. She pulled over, I came out to get them (in the "less reliable" Corolla she avoided taking, no less), limped it to a nearby shop where the wheel practically fell off on the tech when he got it on the lift. The brakes were about the only thing holding the wheel together.

Aside from that one incident, I've never been stranded anywhere by a vehicle. But that doesn't mean none of them weren't expensive as hell to fix. I blame a lot of those repairs on NY's safety and emissions inspection laws unfortunately. It's all computerized back to the DMV via ODBII scans so no "lick n stick" inspections for a case of beer and the $20. Regardless, Toyota's habit of making oil burners cost me 2 $300 cats before I chipped the Corolla, killed VSC/CC/4WD in the Rav and would have cost $1500 in exhaust work had we kept it, and would have cost $2,000-$4,000 for the truck. The Tercel was traded before I put any money into fixing it. The Corolla was a yearly repair until I bypassed the second O2 sensor so you can see how that would add up for the Rav and Tacoma if I had to do them each year. (And before you ask, cat warranties are voided when they find oil residue. Found that out the year after I replaced the cat the first time on the Corolla.)

At this point with the non-rustable aluminum body I'll be ahead of the Tacoma. No tailgate to rust through. I also don't need to reinforce it like the Tacoma's so it won't bend in half loading a bike. Toyota had to redesign the Tacoma's to stop that from happening.

 

Thanks OP for asking the question. I think it is a completely valid one, and I am getting a lot out of the discussion. Been lurking all summer watching the discussion on the 3rd Gen, and decided to jump into this thread. My background - recently retired here in Hawaii after 25+ years in the Army. Getting ready to move back home to California, and am looking for a new 4x4 truck that will enable some serious travel dreams. Want to purchase a FWC or ATC pop up camper and spend some time re-discovering the surf breaks of Baja and mainland Mex/Central America, and am also looking at buying a Casita type trailer to do some more civilized travelling in the US with my wife.

I have owned two Toyota trucks - a '79 access cab 4X2 that I bought from my dad that I threw a lift and some bigger tires on and proceeded to abuse the shit out of as a young man, and a '08 TRD OR Pre-Runner DCSB. Both trucks were awesome, and combined with my nephew's 2006 Tundra 4x4 that has over 200k trouble free miles, I am definitely a Toyota fan, although I was not happy with the amount of stuff I could carry in the short bed of my 2nd GEN, which is why I sold it. I was excited when I saw that the new Tacoma would offer a TRD OR DCLB, and thought that would be the one, but my enthusiasm has diminished somewhat by the decreased payload and some comments on here about towing with drum brakes, so I have started thinking about moving to a full size truck. It should be a no brainer to move up to a Tundra, but since this will be my daily driver in SD county (with a mom who lives about 30 minutes down I-5) I am really having a hard time with the abysmal MPG on the Tundra. I have the luxury of a little time, so I am content to see what new owners think about the new Tacoma, whether Toyota does anything to improve the gas mileage on the Tundra (like offer the Cummins diesel as rumored), and see what happens with the evolution of the F150 in the 2016-17 model years.

For what it's worth, in doing some research I have been impressed by the Ford, and you have to remember that I am a skeptic who doesn't want to believe there is something out there better than Toyota. I think there is really no argument that you can get a F150 with more power, features, room, towing/hauling capability, etc. with very similar gas mileage and for about the same price as a Taco DCLB. The big question is reliability , and that is where I spend a lot of time talking to Ford owners, because I plan to drive the next truck I buy until I'm too old to stand up on a surfboard. Again, speaking as a Toyota fan who wants to find things not to like about the Ford, I can honestly say that I have not found one F150 owner who would not buy the truck again, which is the ultimate litmus test on a car purchase. Doesn't mean they are not out there, but I have not been able to find one. I was surfing the other day on the North Shore, and there were three guys surfing the same spot that were all driving F150s (a 2002, 2008, and 2013 I think). All three said they loved their trucks and have had no issues with them, or earlier Ford trucks they have owned. One guy was on his third Ford in the last 20+ years. I can only take that as a ringing endorsement. I think most people are smart enough to walk away from a brand they have had problems with. It will take years of solid reviews before I will consider another Chrysler/Jeep product, but that is for another forum.

What this all means is that I don't think you can go wrong with either truck. I think both the Tacoma and the F150 are great trucks, and from what I am hearing the 3rd Gen is a great next step in a great product. It just depends on how you envision using it that should drive your decision. I do think Toyota has gone after it's core market with the Tacoma, two younger adults who want to go have fun carrying smaller loads. It is slightly smaller and more agile (although not by much with the DCLB), and more capable off road (although I remain puzzled by the decision to not fully box the frame). If you want to tow, haul, and/or carry more than three adults comfortably for long trips, I would seriously consider an F150.

Hope this helps, and look forward to both your final decision, as well as reviews on whatever truck you end up with.

 

IDK guys...
Taco is still leading and im diggin the DCLBOR!
Surprised that F150 got this much votes on a Tacoma forum.

 

Love my wifes Forester.

 

Because even Tacoma owners know that it doesn't compare.