Review of 2016 Tacoma from a first-time truck buyer.

First, I want to say that I am a new, first time truck buyer. I just received my 2016 Limited in Blazing Blue Pearl about a week ago, and I wanted to write a review on it from the perspective of someone who has never owned anything but cars before. This is coming from a 1998 Accord that is going to my dad.


Car vs. Truck


Since I received the Tacoma, the transition has been quite easy. It doesn’t feel any bigger than did a Colorado or Canyon, both of which I test drove. The Tacoma is very easy to handle versus my car. It has taken some time to get used to the difference in sitting higher, and sight distances along the sides when parking. However, road handling has been extremely easy, as you don’t need to take as much consideration to the back end when making turns (for comparison, I have driven the biggest U-HAUL truck that there is…making turns in that thing meant really swinging wide!). The ride is not that of a car, no, but is by no means the harsh ride that some described on the non-off road models. Short of hitting major bumps or holes, I can’t really tell much versus my sedan. The interior is EXTREMELY quiet…save for the engine noise, which I actually like hearing, so that is no problem. In fact, it is difficult to gauge my speed simply by sound the way I could in the car. Overall, the transition has not been difficult at all as far as driving goes.


Seating Position


To start, the leather seats in the Limited are quite plush. The leather has a soft, high-quality feel to it. I shared some concerns with others regarding seat height and not being adjustable. I am only 5’7”, but I have short legs and a torso of approximately a 5’10” man. With the Limited’s sunroof and the loss of head room, I still have ample room to not hit my head. In contrast, my wife is only 4’11”…and on her side of things, she is able to see over the hood and reach the pedals with no problem whatsoever. My 6’1” brother was able to sit in the passenger seat and not contact the roof, either.

With regards to the seats themselves, I seem to have an issue in general with newer car seats: if not adjuster just perfectly, they give me terrible backaches. The Tacoma’s seats are no different. I am still attempting to find a way to make them as comfortable as possible.


Engine & Power


A lot has been made of there being a severe lack of perceived power in the truck. Others talk of wildly changing gears and no consistence in shift pattern. My experience has been somewhat mixed. As for power, there is no lack of it in the V6. I have had no issue whatsoever either merging into traffic from a stop, nor accelerating at highway speeds. The issue that I think many people are having is that you have to change your driving style if you come from a vehicle with either a very sensitive drive-by-wire system, or a direct throttle-to-throttle body connection. The best way that I can describe it is that you have to coax the power out of it…that is, your foot has to do a lot more adjusting to the power level of the engine than “you push, car goes.” A lot of gentle prodding can be done to increase the engine RPMs and draw out power in the same gear if you are falling behind in speed, instead of a hard push and a change to a lower gear. I find that I can do this when going up a hill, rather than having gears shifting all the time as I try to increase speed. Bottom line is this: the car is programmed for certain shift points, but if you can adjust your control finely enough, you can achieve the desired results.


Radio/Electronics



This truck has more in the way of electronic gadgetry than I have ever had in any vehicle before. The iPod integration has been flawless: plug it in, the radio plays what’s on it. Couldn’t be easier. The other fancy controls for navigation, information display, radio, etc, are pretty well placed. One caveat, however, is the left driver’s side control for the entertainment system: it is backwards to me. Up and down on the pad controls moving from one song to the next for the iPod, whereas left and right move the volume up and down. Anyone who has used any other such device anywhere will agree that when you adjust the volume you think “up and down” and moving forward or backward on a CD is left and right. Why they decided to reverse these controls, I can only guess.


More to come in another post!

 

Congrats on your purchase. I'm also a first time truck buyer =)

 

Pretty cool review. Not bad. Not bad at all.

 

Good review. I sure hope Toyota releases a PCM/TCM update to improve the throttle performance of the truck. That is the biggest negative of this vehicle to me. It shifts and bogs at part throttle and it's far too insensitive in the first 30-40% of the pedals range. I've driven a lot of cars, but I find it annoying in the Tacoma.

I'm modifying my ECT button to enable at startup because that at least makes it bearable, though I don't like having to hit 53mph to drop to a decent cruise RPM.

 

If you make the ECT mod, post a how-to on here. I'd be interested, as I'm sure others would be as well.