Initial Thoughts From a New Sport 4x4 Owner

All,

I've now had my Taco for two solid weeks and here are my initial thoughts.

1) Gear Hunting: For those complaining about gear hunting, because of this forum, I have been paying close attention to this and was ready to jump in on the irritations surrounding it. Quite frankly though, I don't see it on it's own and when I have noticed it, it's been my fault. The AT is working just like any other AT that I've driven, which has been most of my life. So I believe that this issue, at least for the current 2018's rolling out, this is being blown out of proportion.


2) Road Noise: Initially I didn't notice, but after taking out the cheap cloth and the inefficient plastic storage things out from behind the rear seats, it then really stood out to me only because I reduced the items mitigating the sound. I'm in the process of installing a DIY molle panel using material from Home Depot and Ace Hardware which will have the cloth barrier put back up and my stored items to help mitigate it back down, but I anticipate that sound deadening material will end up being used at some point.

3) Drivability: For me, the 4x4 Sport was the right choice because I'll be on pavement 90% of the time and the roads I take to work are about 14 miles of twists/turns in the lower mountains of SoCal and I've only pushed the speed limit a couple of times, but the ride was nice and smooth. It wasn't over bouncing ( i.e. floating ) which I felt test driving the Off-Road. I'm leaving the sway bars on because of my drive to/from work and I'm okay with that. I'm haven't been off-road yet, but I don't ever plan on anything beyond novice or intermediate level trails that won't give me stripes. I know, I know, I say that now...

4) Small Windshield: I just don't understand this because I actually prefer it. Once I get the windows tinted and maybe some sort of 4" strip across the top, It'll really cut down on the sun getting in the cab which makes driving for me much more comfortable.

5) Scoop Blocking Your View: It's never caused an issue for me and I'm guessing that it's maybe, maybe if you get every benefit of doubt, it's blocking an extra 1/2 of view. It's not as bad as folks are making it to be, but I can understand how it could drive some folks nuts. My wife loves it and she's the only person other than me that matters.

6) Things I Don't Like:

• The cubby space to the left of the driver... Yeah, I know there are fixes for it and I plan on converting it into a panel for light bars and what not. So, it'll eventually turn into a positive.
• The Qi charging station is not my thing and I hear that it's not good for your phones anyway, so it's just a big ineffective storage area right now. I wish there was an organizer to take better advantage of the space. Maybe that will be another DIY project to test something out.
• Inefficient use of storage area behind the rear seats... I would love to get the prefab ones color coded in BBP, but I currently need to remedy that with something more budget friendly.
• Dim interior lighting which will be fixed eventually.
• Cheese grater grille, but my wife likes it. As a compromise, she's going to let me derp it and the chrome bezel to flat black. If it's good, paint will eventually go on.

That's pretty much it.

7) Things I Do Like:

• Compass heading in the rear view mirror.
• Dynanmic Cruise Control - LOVE THIS!
• Automatic bright headlights.
• Compass heading on the Driver Cluster showing the current speed limit.
• Passenger window auto up AND down.
• Blazing Blue Pearl = Chicago Cubs Championship Blue... How can you possible go wrong wit that as a Cubs fan?

Thanks for reading!

Cheers...

 

1.) I wonder if people mean that it likes to upshift early and can't go up hills without dropping 2 gears. Not so much hunting. I've noticed most modern vehicles like to upshift too early on entrance ramps. I get to about 50 MPH and it upshifts killing the rest of my acceleration. To be honest, I haven't found the sweet spot in the pedal to stop that from happening. Only other thing that happens is the pause to shift after turns, but not all the time. Other than that, its usually an ok transmission.

2.) Don't notice.

3.) Agreed.

4.) Never heard this complaint.

5.) I could see this argument for driving off road. Maybe seeing whats directly in front of you to help with approach?

 

Good review. It is pretty close to my feelings also.

Offroad, if you feel yourself getting pitched side to side, that'd be the sway bar. I pulled mine off for a wheeling trip and ended up loving the ride on and off road. It really doesn't change much on road, IMVHO.

Derping the grille will make you happy. I like the cheese grater style, the chrome just had to go away.

 

6. Qi charger space......it was a great spot to put my sunglasses......

 

I love the QI Charger, works fine and is easy to just toss my phone there.

 

That's what hangs out in my Qi charger area too.

 

Nice looking truck. Glad to hear from a happy owner.

 

member: 252343"]1.) I wonder if people mean that it likes to upshift early and can't go up hills without dropping 2 gears. Not so much hunting. I've noticed most modern vehicles like to upshift too early on entrance ramps. I get to about 50 MPH and it upshifts killing the rest of my acceleration. To be honest, I haven't found the sweet spot in the pedal to stop that from happening. Only other thing that happens is the pause to shift after turns, but not all the time. Other than that, its usually an ok transmission.

2.) Don't notice.

3.) Agreed.

4.) Never heard this complaint.

5.) I could see this argument for driving off road. Maybe seeing whats directly in front of you to help with approach?[/QUOTE]

The small windshield has only had a few complaints, nothing widespread though.

Since I don’t have an OR, I’ve already got a dedicated place for my sunglasses in the overhead.

 

My Off Road has the Sunglasses Holder overhead too!

 

Who needs crawl/MTS when you have sick Oakleys?

 

No problems here with the Qi charger. Works just fine for me

 

Maybe I misunderstood the trim(s) that have it? I all I cared about was mine has it.

 

Off Road and Pro with Manual Trans have it in the Overhead Console but the Automatics do not.