2020 Owner Impressions Wanted

I’m planning on purchasing a 2020 Tacoma sometime in the future. I would appreciate some feedback from the 2020 owners on a few areas.

LIGHTS
When I had my 2017 OR, I was disappointed in the headlight low beams. They were not very bright. I fixed that by installing Morimoto HID’s. For those of you with the new 2020 LED’s, how do you like them on low beam? Are they bright but not so obnoxious that people are flashing their lights at you?

TRANSMISSION
Preliminary feedback from reviewers and early owners seems to indicate Toyota has addressed and tweaked the shift points. They never really bothered me much because I typically city drive using ECT. Is the transmission less aggressive now and holds off shifting to a higher gear thus negating the need for using ECT full time?

CRUISE CONTROL
Probably the single biggest annoyance I had with my 2017 was the use of cruise control. It constantly shifted between 4th, 5th and 6th gears. You pretty much needed to lock 6th out with the S4 mode. What is the behavior like on the 2020? Do you still need to take control or is the use of cruise control less annoying now?

Thanks for your feedback

 

What kind of Morimoto HID did you buy? LOL. these headlight stink!!!

 

35w 4500k. See https://www.theretrofitsource.com/2...Toyota+Tacoma&preselect=&preselect_restrict=1

 

thank you thankyou!

 

Headlights are fine. I don’t find any issues with brightness at all.

Transmission - better than the 2019 I test drove but I’m still probably going to buy OVTune. I honestly don’t think it is the drivetrain at fault, it is the programming. Bottom line, better not perfect.

Cruise control - I’ve only had it a week so I haven’t done a ton of CC driving. Maybe someone else has.

 

The 2020 drives the same as my 2018. Despite what Toyota says about it.

 

Do you own a 2020?

 

No, have an 2018. Took a 2020 out to see if there is any difference or just toyo BSing people. Literally drives the same

 

Well, I certainly hope your test drive impressions are wrong. However, if you are right, the trends will emerge over the next few months.

I’m sure as hell not rushing out to buy anything right now.

 

Any new owners want to chime in on my questions?

 

I would recommend reading into HID's in halogen projector housings and a full retrofit might be more what you're looking for.

 

Can’t comment about the transmissions as I never owned a previous year. Coming from a 2012 Impreza and I spent 10ish miles driving a ‘19 Pro and OR before my purchase.


Get the LED headlights. Holy crap they are bright and provide a sharp, beautiful, wide view at night.

Transmission Anecdata:
My bias: I learned to drive on a 3cyl manual Geo Metro and had a Diesel Jetta that I’d hypermile to 55-60 mpg. I drive with skateboard shoes and use my toes to nuance the pedal. (That’s all to say that I don’t have heavy “performance” expectations from a truck)

I live in Seattle so there are plenty of hills and my neighborhood has regular 5-9% grade roads.

I have to rev the engine more than I’d like to make it up hills and I totally see how all you folk getting mid-teens mileage dislike it.

I cruise opposite the main commute and have radar cruise on. Set at 65 I’m only dropping gear if I change into a free lane after the car ahead has slowed down to 60 or so.

 

To summarize, you have no complaints with the automatic. It drives nice and smooth.

Correct?

 

For me, someone with a light touch and who considers braking to be thermodynamically irresponsible (so I try minimize situations where I have to break) I find the truck to be fun and adequate. It shifts when I expect it to; overtaking, returning to cruising speed and going up grades.

FWIW - when I did testdrive the ‘19s I didn’t consider that to be an issue so I’m probably not a representative sample. Again, I learned to drive on a 3cyl car and have incredibly low expectations.

 

I wish someone could confirm if the New Tune in the 2020 Tacoma’s is the same tune as the TSB that I had done on my 2018 transmission issues. Thanks.

 

The headlights are light years ahead of the old model and or aftermarket ones. These are even better then my BMW M4 headlights. They absolutely demolished the headlight department, there isn’t another truck company that can compete with the pro headlights. Transmission isn’t any difference to be honest, it’s still slow af, cruise control is aight, the adaptive does it quite well and doesn’t feel suicidal like my BMW. Again, all my comparisons are with no prior experience of Tacoma’s and compared to a BMW... I might drop a video review soon...

 

Comparing a Tacoma truck to a M4 doesn’t help much. “Still slow af” isn’t very technical.

If you do a video, at least do it landscape.

 

Only time will tell, at least I’m willing to let you know I’m comparing apples to oranges instead of gassing ppl up. We can all learn something from each other

 

Someone cruise control on a highway @75 mph and record rpm tach for 30 mins or less on a hilly highway. I can tell you if they fixed it.

 

It’s one of the first things I would have tested, on the test drive.