Thinking of stepping up to a Tundra. Input please from those that have done it...

Thought I'd just cycle out and get a new one every time I approached the end of the warranty period, but my truck has never given me any reason to be concerned. I'm now well outside of warranty. I also spend some time on Ram forums, and see a lot of owners with high mileage vehicles, with nothing but wear items. If there's one thing I didn't buy into, it's the lifetime transmission fluid. I'm not sure what the manufacturers idea of lifetime is exactly. Likely not the same as mine. The people at ZF, who designed the transmission, recommend changing the fluid every 50000-75000 miles. That's quite a window, but it's more inline with what is reasonable to expect out of the fluid and filter. The forums refer to it as the $1400 fluid change. That's if you have the dealer do it. You can do it for yourself for about a third of that cost, and an hour or so of your time.

Understand the Apple koolaid too. Drank it with my first iPod and MacBook. After 3 iPhones, I switched to a Pixel 2. It was an easy transition, and I've enjoyed the user experience. Seems to work fine right alongside my work iPad, and personal iPad.

I understand the partiality to Toyota, being that this is a Tacoma forum. I'm glad I opened my mind and tried something different. Also been a great experience. Still like coming back to this forum all of these years later though. Some great people here. Lots of helpful information about general truck stuff. Tires have been of particular interest to me. And so many interesting off topic topics. You just don't see this level of activity and varied interests on most forums.

 

100 percent, this is the best truck forum. So much information and always a helpful member ready to offer advice. Even the assholes are kind of entertaining lol.

 

Just wanted to point out that GM ditched the 6.0L LS in the heavy duty trucks for a new 6.6L gas and Ford now has a 7.3L pushrod big block gas engine. GM still offers a 6.2L in the half tons. V8's aren't going anywhere just yet.

I had a 2014 Tundra DC and now have a 2017 DCLB Taco. I miss the 6.5' bed, payload, and the AFE single exit I had on it. The Taco does well for me but I think in a few years I'll be back in a Tundra, probably around when we have our second kid. Size wise the Taco is about 3" shorter and 5" narrower than a Tundra. I think the Taco is more comfortable, and right now I have a 50 mile round trip commute so the mpg is key.

If the Tacoma had 4" longer back seat and a couple hundred pounds more payload it would be about perfect for me.

 

I've said a couple times on this forum that if the Tacoma had the Ford 2.7L Ecoboost, that 10speed tranny and 6 or 8" more rear seat leg room, they couldn't make them fast enough! Seriously though, I am loving this Tundra!

 

on paper the F150 with the 2.7 ecoboost looks almost perfect. My grandparents have a 2017 with the 2.7 and 6 speed. Crew cab short bed and 4x4 and it drives extremely nice. Gets around the same mileage as my taco.

 

Man that 03 makes me um ya. Still just love the 1st gens.

 

I had an '18 with the 10speed. It got better than my '19 Tacoma by 3 or 4 mpg easily. And the power was amazing. It was the fastest truck I've ever owned. That includes my new Tundra with its 5.7.

 

ya I think all of the new 1/2 tons are pretty similar in MPG to the taco. I’m not sure on reliability with all the auto start/stop and cylinder deactivation. I like to think you should get 100k-150k of trouble free miles out of any new rig. I’m leasing my taco right now and waiting to what the new tundra looks like and will probably upgrade to a 1/2 ton at that point. My wife is already talking about getting a camp trailer

 

Id settle for the 2.7....

And +1 for the 2019 ram 1500 its a really nice truck.

 

Yep, that's one vehicle I actually really regret ever selling. Loved the size and loved the feeling of driving that truck. It's kind of funny because of all my vehicles, it was by far the least optioned vehicle I've owned and is probably my most favorite vehicle I've owned.

 

I agree. A friend of mine had a 3.5L ecoboost steel body truck and it moved really well. I have thought about the 2.7L EB but I need a crewcab and a bed atleast 6' long, which cannot be done with the 2.7L, but the 3.5L on the other hand... Ford just concerns me, my dad was a master tech for Ford for 25 years before getting out of the auto business and what calebc said about the Raptor. I got almost 50k miles on my taco and its the best vehicle I've had with the mileage, for what I've bought. My 2009 Matrix awd (still own) at 50k miles had a O2 sensor in the exhaust manifold replaced and 3 recalls, the 2014 Tundra had 37k on it when I traded it and every door lock actuator on it had be replaced. The taco has just been maintenance. I do have to get the rust in the drivers door rocker fixed when the corona stuff calms down, but overall I have a hard time considering non-Toyota products because I'm on my third (two still in the fleet) and the only thing I've had to pay for out of my own pocket other than fuel and maintenance parts is an alternator for the Matrix at 11 years old and 98k miles.

I'm actually looking at a 2016 4Runner TRD Pro in quicksand for the wife right now that got 103k miles on it. She drives less than 4k miles a year and we live in the rust belt. It got full service history at Toyota dealership and was clearly highway driven. I'd rather have a 15-20 year old 4runner with 230k miles rotted than a 15-20 year old one with a little over 100k. Initial purchase and end of the usable life are both easier sandwiches to ingest.

 

Just rhought I would post another pic.

 

I love the tundra. I would've chose that over a taco when I first purchased. But where I live, theres no where you park the damn thing. In terms of fuel, its damn near the same thing. You have a larger tank in the tundra (if you get the upgraded tank they offer) but in terms of range, its close as the taco from what I've seen In real world use. Space wise its amazing. If you're someone on the trails a lot then expect some battle scars on the tundra. But if you're a taco owner that just drives street. Tundra is the way to go. You get that amazingly reliable 5.7. Which we all know damn well has less issues than the 3.5 that toyota should have never put in the taco. If the taco still had the 4.0, then hell yeah.

I think you'd be happy in a tundra. If I could afford it, I'd switch now