Here's What Squeeks, Rattles, Shakes and Flies off My '18 SR+

It's a 2WD SR with painted bumpers, alloy wheels and a few other things (hence the "+").

I've had it 16 months and about 5,600 kms -- mostly short trips commuting in the city. Good truck in design but cheaps out in build quality, mostly the interior. Drove it home brand new from the dealer.

The dash pad passenger's side squeaks and pops. It's not sunglasses in the sunglasses compartment. The radio surround bezel is plenty squeaky too when it's cold.

The seat belt height adjusters rattle pretty good and absolutely love to pop out of their tracks just by looking at them the wrong way (rattling even more adjacent to your left ear on the driver's side).

The interior plastics scuff and scratch with no effort.

Outside, the hood and tailgate gaps are off from new. And the roof rail rubber insert pieces enjoy flying off while going through the automatic car wash dryer section (I've adapted -- I just drive out, truck wet).

The power mirror adjust knob likes to buzz from low frequency notes from the door speaker.

The inside rear view mirror is blurry all the time from shaking on bumps.

The point is Toyota charges a lot for these trucks. I have two made-in-Japan Toyota trucks -- a '94 Hilux and '09 4Runner and they're both pretty tight and rattle-free even for their age.

The good news: the 2.7 is plenty strong for a 2WD SR. Running a K&N drop-in, 91 octane and 0W20 Shell Rotella Gas synthetic with a Toyota oil filter, it gets up and goes for a 3,900-lb. 4-cylinder truck. It's no Hellcat, but it's plenty peppy for what it is. As well, 2WD SRs are really easy to maintain and work on. Everything is so open and accessible underneath.

 

A ridiculous oversight indeed that Toyota now KNOWS about because the $100+ replacement moulding from Toyota has strips of double-sided tape. So we're not the only ones. And since they typically blow off in a car wash, Toyota might be reluctant to warranty this defect.

 

Okay, so a few more Karen-level beefs: the sound from the base six-speaker audio system is bad, no matter how I adjust it and the clock is fast. I have to re-set the clock all the time. Sorry for being a Karen, but this is 2020 -- a decent-sounding six-speaker sound system with an accurate clock is so hard to engineer?

 

Update: so, despite all the bellyaching, yesterday, I filled it with 91 and washed it, turned off all the nannies, pressed the PWR transmission button and drove it around like an '83 Celica.

 

So I finally got around to fixing all the things I didn't like about my (what I realize now) slow 4-cylinder 2WD SR+. I traded it in for a '21 TRD Off-Road Double Cab.

 

If you don't mind me asking, how much was your trade in ?

I find myself in the same situation with my 2021 2.7 SR and looking into a trade

 

It's hard to compare prices because California is the same size as or bigger than all of Canada in many ways. Plus, 2WD Tacos are no longer available in Canada. What's important is that the Toyota dealer is listing the '18 SR+ for $1,500 more than what the MSRP was when it was new. It's only been a bit more than a week but the new truck is better in every way. Go for it.