My thoughts to Toyota about the 3rd Gen Tacoma

Having owned a 5lug 96, and knowing how incredibly capable even that little 2.4l ttruckwas for me, I've been nothing but disappointed with Toyota since the start of the second gen Tacoma, 3rd gen I have the same issue. It seems people like the new truck, and that's cool, I can respect it - but it's not the same truck, and it's sad that Americans don't have a compact truck option anymore. This trend is ubiquitous throughout the American truck market, just look at the new ranger - nothing like the old ranger (at least the new tacomas arent butt-ugly). Perhaps it's a similar target audience, but to me, nothing beats having a compact pickup. Easy to park, plenty capable for 99.995 of what most Americans actually use their truck for, better milage, better off-road... But they are a dying breed.

 

Just go buy the new Ford maverick then, small compact hybrid pickup

 

Nah, I'd still prefer to buy a Toyota, but thanks?

 

I mean, when comparing a fullsize truck to a midsize, it seems to me that there being an appreciable difference in beds isn't surprising, same with payload. But hooking a trailer to a truck is a perfectly normal thing to do, so I guess I disagree with your position there.

As for torque, I am not an expert and deferring to what Google has to say about it, it does look like the T100 hits its peak sooner, but is far less than the 3rd gen. Without seeing a dyno graph, it doesn't really matter much. I'd guess the lighter weight makes the T100 feel punchier. Combine that with modern emissions and throttle management, yeah.

I get you don't like the 3rd gen and that's fine, but your reasoning feels like you are comparing the Tacoma to multiple vehicles for validation. The fact you can get almost #2000 more of towing capacity, almost 90 more HP (excluding the SC version since it was rare and only around for a couple years, but even then the 3rd gen still makes more HP and as much Torque), and get better MPG while doing it seems pretty good to me.

Different strokes for different folks.

 

We need a sarcasm font. I love my country too but we’re nuckin futs for sticking with standard. I was part of that generation that was supposed to have transitioned from standard to metric back in the 70’s and failed miserably.
Maybe we’re not that smart after all…

 

I grew up hearing about the Metric system and how it was coming. I got tired of waiting and married a girl from the metric system to speed up the process. My boy is first generation Metric American lol.

 

T100s and 3rd Gen Tacomas are the same width within an inch. From what I've seen 18-20 MPG is pretty common for both, but I personally never analyzed it that in depth.

I guess my point is that it's going to be a better experience than the T100 for towing (then I go on a tangent about the Tacoma being an odd choice strictly for towing), but the T100 is going to be a better experience for using the truck bed (and for just driving in general, IMO). The torque curve difference may take up some of that towing difference but likely only very little.

Honestly I dislike the Tacomas from a specification, design, and comfort standpoint. All around it just seems not impressive to me.

 

Agree to disagree I guess.

 

If I'm going to seriously offroad a vehicle I'm getting a full winch bumper.

Which on every generation of tacoma requires removing most the front fascia.

 

Hahahahahahahahahaha jeeeezus that’s accurate

 

My point being, you gotta remove the front fascia of that fugly hilux to do mild off-roading. With the hiluxes stupid styling, in stock format, a Rav 4 would do better on mild trails than this hilux. Clearly the hilux is a street-biased offering and that’s fine. Just not want I personally want out of a 4WD mini-truck.

 

I don't want to wade into the overall battle here -- mostly because I am not sure what we are all arguing about !

But this was some pretty interesting data from Toyota on the Hilux:

https://global.toyota/en/mobility/toyota-brand/features/hilux50th/history/numbers.html

 

YAWN!