4th Gen Towing Capacity

For real... Much the same as 'trucks' now having huge infotainment touch screens and power everything. If you want a luxury car, go buy one

 

I don't think so.

 

My 3rd gen is the same size as a late 70's F250. It would be nice if they would start getting smaller again or we get some more Maverick/Santa Cruz trucks that are actually midsized.

 

In Western societies bigger is often perceived as better. Manufacturers are simply meeting demand with supply. Wouldn't be nice if they could justify producing compact, midsize, full size, heavy duty and super duty trucks?

 

Perhaps the next trend? Things usually go full circle.

 

Doubtful in my opinion. Manufacturers appear to be moving to common components across model lines. I imagine this would be more difficult the more variants you had. I think it would make more sense for manufacturers to focus on one style. It would make more sense economically if just a few manufacturers focused solely on trucks. Then they might be able to reach economies of scale and offer that full range from compact to super duty.

 

My work truck is a 96 T100... back then was considered "full sized" and I still have no issue fully loading this thing down and fitting everything I need in it. 370,000 miles still going strong. If you look harder in the background there's a 1997 4 banger Tacoma, did the same to that. Still runs, has 400,000 miles on it. Just needs some love.

I'm just finding this larger truck trend to be a style aspect and not so much for practicality. I see guys driving around in the largest dually you can find that looks brand new and hardly used. I think they just want to feel.big. My hope is this trend will start to die out at some point and we can get another normal sized Tacoma again.

 

T100 is slightly wider. My Tacoma is substantially taller. Not necessarily a bad thing but I'm just showing the change with the times. I don't think people are pulling or piling more junk in their trucks, I just think more people are buying trucks for a fashion statement.

 

That's awesome! I'm very jealous. Our first truck is our 2012 Tacoma. We purchased it used in 2016 with around 167,000 kms (over 100,000 miles) on it and would normally plan to run it into the ground but we bought it as a tow vehicle for our first travel trailer and now we're planning to upgrade it to a larger one. It has over 270,000 kms (over 167,000 miles) on it today. We retired our 2004 Echo with 423,000 kms (almost 263,000 miles) on it. Gave it to our nephew.

I totally agree with you about the bigger is better despite the need for it. I'm on a few other vehicle forums talking about tow vehicles and boy do they ever push the HD and SD trucks.

 

Odd you mentioned Echo. I've also got a Scion xA with the same engine I believe (1NZ-FE), and that thing has 268,000 on it and my wife drives it daily. It was my sister's old car before I got it. That car is very small but we do everything we need in it.

 

Right on! We absolutely loved the Echo, the only brand new vehicle we've ever purchased. At the time we needed to replace a 1993 Mazda 323, loved hatchbacks and did a ton of research. In the Fall of 2004 the Echo was the most fuel efficient ICE vehicle (4.5l/100km or 52mpg!) and the starting MRSP was just $12,995 CDN! It was my wife's daily driver then we'd favour (favor) it when we drove together, unless we needed the Tacoma for some reason. We replaced the Echo last year with a 2017 Prius.

 

Damn, I think we only get 35mpg out of the Scion highway. That's really good. Is your Prius hybrid?

 

Just keep waiting. It will soon.

 

Yes. However, while being 13 years newer its actually rated for the exact same fuel economy as the Echo. But, I believe it is almost twice as heavy.
So far the best my wife has seen was 2.9l/100km or 81mpg!

 

I don't think the 4th gen will be designed to for towing or payload. Toyota would probably like to throw out some decent numbers just because. I'm seeing more Hyundai Santa Cruz on the road every day, and I don't think people are driving them so they can tow on the weekends.

 

Unfortunately the EPA has convoluted ways of regulating that stuff. Diesel is used in most of the world because it saves fuel. Other countries generally are paying far more for fuel than we are in the US. The Canyon/Colorado diesel has been a great powerplant for them. However the issue lies with the Canyon/Colorado has been the DEF system they had to put in. It also sounds like that isn't unique to the GM twins, but still.

Ford is a different story. Ford first only offered theirs in lariat and above. Then they moved it lower after slow sales. They had a few programming issues at first as well. But the only real benefit for the Ford diesel was fuel economy since the Ecoboost offered more towing capability and was overall just better.

But the diesels also aren't the key to better towing. TFL actually demonstrated this by comparing the Colorado diesel and the F150. They towed a Corvette on a flatbed trailer, weighing about 5600 lbs total, which was well within the rated tow capacity for both. However, the Colorado struggled with trailer sway compared to the F150 because the Colorado was simply too light.

 

So in reality, a Tundra would out do the Tacoma anyway regardless of the ratings simply due to size?

 

Yes. The Tundra that towed the space shuttle also had a lot of extra weight added to it. Although, modern tow ratings take size, power, and braking into account. Any truck can technically pull way more than the rating. Just not safely.