10k miles Tacoma Review/Thoughts

1. If you or someone you know has complained about the 3rd gen seating position sitting down low I can see that being annoying on pre 2020 models. With the power adjustment seat there is so much customization I can’t see this being a problem anymore and I find the seats very comfortable
2. Build quality and fit & finish is quite good. Some plastic on the interior feels a little cheap. Quality overall is above the competition but falls short against my wife’s 20’ 4Runner
3. Around 8k miles the shifting on the truck smoothed out considerably. I do not baby the truck and give it the beans when merging or passing. It now shifts how and when I want it to. IMO shifting complaints are overinflated.
4. Truck drives like absolute dog shit on Chevron and runs super smooth on Shell gas. Have gone back and forth multiple times to test. Idk why. Just my own experience.
5. Totally happy with my 5ft bed. Two previous trucks both 6ft beds. 2000 Silverado, 08 Tacoma. Hauling random stuff and my kayak I haven’t had any issues with the short bed and I really enjoy the easier town driving and turn radius. I wanted a midsize truck. The DCSB checks that box perfectly.
6. Things I didn’t expect to like that surprised me are cabin storage and road noise. I keep a ton of emergency supplies underneath and behind the back seats. Truck cabin is the quietest of the trucks I’ve owned and really nice to drive even in rain and wind.

16 months of ownership. No issues.

Changed oil at 1k miles. Then again at 5k and 10k miles. No engine mods or tune. 265/70/16 Toyo A/T 3’s. Light towing.


2GR-FKS seems to be a pretty solid engine overall when used within spec. Obviously some engines have failed but I hope to have the truck for a long time. If it goes to shit I’ll get a Dodge Ram 1500. The new Tundra is atrocious.

 

Coming up on my 24 months of ownership. Currently at 21,500 miles. Ditto on the review. Changed oil at 800 miles and every 5k since.

 

You both changed oil very early. Are the early oil changes recommended for new trucks?

 

Na, some like to do it really early. I'll do my first change at 5k

 

Nope. I think it’s mostly an old school train of thought and a feel good preventative measure.

 

A perfectly good waste of dinosaur juice.

 

No. They guaranteed got piece of mind for doing it.

 

I lived without a vehicle for 7 years in my 20’s and rode my bicycle everywhere. I worked two jobs one of which was at a bike shop but it was way to pretentious/uppity of a scene for me. If those people could see me now getting “just to be safe” oil changes they’d lose their minds.

 

I see this entire thread evolving into an unnecessary oil change interval war. Enter the Jets and the Sharks.

I’m with you OP on the seat. I’m 6’4” and drove from Chicago to Oklahoma and had no issues with discomfort.

 

lol yeah I picked up on that too. I should have just left out the oil change info.

Anyways….. yeah I sat in a friends 17’ taco and I definitely got the sitting on the floor feeling. I’ve read the seat jackers help and some people won’t mind it but it wasn’t for me and it was immediately glad I had the power adjustments. Especially to dial in for a longer road trip like yours.

 

Yeah pretty much sums up my experience with my 2020. Just over 2 years old and zero issues except for a creaky/binding fuel door. Lubed it and it’s totally normal now. Had to have the 6’ bed with 2 kids.

Appreciate Apple car play/Android Auto capable and heated seats. Never had them before.

Stock highway tires were changed out after first year for one size larger Toyo AT3’s. Only gripe would be drivers power seat memory as my wife just loves to drive the truck as well. If we won the lotto she’d get her own.

 

I have had mine for 10 months and 9000 miles. I hate how soft the interior plastic trim is as it scratches very easy. My hood fitment is terrible. The transmission has its issues with shifting points, but I knew that before I bought the truck. I started to use 89 octane gas and drive a little more aggressivly and that seems to have decreased this problem. My front tires are feathering, so I feel an alignment is in order at 10000 miles. My major concern is that it is Super White and I had no idea fo the paint problems associated with this color. I will trade it in at the first sign of any paint flaking off. All in all, I like the truck.

 

Way to poop on the thread.

 

For a hot second I agreed with this, because the memory seats in my SC are great, but then I remembered my wife can't drive stick so it wouldn't do me any good.

I do move my seat around quite a bit depending on which shoes I'm wearing though.

 

Yeah, just when I find the perfect spot it’s the wife’s turn to drive. Mainly weekends and road trip sharing. We have the auto but she can drive an manual. And quite good at that, but as we aged the auto is nice. Just the seat movement is getting old. A second Taco would be devine.

 

My 2020 3.5 is a few months short of 3 years with 19k miles. It too has been flawless. i love the performance, and how it drives. I've use a combination of fuels, mostly shell 87 e10 or irving 87 e10. I feel no difference in performance as long as its 87 grade or 89. It runs worse if i use 92 octane or higher. I just did my 1st 9k mile oil change yesterday while the weather was so nice...winter is coming fast, and didn't to want to wait till freezing temps came. Except for having to crawl under this tacoma longer than my past trucks, the oil change was very easy. Oh, the automatic transmixer still shifts as well as ever....no complaints there.

 

Hey if they wish to spend their money on useless early oil changes far be from to worry about it.

 

Yeah, it's funny how my wife's Subaru has a couple of buttons on the driver door for two driver seat position memory / recall, and the more expensive Toyota does not. But neither vehicle has side mirror memory, and so I just deal with it. My wife never learned to set the mirrors properly, but everything else she does is, well, you know, perfect.

Just noticed last night (and I haven't had the truck that long), a little trick which others might try - and that is, if the A/T seems to be laboring going up grade, rather than stomping on the gas to have it shift down, I just knock it out of "D" over to "S" which drops me into "4" thank you, and when I get over the grade, I just pop it back into "D". The shift hunting and vagueness I can probably get used to, since at least, Toyota didn't have to resort to Stop/Start.

 

Does Toyota have any vehicles with a stop/start system? Seems vastly inferior to just making a hybrid vehicle to me.

 

I’m 6’3 and have a 2020 SR (no power seats), I don’t know what all the fuss is that we hear about on here- I have not had any problems. But, I bought it in July of 2020 and just passed 22k miles…. I’ve taken a few cross country trips and still think it’s more comfortable than the Ram 1500 I traded in.