new tacoma not impressed, turbo, and battery

After Motor Trend's fawning article on the Chevy Colorado ZR2, clickbait news "What Can't This Truck Do?", leading to the article with the title and a bit less clickbait "Our New Chevrolet Colorado ZR2 Makes Us Do a Bunch of Math: It’s two tons of fun until you gotta actually move stuff." .....Do I regret purchasing my 2024 Tacoma?

Maybe after reading the long list of appropriately and less costly priced options for the ZR2? Seeing the rear leg room? Maybe after I find out that Andre purchased his yellow Trail Boss thinking it had cruise control (or radar assisted adaptive cruise control), and it clearly did not? Watching TFL break their blueberry Tacoma OR example on a lightly snow covered trail and having Sheldon weigh in on the failure? I have fond memories of my own 2005 Chevy Colorado with that really weird 5 cylinder engine. But that aside, it was many years ago.



Two drives, one in a regular iForce the other in an iForce Max, contrasted against my 3 year experience in a 2021 OR ACCESS CAB, made me choose the 2024. Despite my misgivings about the loss of the suicide door access cab. Yeah, Toyota made some unusual decisions in the 2024, notably (IMO) those overloaded option packs. My local dealer said, "we can try deleting individual items"... Me: "Sure you can. Uh...." (Moon roof? Electronic tailgate? And really weirdly, not being able to delete those hideous and huge seats from the PRO).

But the power train is not one of those. The low end torque and HP power band is significantly more fun to drive. (Again, IMO). Will it hold up over time? I do not know. For now I have few complaints and am loving each and every drive.

TO THE TACOMA WORLD CROWD, It has been a fun 2024 here. Especially Fridays!

Have a Safe and Happy New Year.

 

Scotty Kilmer is one notch ahead of RobMotive…and that’s not saying much.

 

This thread needs to die.

 

I also was unimpressed by the 4th gen. It is invariably "better" than the 3rd gen for sure, but against its peers, I was not impressed.

It wasn't for me, but I can see why others would certainly enjoy it. If I was at a different place in life with my family, I could see entertaining the idea of owning one.

 

That's just not gonna happen lol.

 

I know.....I know.....

 

You can always ask a mod to close it.

 

True, but some of these post let me know.....(insert nasty comment).....

 

Wow, really sensitive peeps nowadays, it’s just a vehicle and someone’s opinion, Scotty’s opinion lol. I’m sure the transmission is fine…and the turbo charged engine will last forever.

 

and it’s just my opinion that Scotty Kilmer doesn’t know much and is a clickbait grifter

 

that’s literally 99.999% of YouTube.

If you go on car YouTube, every video is some bullshit thumbnail of “it’s all over, this company is screwed, don’t buy this,” etc.

 

Mostly by people who “know cars” because of spec sheets, not because of being builders of cars, too

 

I think they both serve a purpose Kilmer cracks me up, I like the manic over the top dialogue he uses. Rob is great for people who just got a Tacoma and want to do some simple bolt on mods. Neither are really my cup of tea, I can enjoy any media that shows vehicles I'm interested in even if I don't care for the content or creator.

 

My 2000 standard cab had about 17.5' and my 2nd gen standard cab had ~18.25'... My third gen became much more difficult in the offroad trails of CO with all the switchbacks due to elevation change. It also got more complex adding increased width on top of the turning radius increases. I'd imagine the 4th gen would be a noticeable change again over the last 3 gens.

 

Interestingly, if you read the *caveat in the spec page, it lists the towing capacities at 3500 for each trim per J2807 methodology. I’m guessing this is for scenarios without trailer brakes?

 

Great troll by the OP. Should've been an Apr 1st post though, since it was so obvious.

I'll add a little sanity for the folks like me who stumble across this thread.

Scotty Kilmer is an old-school guy who complained when carbs and points were replaced by early EFI and electronic ignition. He got used to that stuff, and now hates computers and CAN buses. I can sympathize. When I joined the Army, we worked on M151 Jeeps and M35 Deuces. The "new" HMMWV was junk. The 900 series 5 ton had no power and had an ether start system for cold weather that never worked. New tech has growing pains and mechanics hate it. Now they want to add computers for people who only know how to use stubby pencils? Scotty has old man opinions, and he likes to voice them. He's not entirely wrong. Older and simpler is generally more reliable, or not hard to fix.

But all that old stuff had turbos, superchargers, or both (mainly Detroit Diesel's for both). Turbos aren't inherently good or bad. They got a bad rap in the 80's, and that's where the "let them idle to wind down" stuff, and lots of failures, started. They were new to people cars. They were old to everybody else.

Add a couple of decades of "tuners" (I'm lookin' at you, Subaru guys) and engine failures and turbos go hand in hand.

Properly sized, the kinks are pretty much worked out of them. If you're somebody who needs to let them cool down, you're somebody that works your engine hard (to be nice about it). You're going to see failures at some point.

Still, when they start leaking oil, so is your valve cover gasket, front cover, and all sorts of other things. Ecoboosts and whatnot don't fail because of turbos. There's all sorts of other stuff that kills them off first (hello cam phasers).

I traded a 19 Frontier for a 23 Tacoma SR 4-banger for even more simplicity and reliability (and better MPG). No turbo to go bad, but there are secondary air injection systems and all other sorts of stuff that will. Engines need maintenance. Pick the maintenance you want to do (or pay for). If you're scared, go to church or buy an extended warranty.

After putting up with that stupid transmission in the 23, I'm done. I've seen enough of the new motor to take a chance on it. I can get a manual transmission again. Linkages and bushings don't scare me. I suffered through cable clutches in late 70's Monza's and whatnot. Turbos don't either, if they're done right - and this one seems simple and done right.

24 OR 6MT inbound tomorrow, barring acts of god or disagreeable dealer folks.