1st Gen? 2nd Gen? 3rd Gen????

I fell in love with these trucks when my buddy in high school had a 1983 Toyota 4x4 truck that we always called a first Gen....I realize the name Tacoma wasn't in play at that time but isn't that actually a 1st Gen and not a 1995? What do you call a truck like my buddy from HS had? Also, anyone know of any good sites / forums related to the real early model trucks?

 

Toyota pick up truck

 

The wiki was very helpful for generation (Taco) designations because I too was confused.

The OG Toyota pickup info is there as well because I’ve owned 3 of those as well.

The various acronyms and short verbiage used here are still mildly confusing and also site navigation at times but all of that will come with time.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyota_Tacoma

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyota_Hilux

Also when they reference the 22re engine(I think) My confusion level goes up ... IIRC it was the bulletproof engine that has been in 3 of my 4 Toyota trucks but beyond that it was so incredibly reliable and cheap to fix or replace entirely I think a whole engine swap was 500 bucks not that it was needed too very often.
Granted that price was quite some time ago and may be dated.

 

I too used wikipedia...I can't say that I fully agree with the generational label...the generational label are only assigned to the Tacoma but I think it's only called a Tacoma in the US in the first place...therefore I consider my truck more like a sixth Gen...I had a 1987 model in college with the R22 engine...it had 278,000 miles on it...all I ever did was put a water pump on it.

 

I had 3 of those "hilux" (late models) they were much lighter and simpler than the various Tacomas they were smaller too but even so they were awesome! My current is a Taco first gen (first gen of Tacos) and they are many good imo similarities (to the hilux) and ofc many improved fancy bells and whistles.

Granted I drive Toyo pickups because I can fit in them even with my height and they get great gas mileage ... the Tacos much less so than the Highlux but if you compare apples to apples 4cyc hilux vs 4cyc taco the differences arent as glaring. It sure is nice to have AC and auto trans AND be able to pull a tiny boat trailer and get almost the same mileage. So far the longevity of the two are fairly similar as well .. the early models all made over 300k each for me and my taco is only 50k from that now.

The Taco also has a much higher ride height and ofc clearance which can be important depending on what you want to use it for.