Are Gen 3 Tacomas as unreliable as Tacomaworld makes them seem?

I go up and down a mountain twice a day on my 60 mile commute. My CC has no issues maintaining the speed I select. In fact this 2020 has 100 % better speed control then my 2013 did on the same route. The 2013 was always 5 under or 5 over what I wanted.
Have you tried holding the cruise button in longer so it switches to regular cruise not radar? Might help your trip.

 

Just completed an 80 mile round trip about 1/2 of it with the cruise control set on 70 mph...worked perfect on my 2020 sr5 v6 auto. Didn't notice any difference from it to when i had the tundra.

 

Tacomaworld is like Twitter.

one side loves their truck and posts awesome mods, the other thinks the world is ending and they need to do something about it.

Owned 3, 3rd gen Tacoma’s and they have had no issues at all.
Not one.

compared to my wranglers and Mercedes this thing is heaven.

 

A 2016 with 65K miles and the only problem was the instrument panel, which was replaced under the TSB. Very happy with my Taco.

 

What is this thread about again? Has it really just turned into I can't use my top overdrive gear and cruise control while going up a mountain grade?

 

Haven’t experienced any of those problems, OP. It’s a good truck, nothing is perfect, but Toyota stands behind their product if you have any issues.

 

Good, something to compare the Ridgeline to rather than trucks.....

 

I remember being 15 years old on a road trip with my family and since I had a learner's permit my dad let me drive a lot of the time. 1999 Ford Windstar using cruise control. My dad got PISSED when I had cruise control on because in order to maintain speed uphill it would drop a gear and go way up in the RPM range in order to keep whatever the speed was set at.

Ever since then, literally every vehicle I've owned with cruise control, and I've owned 15+ vehicles over the years, has dropped a gear and cranked the RPM's way up to maintain speed on even minor inclines if it drops 3 mph or so below the set cruise control.

I will say if you're on just the right climb, the Tacoma struggles to figure out whether to be in 5th or 6th gear to maintain speed and bounce between them, but usually I just stop the cruise control and put it in 5th manually until the climb is finished. Pretty much any automatic transmission that I've driven that has more than five gears does weird shit. I think it's just a phenomenon of the fact that having between 6 and 10 gears means the computer is constantly searching for that maximum efficiency range and on certain inclines at certain speeds, it's just hard for the computer to figure out which one to pick since 1500 RPM might be too low for 68 mph uphill, but 3500 RPM might be too high for 67 mph uphill. Can't imagine any other modern automatic would behave much differently depending on speed and incline and the vehicle's peak efficiency range.

 

I don't know, the 360 degree camera for 4-wheeling is pretty cool for tire placement and avoiding pinstripes? Didn’t think much of it, didn’t buy it because it had it, but sure like it!!

 

During the first two years the CVO’s issues: Tappets, lifters, clutch master cylinder recall, rear break master cylinder, throttle actuator, 2 oil pumps, top end leak, left side switch pack, and finally last summer had a weird noise, told me it was the flywheel and would be 6 weeks to fix!! So......you tell me, POS or not?

 

I would love to have a Ridgeline myself. I could not afford the extra $10,000 when I bought my Tacoma back in 2018 or I would be driving one.

 

Fair enough and not saying they aren’t nice for a car with a bed, but I bought the Tacoma for 4-wheeling and the Ridgeline won’t go where the Tacoma will.

 

Maybe my 2020 is broke, I can’t set CC while in “S” mode but after I do have CC set I can go to “S” mode and allow it to hold high rpm’s for the mountains here in Colorado? RatAssassin have you tried that?

 

Yeah I don't get off the pavement so the car with a bed would get me back and forth to Walmart.

 

Why not just get a car like a Civic Si or something? Be a hell of a lot more fun to drive on pavement than a Ridgeline. You need a bed for something?

 

I think if this were an Amazon product it would be hovering around 4.7 stars.
An old farmer told once “people love to bitch“.
Think about the average person when it comes to weather.
It’s too hot or too cold, too dry or too wet, you rarely hear someone say it’s just right.
Are there things I don’t like with mine ? Yes but I don’t think I have ever been 100 percent happy with any truck.
There is a reason these things retain resale value.
It took me a while but I love mine now.

 

Reviews online are somewhere in the ballpark of 90% positive. People like to say that only angry people bother posting reviews but that's obviously not true.

 

2016 standard V6 4x4, 70,000 km; primarily a work truck, lots of gravel roads and winter conditions up here in northern BC. Zero issues.
Saw a 2015 Tacoma on a dealer's lot in town this month; 128,000 km; asking $29K. If you don't like it you won't lose. Get the right tires for your situation and drive sensibly; it will take care of you.

 

My tailgate camera works fine in the down position, I’m just not into watching the asphalt behind me!