Brakes. Why drums?

This. "Competitive benchmarking" is a common thing in the industry. If the Toyota/Hino engineers compared the Taco against the Frontier, the Ranger and the Colorado, and determined the Taco gets better stopping distances, they would likely call it good enough and move on.

For anyone crying about unsprung weight or old tech - the truck has solid axle and leaf springs, which are very much outdated by car standards. The entire rear axle is unsprung weight. This is the wrong vehicle if track performance is what you are looking for.

 

My 05 Taco 4x4 I just got rid of for the 2011 Taco 4X4 I just got the major complaint with the 05 was the rear brakes were always grabbing and sticking on hard braking when I would take off u could feel it. If I took the brake drums off clean them rough up the brake shoe surface it would work great for a week two.

Grade rear Drums F
I have 2k miles on my taco now no problem yet hold my breath
Its a waiting problem. Disc would have been a better choice if I could have chosen.

Does anyone know if Frontier has rear disc or drum?

 

Very true...but stopping distance and fade resistance is hardly of interest only on the track. Especially for a truck that gets loaded up and used for towing as part of it's basic function.

 

Rear drums suck! You guys are soooooo in love with your Tacoma, that you would say anything was great. If the 2012 Tacoma only came in pink, you would find a reason why pink is the new best thing for a truck. Keep drinking the kool-aid.

 

Who pissed in your Wheaties?

 

One post. He registered to troll. Not obvious?

In any event, rear drums are fine. Sometimes we're so far past the threshold of "good enough" that everything's equal.

Has anyone had braking problems in their Taco? No? It's stopping distance is competitive? Well, shit.

 

Too bad we won't see him again. I'd like to thank him. You see, I work in marketing. This guy blindly believes that new is better than old, and expensive is better than cheap. Us guys in marketing love people like him. They're the reason my other car is a Porsche.

 

Bingo. Cost to own is a big factor. That's half the reason why all the new automatic transmissions Toyota has are "World Standard" fluid good for 100K miles (which, personally, I still don't buy, but I feel I will be proven wrong as more of these cars hit 200K). Yes, the fluid is more expensive, but if you do the recommended drain and fill only at 100k, vs. the old 30k, cost to own drops significantly.

Production costs can't be that much higher for drums these days, so many cars and light duty, hell even medium duty, trucks have discs, I imagine the profit margins are comparable. But cost to own, and life-of-vehicle reliability is very very hard to beat on a set of quality drum brakes.

 

Hey, I'm back. It just takes me a while to reply. I spend a lot of time outdoors and not in front of a computer. Sorry.

Thank you for thanking me. It's just too bad they already made the "Dinner for Schmucks" movie, you could have showcased your extraordinary marketing talents there.

PS. Wow....you have a Porche......I'm way jealous........

 

Hey look mom, it's my third post!

Troll, huh....my teenage son uses that and LOL a lot.

Keep telling yourself: rear drums are good, rear drums are good, rear drums are good. It will eventually sink in completely.

 

Actually, it was my wife and they weren't Wheaties, they were Honey Bunches of Oats. It's a one of our fetishes....sorry.

 

They ARE good... I'd still like disks more. But I'm content.

 

On my way out to Ocotillo (about 14 months ago) I had my Tacoma loaded with about 600 lbs of gear in the back and I definitely noticed the lack of braking power, it kinda scared me

It doesn't make sense to me that the FJ has the 4 wheel discs and the Tacoma doesn't despie them sharing the same platform. On a recent dealership visit I asked one of the master techs why the Tacoma still has drums and he noted that the 4 wheel disc braking system was considered a "high end" item that's usually placed in more luxurious vehicles like Lexus and the Landcruisers. The Tacoma has never had any issues attracting customers, and in fact, it outsells it's shitty Nissan counterpart by 4x so I'm sure engineers arent rushing to improve it to create more sales. The FJ has had less than stellar sales and the implementation of the 4 wheel disc system could be one way that Toyota seeks to improve it's sales.

 

Rear disks wouldn't have made any difference if they weren't set up right. They could be worse even.

FJ's set up as an SUV...the Taco's a truck. That doesn't mean it can't have disks in rear, it just means it's less an issue if it doesn't.

I don't think it's just 'high end' vehicles that get 4wheel disks...mid-range vehicles get them too, and even bottom of the line...my VW Rabbit had rear disks.

If anyone hasn't noticed, the small/midsize truck category as a whole has not gotten much attention at all over the last 6 or 7 years. Tacoma's pretty basic no matter how you look at it...

 

You're pretty much dead on, other that the lame comment on the shitty Frontier part.

My lesbian neighbors LOVE their FJ's!!!! Right on bro!!!

 

Really, the poster back on page 1 that noted this is a cost saver/margin booster for Toyota had it right. That's about all it comes down to.

Not that it matters...since there's no difference in use, I'm not really concerned.

 

Justin Beaber probably sells 4 times the records (if not 10X) that skilled musicians sell. Does that make him better?

 

Your comparing entertainment to mechanics, big difference buddy.

 

But my last few chevy full size have had disc brakes in the back.

 

Actually, Pal, It's not a big difference, just a different product. You were talking about sales, were you not?