Enough Already! Your Truck's T, HP and RPM Explained

I certainly didn’t by my Taco for the performance mostly just for look and relatability. I did add a pedal commander and it makes it a little more fun to drive but certainly didn’t help my MPG’s.

 

Humans. Some buy this truck wishing it had the room of a full size, pulled a trailer like a diesel, off roaded like a Rubicon and had the comfort of a minivan.
How about it's a Tacoma? Good and bad alike. It is definitely different than any other truck and you either like it, or not. I like it, warts and all. It is unique.

 

Eh I agree the engine is nominally powerful enough, but the problem is mostly the transmission.

• Where I live, the truck is actually ~240 hp at the crank. So the OP’s math doesn’t apply to everyone.
  
• 6 gears is really not enough to stay in the 3800-5500 rpm sweet spot to consistently accelerate between various ranges of practical speeds. While theoretically this engine makes OK power, in practice, it doesn’t really work as well as OP claims because the transmission has too few gears to keep the engine in the powerband across practical ranges of mph.
• Power down low is important for highway cruising. When the transmission has to downshift to simply accelerate from, say 65-70 mph, you’re constantly bumping between an underpowered state and an overpowered state, and therefore bouncing your speed back and forth from too slow to too fast like a rubber band. It’s exhausting over time.
  
• This same effect occurs on hill climbs. For example 5th gear can’t maintain speed and 4th gear accelerates too much. You end up with ECT on and off and on and off again driving through mountains. Again, too few gears.

 

well said

 

Some are even dumb enough to purchase a 50k truck without doing the slightest amount of research, then are flabbergasted when it doesn't perform exactly how they want.

 

FTFY

 

People who complain about there truck because it’s slow only bought it because of the hype of looking cool at the mall. But wish it was fast like there buddy Tim’s Ford raptor lol

 

Didn’t read. Will continue to complain without any knowledge

 

Call me silly but I've been on TW for 3 or 4 years now and lurked for several years before that. I just realized or cared to realize what a "sticky thread" is!
HA!!!
I feel I have tried to preach these same thoughts many of times albeit with much less thought and effort.
Great thread and a great original post OP
Even though some will never agree and just like to complain and are never satisfied with anything.
Do the complainers just drive like wussies?
That is my conclusion

 

After reading through most of these posts and the OP, I found the main facts are:

• Truck is fine because math
• Truck sucks but I’d buy it again
• *math*
• Take this list of 57 items and upgrade the engine/transmission
• *engineering*
  
• I need to go 0-60 in 1.4 seconds with my trailer, 3 inch lift, 33s, bull bar, lights, and my refrigerator
• Toyota doesn’t know what it’s doing
• Look at my new Tacoma y’all!

I love TW

 

Same hear

 

Neither did my i4 cylinder turbo ford ranger.

 

I really like my new Tacoma (my first Toyota), yes it shifts differently from other trucks I’ve owned, oh well. It goes fast when I want it to, it goes slow when I want it to, the mileage is good as far as I’m concerned. What bothered me initially was learning the tranny is sealed and can’t check the fluid level. This leads me to believe the tranny can’t be rebuilt or serviced and is a throwaway tranny. My Toyota dealer told me they do not service the tranny as far as fluid and filter change like I have done on my GMC. This tells me that if something goes wrong with the tranny, you replace it. I guess that is my only complaint with the truck. If it lasts several hundred thousand miles, it’s a nonissue.

 

Not a throwaway. It is "sealed" because, if it is sealed, you can run the fluid under a higher pressure, therefore providing better lubrication. You can change the fluid and you can check the fluid. Just not as easy as a dipstick.

 

Thanks for the info, good to hear it’s not a disposable transmission like the constant velocity trannys in a lot of vehicles. But I do wish it had a dipstick, my OCD wants a dipstick, lol.

 

Newbie here. I read through about 11 pages of this 33 page thread and couldn't take it anymore (i did read this last page 33 to get feel of where things ended up).
Result: Wasn't much different than the first 11 pages. You guys spend more time fighting like old women than just using your trucks. I do have one question please (flame suit on).
I have purchased a 2021 TRD OR with 6MT. Somewhere around page 11, I thought I read the engine tune was corrected for 2019 models and onward. What I mean there is coming from the factory it had been corrected. Will my 2021 engine programming be good to go in terms of not needing to take it in for software update? I will add before the "this truck is great, just drive it right" crowd jumps my case, I'm asking those that took it in to get latest ECU software loaded if 2021s are good from factory now.

I bought truck but couldn't drive it home because I was out of state. Going back with wife later this week and will look for the things "some" here have identified. Ready for the flame throwers now and thanks in advance.

 

If you gave a manual transmission there’s little point. Maybe some hp gain. But manuals don’t suffer from the atrocious AT issues obviously.

 

Current ECU info:

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/ecu-tsb-update.562550/#post-18431380

 

Post #658 was the direct answer I was after. No TSB for 2021 MT shifted Tacos. THANK YOU!

 

Pretty significant TQ and hp gains on premium SFOB on 94E0. Down low it’s a game changer.