First impressions after reading too much TacomaWorld!

I picked up my 2016 TRD OR 4x4 A/T on Saturday and had to drive it 800 miles from Iowa back to Colorado. I'd been pretty much reading TW obsessively since late March when I placed my order.

So, after 800 highway miles and a few runs through the city I pretty much love the truck so far. I guess I was fortunate and I haven't noticed any of the issues with vibrations (2100 RPM or rumble strip on deceleration). No issues with the transmission - it doesn't shift any more frequently than my 4-cyl Nissan Altima. It doesn't accelerate as fast as my Nissan, but I expected it to drive like a truck. I didn't have the ATF checked, but I'll probably check the u-bolts and eventually grease the zerks when I get around to getting a grease gun.

The only issues I've noticed are as follows:

-Cruise control programming. The A/T works fine for me except when in cruise. It's reluctant to downshift. If you're going up a hill and it downshifts, most of the time it will stay in that gear even as you start down the hill on the other side. This was annoying enough that I stopped using cruise unless it was fairly flat. I'm guessing this will be addressed with the rumored TSB that's also going to address the R/P to D lag (that I have not noticed). My truck was manufactured the week of May 16, 2016, so it's possible this could've been addressed already.

-Gas mileage. Kind of disappointed with the mileage so far, although I think it gets what's advertised (knowing that they do the tests at 55mph). I'm confident that I could get the advertised mileage if I were going 55 mph, however, that's unrealistic for those of us that commute on the interstates. Driving home at 75-85mph on I-80 I was getting around 17mpg, although it was getting better with each tank, so hopefully this improves a little bit over time. Currently, it gets better mileage while city driving kind of like the Prius. It's kind of weird, but I imagine it has something to do with the Atkinson cycle. If anything, it probably has more of a drop off than other vehicles when driving at 55mph than when driving at 85mph. That's probably the reason people are getting upset, but again, I do think I could get 23-24+ mpg if I were driving 45-55mph. So those guys driving this on rural highways at 55mph are probably getting great mileage.

-Hood vibration. Noticed the vibration in the center of the hood at highway speeds. It's not a huge deal, but it seems like an easy fix so I'll probably get this addressed at the first service. Sounds like it's kind of a delicate fix and it's more than just slapping some adhesive on there.

Other than that, I'm loving the truck. It does drive like a truck, which I expected so I'm not upset. It doesn't have the acceleration of a car, but it's got plenty for what I need. I guess if you were expecting it to drive/accelerate like a car you might be a bit let down. However, I did try ECT mode and I noticed a huge difference. I used this to merge after a pit stop and it really got moving. In ECT mode, I think it actually accelerates quicker than my old Nissan Altima.

Hopefully this thing lasts me 12 years like my Altima! I'm going to get up in the mountains this weekend and hopefully try it out on the trails!

 

As long as it doesn't look like this I would say you are doing ok.

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/brand-new-tacoma-on-fire.436699/

 

Regarding mpg, I get 20mpg doing 70-75mph in my 2013 Prerunner DC V6 automatic. What you are seeing isn't an improvement. However, I am usually on flat highway.

 

Glad your loving the new truck even after reading this forum and all the negative hype. Although it seems like thats gotten better over the last few weeks. Im coming up on 5000 miles and zero problems.

 

Good luck with your new truck-I leave the ECT on all the time except for on the Expressway -way better performance, etc., hope this will help

 

I do think the truck gets the advertised fuel efficiency, but I think there's a much larger drop in fuel efficiency in the Tacoma from 55mph to 85mph. So while you might get 24mpg at 55mph, you'll only get 16-17mpg at 85mph. I assume it's just due to increased drag on the vehicle. It's not as aerodynamic as a car...

I think the EPA testing protocol is the problem. They really should do the testing at a higher speed. When you live in a city like Denver or another city with multiple interstate highways, traveling at 55mph is not an option. If you're not going 85-90mph on I-25, you'll be getting passed!

 

x2
Congrats on your new truck!
Yeah in the 85-90 range I only avg 16-17 too.
My best mpg is always putt-putt secondary highways for sure.
Happy Modding with your new rig.

 

Congrats! And for what it's worth, in my experience the truck MPG average gets much better after a few thousand miles. My daily commute is heavy traffic and I average 23mpg in my DC TRD OR. As others have also mentioned, it isn't a fan of higher speeds. If I keep it in between 65 and 75, I average nearly 25 on the highway without traffic. Good luck and enjoy your new truck!

 

Just wait. It gets worse.

 

You're a hazard in Texas at 55. It could literally cause an accident.

 

I have the same experience as you do. I drive 75% of my daily commute on the interstate (I-95), when I first got the truck I would get around 17 ish MPGs. Now I'm getting 18 ish in MPGs (same commute same gas). Driving at 70-80 takes a hit on the MPGS (which is reasonable I suppose).

Sweet spots tend to be on long interrupted highways at 45-60 mph speeds.

Are you driving your Tacoma on the interstate at those speeds with ECT on? I have yet to do that.

 

You are spot on with the mileage observation. Going much over 60 really starts to kill the mileage. Heck, you could probably get 30mpg if you were on flat land and kept the cruise speed at 45mph!

Stop and go really kills it too.

 

You still bought it after reading this site for months?

 

Mine gets the advertised mpg up to 72 mph on the interstate, my drive to work one way is roughly 19 miles, half of it is stop and go at a few stop signs and red lights and the other half is interstate. I showed this on the mpg thread recently, I posted pics everyday to and from work over an entire tank of gas.

At fillup my mpg was 21
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/post-your-mpg.391300/page-38#post-12533544

I agree It`s not an aerodynamic car, it`s a truck, that is obvious by it`s height off the ground. The truck is capable of getting what Toyota says it can get, it`s just a matter of keeping your foot out of it by not flooring it leaving every red light, stop sign or flooring it going down the ramp to get on the interstate.

You still have no pics of your new truck ?

 

Nope, no pics without me and my wife in front of it...

It's a stock MGM TRD OR. You guys have seen it before, nothing new here!

 

Hey OP... MY Cruise refusing to shift back up after downshifting for a hill was cured by 3/4 liter of Tranny fluid. Get your filled...!!

Good luck..

 

My mileage increased around an arbitrary 1600 miles after a 300 mile trip.

At 78mph. Repeatably get 21.3 mpg. At 55-60 i get 23.5 repeatably of 60/40 hwy/city on my commute.

It may improve. Stop calculating it and turn the gas mileage menu off and enjoy it for a bit then check again.

Glad you like your new truck!

 

My 2016 4 banger gets an average of 22mpg doing 65mph babying it without the annoying cruise control on. Anything over kills mpg.

Like @Danielnc06 said above ^ ENJOY THE TRUCK! 4WD truck getting anything around the 20s is awesome. 400 plus miles per 21 gallon tank costing what $40ish bucks is damn good.