"Four Wheeler" Pickup Truck of the Year: Not the Tacoma?

18 bullet holes? How is that any gauge of toughness? You can put 18 bullet holes in a tailgate where it will do 0 damage to stop the truck from running. It means nothing.

 

Thank y'all for your service. Literally can't thank you enough.

 

Not entirely sure of the relevance here. I'd say that the primary reason would be because Toyota is a global manufacturer, and the things are still around. Kinda like big benz trucks, MAN or Kamaz.

 

Not entirely relevant, but the basic idea of a tough truck is something the Tacoma has a reputation for. When the Tacoma was introduced, greater priority was put on things like drivability and safety over things like ruggedness and payload capacity because in the US pickup trucks are often used as personal vehicles over commercial, agricultural, and utility off road use. But they've retained some pretty tough DNA, even though the Hilux is more so. To go even deeper into irrelevancy, I actually loved the international Ford Rangers on base overseas... they were small, pretty tough bare-bones functional utility (with a small diesel), and I've always loved small trucks, so I got a kick out of them.

I have grown a respect for Dodge/Ram. I believe their overall quality has consistently -if not slowly- gotten better. I think they have good ideas and try new things and add competition to the market. I straight-up admire the Powerwagon. And I think they are generally a good value dollar-wise. I've never been a Dodge lover, but damnit if my 2004 Ram 2500 4x4 hasn't been an absolutely awesome heavy duty workhorse. Besides the regular maintenance, I've only replaced the battery and tires. Guess I got lucky.

I'm sure the Rebel is a solid truck (for $53k), but it seems to me the testing is flawed and it's obvious a really powerful engine gets the critics creamin their jeans. On the things that matter to me, namely off-road ability and durability, the Tacoma simply wins... especially when you factor in the $15,000 price difference.

 

I couldn't agree less. The quality of the Dodge has gone down the tubes. Did you know the highest demand is for their older trucks? We have a brand new Dodge 4500 chassis sitting under our $236K Medic unit and it's been a straight pile of shit. It has more miles on it going back and forth for service than it does running calls (7800) We've taken it in for the same issue over and over again with no remedy among many others. A guy in my department talked to a rep at the place we ordered the Medic from and they said they've had so many issues with Dodge that are never addressed and reason being is that they sell so many of them they're not worried about fixing the ones with issues. What faith do you put in a company that treats their customers that way? No wonder they went bankrupt in 2008, we should've left them there.

 

I kinda dig the looks of the rebel. Especially the challenger bulge hood.
And if it has the same 8.5 in uconnect display as my challenger, its one of the best in the industry.

 

No relevance at all other than, I feel as though I've run quite a few manufacturers through the ringer, and Toyota stands out.
Yeah, 18 bullet holes in the tail gate. Actually there were 7 in the tailgate. They continued through the truck bed, through the cab, through my team mate and terp and into the firewall.
Wrong guy bud

 

We can buy any truck we want... And have tried them all. When you have 20-30 trucks/vehicles which are a mix of Toyota, Chevy/GMC, Ford, and Land Rover... And after a few years the only ones still reliable are the Yotas, i think it says something.

 

I don't know anything about the 4500. I do know the 1500s in the late 90s/early 2000s had a host of issues that have largely been ironed out (supported by various consumer/critical reports), and the HD trucks used to burn through trannies all the time, and that's been mostly rectified as well since the mid 2000s with the newer transmissions. I can think of another half dozen instances where the trucks empirically improved, but everyone has their own experiences and perspectives... duly noted.

 

What's the issue you're running into?

 

I hated the uconnect in the Chrysler 200 I was renting.

 

The reason Toyota's are used in these third world countries is that they are CHEAP! Most all police, government agencies, companies use GM/Ford. These trucks are made for serious work, Toyota's are not. Toyota's are great trucks but they have their limitations.

 

1st Thanks for your service!!!
Hilux is a different story, Tacomas will not hold as good as Hilux in these types of scenarios. Ill said Hilux is the heavy duty version of our Tacomas, and yes I have drive Hilux as well in southamerica, they are very popular in the mining and agro industry down there.

 

I don't know where you get that info or please tell us which third world country or police agencies you refer or continent, In South America where I come from fuel is 3 times more expensive than here, thats why is unreliable and none sense to get big trucks,Hilux are well known for they reliability of their 4 cylinder 2.4 and 2.8 turbodiesel (some times called the AK47 of the trucks) .Also what agencies you refer? Last time I was in South America I saw Toyotas Land Cruisers, Hilux and Nissan Patrols and frontiers as their highway police patrols.
Im not saying everyone in the world uses Hilux, but I think we should be more careful when giving some facts. You can't say they use Hilux because they are cheap and not made for serious work, thats just so wrong, I agree that Tacomas are not build for serious work, but thats not the case of Hilux.

 

First was the headlight issue, which it had ever since delivery. The drivers side head light would intermittently go out and it has nothing to do with the bulb. The head lights are controlled by modules so if there is an issue with the module than the light does not come on. This is a known issue yet it took 5 trips, each to a different dealer to get this problem fixed. Ever place we took it kept telling us that the light is working now bring it back when it's off. Next is the accessory electric junction box for the commercial bodies. Our unit has an auto leveling rear suspension that you can also manually control up or down. We had an issue where the system would just shut off and the rear would drop all the way down. For some reason the truck would shut off the power to the system and we have to disconnect the batteries to get it to reset. Recently the truck went into high idle (2000 rpms) and would not come down even after restarting. An error code was reported on the dash and they came and towed it away. Contacted us back and said there was no code and they couldn't find anything wrong and sent it packing. Just the other day while I was checking the fluids I noticed the P/S fluid was overfull and looked milky. I also had a look at the coolant overflow bottle and it to was overfull and had a nice brown milky film on the top of it. Looks like oil got in it but I'm still watching that one. So there's what we've had so far within last than a year and 7800 miles, can't wait to see what comes up next.

 

Damn, that sounds like a nightmare and shitty dealership service departments. I was thinking of the new Ram 2500 but electrical issues are not my forte.

 

My bad I was referring to USA.

 

I agree with you on the Power Wagon being a heck of a truck.
I concede that my Raptor is pretty capable, but overall the Power Wagon is a true work/play/daily driver.

 

Lol, if I saw some sort of statistic to back this up, I'll just call it your brand loyalty speaking.

After 10 years, I might buy this arguement.

Why does USA use humvees instead of hiluxes?

 

1st Gen FTMFW