Gear hunting? What am I missing?

sometimes it's too intelligent for it's own good. i wonder what shift map it will pick today. the temperature went up 5 degrees so now it drives different lol.

 

The trucks look the same, but not all perform the same. I don't think Toyota assembles, or builds all these trucks with the same 100% cookie cutter performance. There are definitely some puppies in their lines.

 

Most people are consistently inconsistent. There could be small differences from vehicle to vehicle but servicing them and having a baseline would be impossible if there was too much deviation between vehicles.

 

I don't notice anything, personally, either. Feels great to me. In fact, if I'm not going 80 mph on the highway, and I'm just running back roads, I consistently get 21-22 mpg as well.

Edit to add:

I came from:

2019 Ford F150 2.7L twin turbo v6
2021 Volvo XC60

I have no noise/vibration/harshness complaints about my Tacoma. The only thing I thought was an issue - turned out to be the owner's manual moving in the glove box.

 

Do you think Toyota rests on its reputation of quality and actually is about the same as all manufacturers? I bet they all assemble and manufacture about equally. The thing that probably sets them apart is engineering design and risk tolerance. Toyota is generally more risk averse (and it saves them money on engineering) and is slower to adopt new technologies, see drum brakes in 2023. Americans are generally more risk takers and accepting of newer technologies and especially like the marketability of those technologies than Toyota.

I am betting that I get either the same reliability( as my previous cars) or lower on my Toyota. I had a Saturn ION base model (manual transmission with only power feature of power door locks for 12 years and 140k miles. No issues and only 1 brake job required for the full life. I had/have a (still in family daughter’s car) 2012 Ford Fusion which has 130k now and is still going. Only 2 issues were an AC sensor that went out that was located on the condenser, $800 to repair and door handle/driver side window motor that needed replacement. Those were about $100-120 in parts to fix.

If my Toyota returns that level of reliability, I will be happy but based off this forum it seems unlikely. I see so many problems posted here, however, there were no forums for Fusions and IONs so it probably would have been WAY worse on those forums if they existed.

 

I think Toyota’s quality is still much higher than most (if not all) of the other car makers. It’s kind of a big deal if almost any big 3 vehicle makes it to 200K+ without any major issues, but a well taken care of Tacoma of any generation making it there is standard and expected. Chances are very high that your 3rd gen will blow your 130-140K standard for reliability by double or more if you do everything you should at the time you should, and don’t drive it like a raped ape. There are already plenty of threads with 200K 3rd gens and even some 300K ones already.

Every mass produced vehicle will have some issues, but TW is an echo chamber for that. Remember, people don’t get online much to talk about how their truck got them to work yet again today, or that their kidneys are still functioning, etc... But my tacoma did get me to work today... with 2 functioning kidneys, thankfully.

 

HAHA my benchmark for computer motherboard reliability is whether or not I have the model number memorized. It's been twenty years and I still remember the model of the 2nd board I ever used, a Gigabyte GA-7DXR because it was so terrible I was constantly searching the internet for solutions to it's many problems.

 

Lol. Phew good work on those functional kidneys.

 

Toyota quality is high, and the competition has forced other manufacturers to come 'up' to the quality - that's a good thing.
But they aren't there yet.

 

I'll agree on the Toyota quality. 3 years and not a single hiccup so far is outstanding. Idk, could be too high expectations from some when they buy these trucks.

 

My new 21 Off Road gear hunted like mad. It was a miserable truck to drive and without a tune I would have sold it.

 

Tacomas are notorious for hunting gears. As mentioned, Toyota designed, built and tuned the truck to get the best EPA rating they can...that is the name of the game in the industry I think. After a bit of research online, it seems that one of the best options to solve the 'hunting' issue is to re-gear. There is a thread here on TW from a few years ago that is helpful: https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/at-what-point-re-gear.465517/

 

Just keep reading TW and your rig will have other problems as well. I live and drive in the mountains and go back to the flat midwest often. My tranny does what it supposed to - glad i got lucky like you did..

 

A new truck needing a tune just tells me your truck didn't perform like some others that were bone stock. I'm telling you, for some reason Toyota hasn't got every tacoma truck to run the same. I wouldn't even think of doing any sort of tune on my 2020, it runs better than my tundra, and that had a v8.

 

You need to count all factors. The region, terrain, traffic situation, driving style etc.
I'm quite positive I can make your good running truck doing some stuff over here that you never encountered over there.

 

I agree, for whatever reason some new trucks seem to drive better than others. Nobody would have driven my truck without noticing how bad it was.

I will say, if your truck was tuned to the most recent kdmax tune, you would not go back to the factory tune… and I have no affiliation to this tuning group.

 

Some Prerunner 4×2 has 3.58
https://allusedparts.com/toyota/tac...66jxH32g_MmlZj5vTD7Vl9ITqPdHOllhoCl70QAvD_BwE

Trd -3.73

https://www.ebay.com/itm/3142521262...624&ssuid=&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY
Here is my vin sticker.

 

Idk, its still just a truck. It doesn't know any tricks.

 

I wish my '23 TRDORSB auto would "hunt" From idle is seems to be on a mission to get into 6th gear, then it's... more throttle... 6th gear... more throttle... 6th gear.... more throttle.... 6th gear...

 

I think that's what they mean by hunting. The transmission tries to upshift too early, so it loses torque and then downshifts lower than needed. Basically, unless you just slam the gas, it has no idea how to change gears. It's like letting a schizophrenic on bath salts row the gears.

I regeared, which helps a lot, and then I just learned where and when it needs more skinny pedal to keep from erratic shifting. It needs to be coddled. I don't think people who don't know how to drive a MT will notice. My wife doesn't notice the shifting issue.