Good Summary of How the 1st Gen Market Got to Where It Is

I was picky and only wanted certain years, features, and colors......so I shopped for eight months before buying my 1999 Tacoma. Here is a short article on the factors that created the current market:

https://www.hagerty.com/media/opinion/how-regulations-made-the-small-pickup-segment-a-dinosaur-park/

I still tell everyone that all Teslas are assembled at the "original Tacoma Factory" and that my truck runs on "recycled dinosaurs". I've only had it for two months. Get nice comments from strangers at least once a week.

 

Pretty good and short read. Thanks for posting!

 

Good read!

 

Interesting, thanks for sharing the link

 

Toyota could make a Corolla based one if they wanted to corner a small segment of a market.

 

Or a Sienna

But, I just don’t know if it would sell good enough.
It cost millions to design anything new, even if it’s not new.

I think Toyota will primarily focus on Hybrid and EV for their future vehicles.

 

Sienna's too big. It wouldn't be any smaller than a Taco.
My Odyssey gets shit mileage.

 

I haven’t seen a Toyota that gets “good” mileage, other than the Corolla and the Camry.
Toyota makes great vehicles, and they usually stick with what works.
The problem is, what works for them, doesn’t with the government regulations these days.

I mean, the 2.4, 2.7, 3.4, and 4.0 are great engines.
But they sure don’t rank high in the MPG rating.

 

as a fellow '99 owner and less than 2 months of owning...

 

That's a good article, @2SeaterTaco.

In addtion to my 2003 TRD OR DC (which I'll keep forever), I have dibs on friends' 1998 TRD OR AC (MT) that lives at their cabin in the Sierras, if they ever decide to part with it. I wouldn't mind having a "spare" Gen 1!

 

I picked up a 1996 on a whim a few weeks ago as a project and to have something for hauling what wont fit in my Tesla Model 3. When I was looking up the VIN details, it blew me away that this truck and my Tesla were built in the same factory. Pretty neat.

 

That factory was NUMMI, a GM plant that was shared with Toyota. Corolla, Tacoma, and Matrix were made there along with Chevy Nova, Pontiac Vibe...

NUMMI closed about 12 yrs ago, then Tesla occupied it. NUMMI - Wikipedia

 

In short- restrictive regulations mean that we'll never have common sense sized Tacoma's again.

 

I was born and raised in Fremont and even worked at Tesla. I still remember when it used to be NUMMI. Our Tacoma and Model 3 were also made here and it's pretty cool that everything ties in together. A bit of a hometown pride!

 

You might enjoy these videos, the last car and truck built at NUMMI: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJ1KTeMDR-A

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vcRkDvHKdOo

 

Damn thanks for those. Very bitter sweet. I feel for all of those workers. You might be surprised to find that some of what is in this video still looks the same right now especially the conveyor that the vehicle goes down on.