Having second thoughts.

I use consumer reports as a reference for a lot of my purchases and consider them to be a very credible magazine/website but their report was a little confusing. I think you'll see the Tacoma back on top of their ratings within a couple of years when a larger cross section of owners feel compelled to report on their experiences. They hated my 91 Mustang 5.0 too, but that thing ran like a champ for me!

 

Wait for 2018

 

Love my truck, and have no regrets. Most modern automatics hunt for gears and shift up too soon, which is one reason I stuck with a manual transmission. Mine's also not in this recall, probably b/c the Off Road model has a different rear diff.

Who knows what the future holds. Right now, I'm happy with it.

 

Yes if you can stand to drive a Manual Trans, definitely recommend going this route. Really wished they made the SR5 in Man Trans

 

x2 on the manual transmission. I have no dog in this fight, but I'd be all over a third gen with a manual.

 

Wish they made a manual v6 sr

 

Would consider going MT, but I hate to give up the goodies that come with the AT.

 

Like what specifically? because I'll tell you right now having crawl control for 2 years, totally not worth it (GIMMICK)

 

Unless your getting the manual buy something else.

 

No regrets at all. It's not like you won't have the chance to trade it for a ridgeline if you later decide LOL.

 

Crawl control and push button start. Is there anything else I'd give up?

 

I will say that push button start is extremely handy in general. I have no experience with it on the Tacoma specifically, but on my Subaru it's very nice.

 

I have JBL and actually like that. If I was forced to buy a new Tacoma I'd get a manual trans with premium and tech because I do like the JBL audio and heated seats, etc. My sister has a pretty basic SR5 4x4 and that truck is more than adequate but does not have a few of the other bells and whistle that mine came with. However she paid about 4 or 5 grand less than I did and if you threw a rear locker in her truck it would be every bit as capable as my TRD OR. Also most swap out the suspension anyway you you're paying a premium for something you're going to end up getting rid of on the TRD OR suspension....if you plan to keep the truck stock, the TRD OR is hard to beat. The Sport rides like a wooden wagon with those hitachi shocks (again moot if you plan to swap out suspension)

Push button start....really? That big of a deal? MEH....

 

Why would anyone buy a new Ranger? I'd wait at least 2 years after that comes out to even consider one.

 

Push button start is worth it alone!

I love mine. Besides a headline issue and a slightly annoying transmission (which is more annoying due to mods) I don't have any issues with mine.

Either buy one or don't. Waiting for 2018 isn't going to make the truck magically different.

The terrain select thing is kind of handy with the auto. I've only used crawl control once. It was kind of dumb but I could have been using it wrong.

 

Previous Rangers were great trucks! They sell like hotcakes and have a great reputation.

 

i personally don't understand what's the big deal about things like push button start. would you really feel you gave it up... would you think about it twice? i guess some would but i wouldn't.

crawl control... you get everything with the MT's except the low speed cruise control thing. would you use it? actually?

with the MT's you also get 4.3 rear gearing. haven't seen an AT owner rave about their awesome 3.91 gears yet in all the reading i've done.

but rowing your own comes at a cost and not everyone is into it. when i signed up for a Tacoma, i did so based on buying a truck with a MT. no MT, no purchase. so if you're considering an MT simply to avoid the AT and you're not really that into MT's, then i'd consider that awful carefully, especially if this is your DD and you do traffix.

btw my 2017 MT has been perfect, problem-free, and totally awesome. i love it, at 8500mi.

 

Such a love/hate relationship with this truck for me honestly. It hauls all my toys (bikes, boats, camping gear) with ease, does fantastic offroad, and it is the (IMHO) best looking truck out there and turns heads wherever I park it. That's what I love. What I hate are the vibrations that seem to be coming from 3 places - engine vibration felt in the steering wheel, gas pedal, floorboard; wobbly vibe in the front driver's side believed to be diff related (based on what I've learned on here - Toyota still hasn't acknowledged any of this is real....); and rear suspension issues - likely leaf packs / driveline angle out of spec. Also the tranny issues while not as bad as before the latest software update still feels bogged down frequently and shifts erratically. Still haven't gotten confirmation my dealer ever manually checked the tranny fluid either and I refuse to do it on my own given the 9k miles I have on it b/c I need it documented if it was indeed shipped low. Also intermittently I've started to experience some power steering harshness as well that's puzzling me...

I think it has the capability to be an incredible truck - overall decent design, but not enough testing and quality control to catch some of these issues. Some report no issues though - I have friends who have had zero issues like I've mentioned above so part of it may just be luck of the draw and my ignorance in buying a July '16 manufactured '17 which must have been one of the early '17 models off the line. Some days I just get in my truck and try to "pretend" these issues aren't present. I still have faith in Toyota as a company (for the next few thousand miles anyway) to address these issues.... and honestly there isn't another truck I would want to buy b/c I do fundamentally believe that once these issues are resolved it will indeed be the best midsize you can get. So hard for me to necessarily say I regret my decision, moreso I'm very disappointed in Toyota for allowing these to make it out with such widespread and (mostly) easily solvable issues.

 

I would still wait 2 years to work the bugs out of a new model after I've seen what happened with the Tacoma.

 

Yes to pretty much all this.