Just a little rant

I have my Tacoma and I drive a Prius as my daily driver. 80-90 miles roundtrip to work and back got me through that whole man card thing rather quickly. 50mpg>>>>16-18mpg. Not to mention after two years of doing it in my truck I had put 55,000 miles on it...

 

Listen, I don't make the rules ... sorry.

 

why would they do that to any old car? Dam thats just a shame, we all know they were not as safe.

 

Let's be honest here, the Tacoma is a niche vehicle in a 3 truck segment. Toyota knows damn well taco owners are willing to pay a premium for minimal tech (for now). Where as the sub $25k car market is flooded with too much competition, so automakers have to "one up" each other on standard features or else they will be left behind. I have a feeling once Nissan updates the Frontier and ford returns with the ranger standard features across the board as there with be more competition in the segment.

 

Your Tacoma price is premium compared to the Prius C because your Tacoma your Tacoma has lots of stuff that the Prius does not. Plus it can do way more than the Prius. It's more capable in just about every way.

People don't buy pickup trucks for their convenience or luxury. At least they didn't used to... seems that is changing with all the Eddie Bauer and deluxe blingy trims you can get with pickups nowadays.

You will pay even more for a reliable and efficient utility vehicle that also has all manner of luxury and convenience... the price of the Lexus LX full size SUV is outrageous.

 

I appreciate your credentials but those examples don't sell me on it. The sizes were pretty comparable. Belair 3800lbs and Malibu 3400lbs. My example of a Crown Vic was probably bad - I am talking about bigger vehicles like full size trucks or my 5070 lb Sequoia. Even though it's 13 yrs old, I feel safer in that than I would in a little Golf, Civic, Corolla, Impreza etc. All the safety features in the world don't keep the bumper from a jacked up full size truck coming through the side window of a small car in a broadside collision. (And there are lots of bro trucks on the road around here - probably there too.)

I'd be interested in seeing full size (4500 lbs+) vs the smaller 5 star safety vehicles. I may be totally wrong but in my experience (13 yrs LEO) a significantly bigger vehicle almost always wins.

 

Go to any full size truck dealership and count how many top trim levels are on the lot. I'm willing to bet its over 70% of trucks on the lot. Trucks are a luxury item for the majority of buyers.

 

Fyi OP is a female....

 

Going back to fullsize myself after this Tacoma, and I'm not even considering a full size without leather and wood interior details.

Trucks used to be for work, now they're for daily driving and light weekend work. Refinement and features reflect that change. Even the heavy work trucks are available in top trim levels.

My last work truck was an F550 Supercrew Lariat, with chrome, nice wood and leather. Nobody is DDing an F550, still available with luxury-esque amenities.

 

My next truck (if I ever part with the Taco *sniff*) will probably be a full size also, assuming it will fit in the garage. May have to move some stuff around...

A guy in my building daily drives his Excursion to the office every day. It's not an F550 but it's still quite a beast. I am not aware of his whole situation, but I'm still amazed that he commutes to work in something like that.

 

I don't think 35k is a premium price, not saying it's not a lot of money but when full size trucks are 45k thru 58k, 35k for what we get is not so bad. I do agree the car manufactures should let the buyer have more pick and choose options but that is a thing in the past.

 

Those are big SUVs, but much smaller than an F550 Crew with a 12' utility bed.

Friend of ours DD'd an Excursion, 8 MPG.

 

I know I'm such a cislord white male that needs to check my privilege! how dare I assume gender of someone on the internet!

 

There is actually a lot of validity to that, the large vehicle has more momentum, and in general crash test results are only an indication of how the vehicle will perform against a similar sized vehicle. I won't dispute any of that. However, my point, which I could have been more clear on, is that a modern day vehicle, be it a truck, mid-sized sedan, or compact, will always be better than any vehicle from the past. When I say, "from the past," I also mean vehicles from the 90's and early 00's. Meaning, if I was to get hit by an F250 I would much rather be in a modern small vehicle, say a civic, than one from 20 years ago. Your survivability would be increased by also being in a modern F250 instead, but if I had to pick between something from pre 2000 and anything modern I would typically pick the something modern. We do tests matching up large trucks to small cars, so these situations are considered in safety design.

However, we could probably talk about this all day, but I'd rather do that at the bar over a few beers ... I was just trying to share some videos that I thought were interesting and help illustrate how well modern vehicles perform in crashes

PS as LEO you've seen a lot of crashes I'm sure, probably some involving LE vehicles. We receive a lot of "thank you's" from LEO showing the vehicles they walk away from, and it's usually something along the lines of, "I know if I was in an older police cruiser I would have died." I'm just saying, that as LE you probably have some appreciation of having vehicles to keep you safe in accidents

 

Well if you feel safer..



It MUST be safer...

 

Lol wood trim

 

The finest plastic based woods and fine Corinthian leather.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3p9g3JCZv1E

 

Haha reminds me of my last girlfriend (certifiably insane) who got super offended when I said that my 2006 Tacoma is safer than her 1997 Geo Prizm (Toyota Corolla). She yelled "my car had a 5-star crash safety rating when it was made!" That may be true, but I am pretty sure that she doesn't understand physics and momentum. I was just thinking that my truck is taller and heavier, and in a crash I would much rather be in it than in her low-slung economy sedan.

 

You sound more like a Ridgeline guy.