New DCSB TRD OR 4x4

99superduty · Sep 21, 2015

Posted a pic of the DRL's

Sam B · Sep 21, 2015

Congrats on the new truck. Good lookin rig. On a side not I had mine on the highway Saturday and did not have that issue. Cruise control locked at 75 and it was fine until you hit a fair hill and it started losing speed. Mine is TRD Sport 4x2. Maybe its due to everything is new and tight with the OR

99superduty · Sep 21, 2015

Thanks Sam....Did you have yours in ECT power or not? I still haven't hit the magic button yet, I want to see what I can get out of the tank first.

tpak · Sep 21, 2015

Hey, congrats on the truck. Read your comments on the OD hunting around with cruise control. I was unaware until the other day of just how this "S" mode transmission works. I still have not taken delivery of mine but found this enlightening and it might help with that hunting. Sounds like the shift into "S" is a bit like the OD lockout on older vehicles. I love my CC ... maybe give this a try and report back. I k now my Silverado occasionally hunted around on seemingly flat roads - I think the elevation here in CO can throw transmissions for a loop sometimes.

Commnets on the auto trans 'manual mode' - C&P from this thread: https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/commnets-on-the-auto-trans-manual-mode.391325/
My wife's Venza has it. The good thing about it is, you don't have to travel through a lot of indents in the old taco gate shifter to go from Reverse to first . You can shift vertically to D from park, which automatically uses all six gears. Once in D you have the option to shift a notch to the left into S ( the sport mode) when you do go to S, the trans automatically shifts into 4 th gear, eliminating the two OD gears. When in S, the lever us spring loaded and you can flick it up and down, going up to use 5 and 6 and down to go to 3,2 and 1 . When the trans is in any if these numbers, it becomes the upper limit of the auto which will still down shift as need. For general driving, we just shift to S mode and leave it for speeds less the 45 mph and put it in D for highway speeds. It's great for down and up shifting for engine braking. Once I got used to it, I hated my 5 speed Taco shifter and I will never go back to a manual if I had a vehicle with it...,works great, very quick and responsive. They have had it since 2009 in the Venza and I think Highlander so it is nothing new.

tpak · Sep 21, 2015

Oh and FWIW I read the manual and it seems to substantiate that post and others in the thread do as well. So, we'll see

swimmer · Sep 21, 2015

tpak said: ↑

Hey, congrats on the truck. Read your comments on the OD hunting around with cruise control. I was unaware until the other day of just how this "S" mode transmission works. I still have not taken delivery of mine but found this enlightening and it might help with that hunting. Sounds like the shift into "S" is a bit like the OD lockout on older vehicles. I love my CC ... maybe give this a try and report back. I k now my Silverado occasionally hunted around on seemingly flat roads - I think the elevation here in CO can throw transmissions for a loop sometimes.

Commnets on the auto trans 'manual mode' - C&P from this thread: https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/commnets-on-the-auto-trans-manual-mode.391325/
My wife's Venza has it. The good thing about it is, you don't have to travel through a lot of indents in the old taco gate shifter to go from Reverse to first . You can shift vertically to D from park, which automatically uses all six gears. Once in D you have the option to shift a notch to the left into S ( the sport mode) when you do go to S, the trans automatically shifts into 4 th gear, eliminating the two OD gears. When in S, the lever us spring loaded and you can flick it up and down, going up to use 5 and 6 and down to go to 3,2 and 1 . When the trans is in any if these numbers, it becomes the upper limit of the auto which will still down shift as need. For general driving, we just shift to S mode and leave it for speeds less the 45 mph and put it in D for highway speeds. It's great for down and up shifting for engine braking. Once I got used to it, I hated my 5 speed Taco shifter and I will never go back to a manual if I had a vehicle with it...,works great, very quick and responsive. They have had it since 2009 in the Venza and I think Highlander so it is nothing new.
Click to expand...

Very helpful post. Still working my way through the manual. Thanks

Hardscrabble · Sep 21, 2015

Great looking truck! Nice report. Enjoy.

Sam B · Sep 21, 2015

99superduty[OP] said: ↑

Thanks Sam....Did you have yours in ECT power or not? I still haven't hit the magic button yet, I want to see what I can get out of the tank first.
Click to expand...

I engaged ECT for about 2 blocks in town. Big difference off the line. I did not use in on the highway when cruise control was on..

mike2810 · Sep 21, 2015

Nice truck, Congrats.

Keep us posted on your likes and dislikes.

Soundwave · Sep 21, 2015

thanks for the drive review! your honest criticism is refreshing compared to all the other new 3rd gen owners who just say everything is awesome and new

taco_mike · Sep 22, 2015

Sweet looking to pick one of these up in a few months with aa manual transmission. Especially after saying it hunts so much.

TopherWV · Sep 22, 2015

Congrats OP... She's a Beaute!

Levo · Sep 22, 2015

99superduty[OP] initial post: ↑

Picked up the truck yesterday (9/18) in Denver and trailered it back to my side of the mountains since my trade in was done locally. Bought from Groove for invoice plus their $499 doc fee (TTL was extra of course). Only options were the tow package and all weather mats. I didn't really want anything else in the way of options any way.

I used to have the same truck in a 2011 access cab that I only kept for about a year or so. I liked the truck but should have gotten the double at the time. This purchase was an attempt to correct that mistake.

First impressions is that it is a much nicer truck than my 2011. The interior look and feel is way better, definitely more quiet. Ride seems a bit softer but honestly its a truck so I'm not too particular about it. Haven't had it off the pavement yet but hopefully tomorrow I'll head down to Ouray and run a trail.

Cons that I've noticed so far.

-the tailgate has a separate key to lock/unlock. Its not controlled by the smart key and the key in the smart key only works on the doors, not the tailgate. WTF toyota?

-tow package doesn't come with the ball and mount. My 2011 did and I'm glad I kept it.

-ECT power. I was pretty underwhelmed with the trucks performance until I turned this on. On the interstate, it struggles to stay in 6th gear at 75mph on cruise. I haven't been back on the interstate since I hit the ECT button but around town it makes a noticeable difference in shifts and power.

-hood and driving position. This thing has a long nose and the seating position puts me down low. Not to big a deal around town but I can tell on trails its going to take some getting used to. Why doesn't toyota put a height adjustable seat in this thing? Seriously....

Pros so far.

-At about 50 mph the mileage indicator is maxed out (30mpg or better) and thats my normal daily drive around here as long as the cotton heads don't slow me down.

-This truck looks bad assed in MGM.

Its certainly an upgrade over my 2011 but i wouldn't call this a "3rd gen", more like 2.7ish.

UPDATE 9/20

OK, took the truck out today. Was going to go to Ouray but I needed to check out some camp sites in a different spot. Some mild trails, no rock climbing or anything and it did fine. The ride off road is about what my 2011 was, maybe a little bit less rough and soaked up the bumps a bit better.

Fanboys, look away because I am going to bash the truck a bit here.

I did not push the ECT power button all day because I wanted to see what it would do as far as mileage was concerned (more on that in a sec). Between 60 and 75 mph this thing has a hard time staying in overdrive on cruise control on relatively flat roads. At the slightest incline it drops a gear and sometimes 2 and is constantly hunting for a gear. Even when it flattens back out it would sometimes stay in 5th on CC until I would tap the brakes and then it would shift. Kind of aggravating ...... I'll push the magic button next time out and compare the performance but as is, a little disappointing.

Bash over....Tacoma praise coming.

On the good side, the MPG is pretty good so far. You can see my tank average below and thats with a lot of up and down hill and some trails. I'm pretty happy with that...

So at the end of the trip, I have 300 miles on the ODO and it says 129 to empty.

A few pics in the wild:

DRL's in bright daylight

Click to expand...

Need some mud guards your rocker panels are going to look like crap with all the chips in the paint.

VinTaco · Sep 23, 2015

Awesome looking truck, I like the color, my 2011 was the same. I wonder if I made a mistake ordering black instead of MGM.. Congrats

jerseymike · Sep 23, 2015

can you post a few more pics, I just ordered a TRD OR DCSB MT and I was between black and MGM.....I ordered MGM but was really on the fence. I currently have a black wrangler that shows every imperfection so thought that maybe the grey would be better for hiding scratches/etc.

KalihiforniaTaco · Sep 23, 2015

awesome looking truck! congrats!

99superduty · Sep 25, 2015

Updated OP with some MPG info.

khuup · Sep 25, 2015

Nice looking truck!

99superduty · Sep 28, 2015

Updated with Pics and info

mickeybeans · Sep 28, 2015

What is the simple seat-mod fix you did to raise 1.5"?

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