New to Tacoma world 2019 Pro or OR?

Hi Everyone!

Great forum here and having been a member on various forums I knew I should register here!

SO life changes happen and I have ALWAYS wanted a Tacoma for a long time. I have a pretty modified 93 Jeep YJ that has served me WELL but my family and I have not taken it out at all off roading for over a year. Still drive her for fun but the fact that it takes a bit to pack it for camping/fishing it is a bit painful to get all our gear and two dogs situated. Also she loves the YJ but it isn't really practical for hauling things when we need to.

The reasons are work, health, life changes as mentioned.

The "Evil Twin" .. the YJ ... is awesome and would love to keep it as well but ran out of garage space!

I have TONS of friends with Taco's and they simply LOVE them. On a fly fishing trip to Montana I had the experience of riding in one for countless hours over a week and it just seemed WAY more practical than my YJ which would be uncomfortable at best over many days.

So now that, however sad, I would like to purchase a Tacoma for getting a bit into the back country here in Colorado AND be able to still highway drive it to and from work as well at times.

I am NOT opposed to modifications as I have done TONS on the YJ and am not scared of a challenge!

What I am trying to decide is between the PRO and the OR.

What I don't want to be "pigeon holed" into is going with either and determining if I went the "more costly option" by going with the Pro or the OR. This will NOT be a dedicated off-road/rock crawler my main goals are:

1. Be able to drive it every day.
2. Be able to take it, for now, on fire roads here in Colorado and have it capable to take me back and forth from the trail to home and then drive it each day.
3. Still trying to figure out modifications....not too crazy at first but I want to be able to build off of the base and get things that I need/want in the future without going down a sinking hole..."J.E.E.P....Just Empty Every Pocket"...LOL

Price is really not a concern (well it is) but getting something that is a bit more capable for years (until the need for a modification) is fine for me.

Our use would be as stated but I would like to be able to toss this off to the wife and have her enjoy it. She wont drive the YJ....I don't blame her as it is always doorless and has the swaybars disconnected 90% of the time.

Thanks for being a great resource and perhaps some of you have gone thru this same dilemma?

Please let me know your thoughts???

Thanks again for the incredible forum here!

 

Welcome!

Obviously opinions will vary, but I vote go with the Offroad and mod it to your liking.

 

Hi irayfz6,

Question, why not go with the Pro and mod it? I have read a few threads that this could be an issue but is there a HUGE difference?

 

I agree, to me it seems like you are paying a lot extra for suspension and a bit wider stance which you can add yourself for a lot less and get exactly what you want

 

If you’re going to mod the suspension at all get an off road, no sense in changing one of the things that makes a pro a pro needlessly. My honest opinion is that pros are overrated and overpriced.

 

The pros are nice is you want an entry level rig that can do it all. But if you want to get serious, get the OR and use the savings to add things in yourself. You can get better for moderately the same cost.

 

Welcome

Go with Off Road, It will do everything a Pro can and sill have some bucks for mods.
If you have lots of funding, go with the Pro
if planning to keep it stock.
Both are nice.

 

The modifications would be minimal at first, at least until 2019 Spring/Summer.

I have also been on many trips that our Jeep Clubs have done that are fun but the longer wheel base (for my needs) seems to fit what we would like to do.

I am leaning towards the OR but trying to figure out the "diff" between the OR and the Pro. For those of you that have gone thru the debate, likes/dislikes?

There are a few features that I cannot decipher from the Toyota website....can you get an OR with Blind spot monitoring? Homelink? The techy stuff as my wife really likes those things. I personally could not care less about the cruse control features/blindspot/homelink etc....was not sure If I could get them in the OR? Am I missing something?

I want her to be able to drive it when I am working from home.

 

welcome to TW. it's a great place to learn about your new project.

from what i'm understanding, it sounds like if you decide to mod right away you'll be doing it for real, and maybe a bit of time is a good idea before you go to town on the thing. i have a MT Pro and it was nice out of the box, and i enjoyed it until i began to figure out the things i wanted to do, some bigger some smaller. for me, the nicer trim was worth paying for as i developed the truck. true you can do better, but if you're not counting every dollar then i think you'll get a lot of comfort and capability and a nice look on top, and that buys you time to figure if there are other things or bigger projects you want to consider as you learn about it all.

 

Well stated St. Germain!

With being new to the Tacoma realm that makes a bunch of sense! Good statement on counting every dollar.

The thing that I absolutely am not a current fan on is the Pro hood. Why place a "scoop" on the front if it has no functionality? Not sure why Toyota did this aside from a "differentiation" but if is serves NO purpose then why have it?

The interior and styling is definitely NICE!

Thanks for the candid response!

 

Here is my suggestion (take any of these suggestions for what they are worth, which is NOT MUCH )

For me, I wanted a Pro, but I didn't plan on modifying suspension or going too big on tire size. The Pro was appealing to me because it already has amazing suspension right out of the gate and all I would need to do is swap out the tires... The Pro trim itself is top of the Tacoma line and for me it was worth the extra $ (many pro Haters on here will argue that till they are red in the face, but it comes down to what do YOU want to spend YOUR money on?)

If I planned on swapping out the suspension, I would more than likely go with an OR or maybe even a sport (depending on which you like the looks of.) the OR comes with a factory locker, the sport does not, but you can add an ARB air locker if you really need one.

The fact of the matter is there is NO right answer here. the only right answer is what do YOU want to do? Some can buy a pro and leave it stock and be fine, some can buy a SR leave it stock and be fine... Others buy a pro and pull everything out of it and drop in a $5000 new suspension setup... So really the question is 100% Subjective.

I have seen a SR5 that was fully built out and in the end cost as much as a PRO but was built the way the guy wanted instead of the way TRD designed. but in the end it was still just and SR5 and carried the SR5 resale value. The Pro beat it out there hands down.

 

Very well said!

 

SCJeffro.....very well stated!

It simply seems like there are MANY options just like in the Jeep world!

My wife is a huge fan of the leather interior and everything is "Tech-wise" seems to be great out of the box.

But back to my original point....if a year or (6 months) down the road is there a HUGE issue modifying the Pro vs the OR?

We most likely won't need to do anything for a while but is there any "downfalls" to going with the Pro vs the OR? Specifically, are there things that you simply cannot go back or forth on between the Pro and the OR?

I hope that makes sense???? If not please ask!

 

Nope, anything you want to do to an OR can be done to a Pro as well. You will get flack if you buy a pro and change out the suspension (because it is the biggest ticket item that makes a Pro a Pro...)

 

Nice! Thanks again! Now it is time to do some "heads down stuff".....I just spoke with my wife in her infinite wisdom "cry once and buy once" but will see how long that lasts!

Just good to know that in the original post I placed up "I wont be pigeon holing my self" by getting a Pro vs the OR.

 

are you planning on a AT truck or are you considering going for the MT?

 

Go off-road and mod. You’ll still have some money left over from modding then what you would have if you got the pro. The only thing about the pro is exclusive color and hood Scoop with crawl control

 

and different headlights, tail lights, skid plate, interior (different leather than OR leather), exhaust and a few other little things.

 

Same headlights just black housing see BLHM, OR has skid plate it just doesn’t say TRD on the front(like you need more things that say TRD on them)

 

While I am only experienced in MT vehicles for "off road or crawling" this has to be something my wife can take out and just simply drive. As I will ALSO be driving this day to day, it is WAY easier for her to drive in an AT.

This cannot, or will be not our, ONLY vehicle so while she can totally handle a MT it would be way easier for her (and to be honest ME) an AT transmission.

I appreciate the MT aspects of an Off road vehicle but this has to kind of "bridge the gap" from AT to MT.

When I drive my YJ I utilize the hand throttle I fabricated. AWESOME for very tricky situations but for us now the AT seems like the way to go. Not sure how the OR and PRO "crawl" works as of yet.