Toyota's design Chief for the Tacoma lets you design the next Tacoma, what changes would you make?

Toyota's design Chief needs fresh ideas, so he turns to the people who know the Tacoma the best. You are given full control to design the "ultimate" Tacoma, which will be made up of the owners, by the owners, for the owners.

Nothing is off limits, because this will be the "ultimate" Tacoma, so lets begin............

 

I sometimes carry heavy loads, so beefed up leaf springs will be a must for me.

 

If a chef designed the Tacoma that would explain some of the problems.

 

Install seats that are more comfortable for long drives. The seats don't need to be "fancy". Just more comfortable.

 

Yeah, the chief was the manager of the design team, so in desperation he turns to the owners for fresh ideas. Maybe design team would be better than chief.

 

That was going to be my next suggestion, because these truck are very reliable, so comfortable long lasting seats will enhance the driving experience. They also need to handle lots of mud and water when 4x4 too.

 

Have the top of the doors close under the roof instead of in line with the roof so water and snow don't fall onto the seats when you open the doors

 

I'll be the unpopular opinion.

• Flat bed, sort of like the Ridgeline. Maybe have access from the rear instead of the top, like the Ridgeline. Removing the wheel humps from the bed floor will allow for 50" between the bed sides easily. Useful for hauling drywall, plywood, siding, insulation, etc. Make like 10 sturdy tire downs stock though.
  
• Smaller overall. Make the whole truck narrower, shorter vertically (tiny bit) and cut a little from the nose too. Lots of dead space up in the nose.
  
• Get rid of the double cab and bring back the regular cab, but make the extended cab and regular cab slightly longer. Like 2" longer for the extended cab and 4" for the regular cab. The actual cab, not the whole truck. SUVs exist so you can drive your family of 4 around. So do sedans and station wagons and hatch backs.
  
• Clean up the funky angular lines that started with the 2013. Smoother is better. Easy to wash. Functional. Aerodynamic.
  
• Get rid of all of the fender flares and just make the fenders fatter or don't. That screams Pontiac Grand Am to me.
  
• No chrome. None. Not lug nuts, not Toyota logos. Nothing.
  
• No unpainted plastic/rubber exposed to the sun. Paint it black or color matched or whatever. The bed would probably be an exception. The plastic bed is OK as it is, I guess.
• The 2WD version doesn't need to be lifted with monster tires. Most people don't off road EVER. At worst they'll go into the grass to park under a tree or take a dirt road. Cars can do those things with ease. 5-6" of ground clearance is plenty.
  
• Larger wheels tend to look better than smaller wheels, but there's a functional limit too. I think it's somewhere around 18" for something that doesn't require a CDL.
  
• Smoother transitions between the glass and body would be nice.
  
• Tighter gaps between body sections, maybe?
• Since the brakes show through the gaps in the wheels, put 4 wheel disk brakes on it. It looks better. You can say drum brakes work better all you want, but Wilwood, Brembo, StopTech and Baer don't make drum brakes. So, I more inclined to want disk brakes.

That's all of the design stuff. I have plenty more suggestions from an engineering side that they can ignore.

 

It would be great if Toyota fixed the frame rust problem. We'll see. Not something I have to concern myself with due to no snow/salt in South Georgia.

 

I agree, especially living in the Northeast, the frames must be redesigned with salt in mind and not everyone lives in the ideal conditions, like the Southwest part of America.

My redesign of the frame would use the process of Hot-dip galvanization.

 

D-4S technology on the 4.0 instead of 3.5 V6. The new 3.5 got good pep on the hwy but from a dead stop, its not that impressive. And a available supercharger upgrade.

A 5 1/2 foot bed because most can't decide on short or long bed.

A/C vents in the rear for your passenger in the backseat.

The bed lights are awesome and it be nice to add LED lights under the side mirrors to light up the side of the truck.

Put the oh shit handle back on the 3rd gen, wtf? I use that a lot to exit the truck

The bed rail for the sliding tie down clamp thing, put it back on the back of the cab for those who don't have factory tonneau cover. Toyota is a D-bag for making us bolt on 2nd gen bed rails in our 3rd gen.

We pay 30 plus thousand $$$ for this truck and we get 1 key doorlock? What if I want to use the key to open the passenger side? My tailgate has a factory key lock but not my passenger door?

Just a dumb idea but you know how cars has a key fob to open the trunk? It would be cool to press a button on the key fob to drop the tailgate.

I like the look of the 3rd gen, granted you have to let it grow on you. The body lines on the side of the 4 door cab flows into the long bed , but not the short bed.

I like the 3rd gen front end but...honestly kinda makes me think SUV looking front end, like that's how the newer Toyota Sequoia would look like. A lot of newer trucks have SUV looking front ends and not truck like. Why is that?

 

Lol

 

Disk breaks on all wheels
Oil filter on top of engine (like 2nd gen)

 

The 3rd gens don't have the oil filter on the top?

 

No, it's on the bottom and it's a oil cartridge, not the normal canister like 2nd gen. Also you change oil every 10k miles so not a big deal.

 

take off that retarded giant grill