What would you change for 2017

I was reading a very interesting article on this, actually- stupid me forgot to save it but the TL;DR summary is that you can thank our benevolent overlords in the US gov't (namely the EPA) for killing small pickups via CAFE.

Toyota knows there is a market for it. So does Ford, so does everyone. Everyone knows that small pickups would still sell strong in America.

CAFE regulations say no. Small pickups basically need to get almost car-like mileage if they want to pass CAFE. It's size-rated. Bigger pickup = looser regulations. Smaller pickup = stricter regs.

So when the government essentially corners a car company and makes their 2 choices as follows: dump millions (possibly billions) into new drivetrain and motor research to pass CAFE, or make their existing pickups bigger to push them into a size class with fewer restrictions, guess which one they pick?

I don't blame them, either. They know what the market wants, they just can't give it to us without losing their shirts.

 

Get off my lawn!

 

I don't care for the seats in the truck. They are not terrible but slightly on the narrow side. Seats in a Tundra, Titan or Ram are much more comfortable. On other midsize trucks I also have issues with the seats.

 

Add a small V8 or more powerful 6 Cylinder, or at minimum offer Turbo/SuperCharger on the 3.5L and better rear leaf springs. Consider offering a different transmission, or at very minimum must upgrade/improve the shifting points for the current transmission. Better seat adjustment options, the seats are hard and not that comfortable.

 

Wow. If they offered that here in the USA, I'd be at the dealership right now bargaining for a trade in.

 

They could program the current engine/tranny to not constantly bog I guess. So that you are always at a slightly higher RPM for cruising etc. I don't think it would be bad for the engine or anything since that is how manual drivers drive their Tacomas. MPG might take a slight hit but I'd much rather have a more low-end torque than the EPA 23 MPG. I'd be fine with the old 21 MPG the gen 2 got.

 

Yeah and most people aren't getting anywhere near 23MPG anyhow, as Fuelly shows the MPGs on this truck are really about what the 2nd gens were getting ~18 to 19mpg avg. The drivability just suffers because it's a smaller motor with less torque and a shift-crazy transmission. It's a smoke and mirrors thing to try and win some type of consumer and EPA favor when realistically the truck isn't performing any better across the board.

 

The crappy part is that Toyota could have easily gotten those EPA #'s by adopting cylinder deactivation, aluminum body panels etc. I realize Toyota is too conservative to jump on new-tech bandwagon but so far I have not see Atkinson cycle do anything useful. Just makes it slower and MPG gains not significant to a truck like the Colorado that is always in Otto cycle.