Who actually likes their 3rd gen?

Love mine 3rd gen!

 

I’m sure we’d find something to bitch about

 

Yeah, probably true.

 

The driveshaft is the wrong color.

 

lol - you do what you want, but that's a terrible reason to make that decision. The Tacoma (in its current iteration) is the most reliable midsize truck on the market. It's also number 1 in holding its resale value. The amount of skewed and/or incomplete data you're using to come to some conclusion that the Tacoma isn't reliable is just vastly and insanely an absolutely incorrect way to come to any type of a conclusion on reliability. Period.

If that were true, people wouldn't keep them "forever." As for smiles per gallon, this is probably the best vehicle I've owned (I've been in the truck segment, the luxury segment, and even down the Jeep road in the past as well).

 

+1

Internet forums tend to be skewed to the negative side of things.

Like anything else, you're more likely to hear people complain than you are to hear that they are either satisfied or extremely happy.

 

Woah...some of the glitches from tunes are just from previous forums i have seen here on tw because i have thought about tunes before. Im just worried more about my automatic transmission than the engine but to each their own. just pointing out some 3rd gen toyota tacoma flaws because this is the flaw section of the tw forum not to pick a side on what to tell people what to do but how my 3rd gen is.

 

I have to admit, I’m a new member and have gotten quite addicted to TW….lol

Just purchased a new SR,DCSB, 4WD last month. I chose the SR because it had everything I wanted and didn’t have what I would replace during the build process anyways.

Bottom line- I love my truck. The Tacoma is BY FAR the best midsize truck available and it has been now for almost 30 years. Other manufacturers have been trying to compete with the Tacoma since introduced, even having to stop production for several years to completely revamp.

The Tacoma is a truck. It drives like a truck and feels like a truck. I’m afraid we are heading down a path where midsize trucks stop being trucks. Just like the Silverado, 1998 was the last year of a true 1/2 ton truck (which I still have…lol).

For the money, you can’t beat a Tacoma and it’s a wise investment. Just remember what it is and what it is intended for and you will not be disappointed.

Realistically evaluate if you need a full-size truck. If you have doubts, buy full size.

If you need a luxury truck to sit your precious ass in and feel better about yourself, they will gladly take your 85K+ down the street.

 

Can you provide any links for warranty denials due to a tune?

 

Just wanted to jump in here as my 2017 Off Road is now just shy of 90k miles. It replaced a 2012 Sport that was totaled when I was t-boned. And that replaced a 2005 XRunner that I should never have gotten rid of. :') My 3rd gen has been great! I took delivery in December 2016. Nobody in the midwest had an access cab off road with the tech package. I had my suburban Chicagoland dealer ship one in from California. So she's loaded up, painted bumpers, heated seats and mirrors and all that.

The accident happened right in the middle of me moving to Indiana and remodeling the house I was moving from. Right from the get go it did a ton of towing and hauling all my junk and cars. I've picked up and towed home many cars/bikes/snowmobiles from the surrounding states. About 15k miles ago I had to replace the rear shocks that were already sacked out. I went with 5100's. My springs are inverse in the rear and I intend to throw on some Dakar's this spring. The fronts are also pretty shot at this point. The roads in rural Indiana haven't been kind. I'll do 5100's up front too. I had to replace the factory battery at about the same time. I threw in an Optima redtop. About 5k miles ago I replaced the rotors and pads with OEM up front. The rears looked just fine.

The deer out here are suicidal and I've taken out three. First time was real bad, and the only time that caused significant damage. Back in like early 2020 I was on I65 headed south at like 2am. A whole bunch tried to run across the highway. The semi a few cars ahead of me on the right hit a bunch of them and I hit/ran over whatever he kicked into the left lane. That was pretty intense. No one was hurt, but several other cars got involved in that mess. I needed a new front bumper, fog lights, grille, hood, and passenger fender. The day I picked the truck back up from the body shop, a car in front of me drifted onto the shoulder and ran over some sort of piece of bar stock and sent it whizzing at my face. Luckily it smacked the windshield sideways and didn't come through Final Destination style. I drove it back to the shop and they had Safelite replace the windshield for me.

That's been my biggest gripe so far. That whole thing was a debacle. I have AmFam and they would NOT cooperate or cover it even with dash cam footage. It was half the cost, somehow? to just pay Safelite. They did a shit job to be honest. Some of the trim inside is scuffed up probably because they didn't remove it when they ran the cable to cut the glass out. The top of the glass is wavy like the glue wasn't evenly laid when they set the glass. It doesn't leak or howl, but man did that bug me. They wouldn't make it right, so I've just dealt with it. It's my daily after all.

Besides the body/glass work, I've done everything myself. I do oil changes every 5k with OEM filters. My power steering pump seems to be seeping a little. You can see that it's darker and likes to collect dirt. I don't know if I'm going tackle that one. I quickly looked last month when I changed the oil and it looks like a real pain in the ass. I might wait until it hit's 100k to do that, the rear springs, and front shocks. At that time, it'll be due for another drive line fluid service. Oh and I did plugs at 75k.

Overall, it's been great to me. I'm a maintenance guy at the ol 9 to 5. I use it every day hauling my tools and parts. On the weekends it hauls my toys.

As it sits, the only mods it has right now: TRD skid plate, TRD beadlocks with 285/75-16's KO2s (they've been on there since the day it came home), a TRD drop in filter, and a Pro grille. Only the front tires rub only at full lock and only when you're on uneven terrain, and even then only the inside tire just kisses the front inner fender. Never once been an issue or concern. And the only other things were LED bulbs in everything. Really made an improvement for driving back country roads at night. DiodeDynamics if you're curious. HOWEVER, after having their headlight bulbs since basically new, one finally went last fall. I picked up a new set and one was DOA. They were cool about it, and sent me another set no problem. BUT lol, those replacement ones had the harness connector backwards from the first set. So it seems quality control has slipped a little. Oh and I also have an Extang soft tonneau cover. Forget which, but it's their like flush fitting roll up one. I had the same on my other two trucks and really liked them.

To do's: rear springs, front shocks, eventually a power steering pump.

Things that irk me: Ehhh nothing crazy like some guys complain about. I wasn't too crazy on the new 2GR and 6 speed auto coming from a 1GR and the 5 speed auto. Plenty of power for whatever I'm doing, but the constant shifting bothered me at first. It stopped being a bother after a few months of owning it. I hate that it struggles to get near 20mpgs no matter how I drive it. I realize the slightly oversized tires don't help, but I feel like that number should be better coming from a super high tech direct injected 6. I consider that number to be combined as I take what I'd call city roads to get in and out of town and the town I work in, and then hit highway speeds on the two lane country roads in between. The XRunner I had got mid 20's WITH the TRD supercharger, but that's with a manual so apples to oranges.

You know what's NEVER bothered me? The fact that it still has drum brakes in the rear. Every damn social media post I see that vaguely even references a Tacoma has some mouth breathers in the comments going dOeS iT hAvE dIsK bRaKeS iN tHe ReAr YeT????? Like that's the deciding factor reason they haven't bought one yet. I've never ever had to touch the drums on the three Tacomas I've had now. The 2012 had like 120k on it, they were fine. It got used just as much as my 3rd gen does. I can't even begin to say how many standing burnouts my XRunner did, or how many 120mph or more to 0mph stops it did. That truck did it all. Drag, autoX, drift events. After all that, 100k miles and 6 years of driving it like a rental, and those rears still had more than half the material on the shoes.

SO there ya have it. I lurk in here a lot to see what's up from time to time. I rarely post. Like I said, it's just a daily driver for me. My enthusiast vehicles are where my heart lies lol. I'd rather talk about them or bikes, or vintage sleds.

 

Very nice and accurate summation of what ownership is / should be / should be expected to be by [insert high percentage close to 100 here] of the people who purchase.

 

I have been driving Toyota trucks for over 30 years. Every one of them a manual transmission. In fact, at one point all three of my cars for manual transmissions.
Now I no longer have any manual transmission vehicles. Since December 28, 2019 when I traded in my 2002 off-road and got my current Sport and sold my Corvette. I have no more manual transmission vehicles.

The only time I ever think about a manual transmission is when I am NOT driving.

 

I love my 3rd Gen Tacoma now that I installed a 2.5" Ironman 4X4 Pro lift, Alpha Rex LED headlights, Gear change to 4:56, Method wheels, and Mickey Thompson Baja AT tires, and finally the Smart Cap Evo canopy. Oh, and the OV tune. Next will be the front and rear bumpers and a nice winch.

 

bought my 23 taco simply because of manual trans. besides the aftermarket support being much greater the nissan frontier is a better all around truck. that being said yes i like it.

 

I really like my Tacoma especially because I got it in the color quicksand that I wanted. I think it’s one of the best looking and performing midsize trucks.

 

Pros outweigh the cons for me.
My main gripe is the gas mileage.

If there was a 6’ bed 4x4 EV or hybrid in 2017 that was a similar price point and reliability level when I bought mine I would have considered that. Buuuuuut.. That’s still not a thing, and my truck is paid off now.
Plan on keeping it til it dies!

 

Love hate relationship. I went from a GMC Denali 3.0 turbo diesel (half ton) that got 27 mpg to my Tacoma. Its taking a bit to get used to and wish I would have just said screw all the Denali features and turned it into my overlander. I would have saved money too. It is growing on me though and hope one day, I wont regret my decision. As it stands, I'll probably buy another GMC and have both! The ride comfort just isn't comparable for long road trips, or even just a trip into town.

 

I'd vote 3.5 if I could like the wimpy low end on this 3.5 motor.
Overall I am satisfied and glad I purchased before the Covid piping happened.
76,000 miles we'll see how it holds up.....

 

Absolutely love mine. Not perfect as a stock truck but that was the point in buying it and work on the little quirks and upgrades and make it unique to me. The more things I do to it the more I love it.
And also can’t beat reliability is the biggest reason I got it. Plan on keeping it for a very very long time. Don’t care about 4th, 5th or 6th gen at all

 

I’m sure you know this, but a tune will completely resolve that and s mode will work just like a manual without a clutch.