Why I bought a 2013 and not a 2016

Just can't get over the feminine look of the new body, I want a truck not a crossover with a bed. A 3.5l engine is capable of more than Toyota did, look at what ford did with one, 390hp and 420 lb of torque. Toyota needs to maybe take some pointers from ford. I have a 13 and if they continue to make girly looking trucks it will be my last Tacoma

 

I tried REALLY hard to like the gen 3 Tacoma but what everyone says about the 3.5 liters being lethargic is true. I think the HP and torque specs are almost misleading considering how you have to rev so high to get them. Not many people are going feel okay revving that high to get the same power at the 4.0.
I just bought a 13 DCLB 4x4 and the 4.0 is great. I can drive around town and barely cross over 2,000 RPM and still have decent acceleration. I can't really blame Sweers for the 4.0. It's the gov regs. I wish they could have improved the tech of the 4.0 but it is what it is. The gen 2 is tried and true. I would rather have the gen 3 interior though. That looks much better IMO.

 

I think the Atkinson Cycle has a lot to do with the lack of bottom torque. My wife Sienna has better get up and go and it's heavier. The direct injection adds at lot of power at the top but it doesn't turn on until the revs are up. Yes, these are growing pains for the new technology for sure. Hopefully they figure things out by about 2023.
I also like the interior of the gen3. The big grill would take some getting used to but was not show stopper.

 

I'd get this before I got a 3rd Gen Tacoma.

 

^ this

 

They took notes from the FJ Cruiser it looks like

 

They'll never release it looking like this. Once it starts production it'll look more like a Ford escape or explorer.

 

More like this.

 

Indeed. It'll be nothing like this. Be nice if it was, but the only concept car that ever kept it's look was the solstice. (That I can think of)

 

so true

 

One of the big considerations for the new engine was fuel economy. It may, in fact, be superior in that regard for normal daily driving duties. However, I bought a truck to do truck things. I'd love to know how the new engine would perform, in terms of both drivability and fuel economy, towing even a moderate load. Bet the 4.0 wins that battle.

I just towed a Rockwood aframe camper 220 miles round trip. Loaded weight was somewhere slightly north of 2,000 lbs. Got barely shy of 18mpg. Can anyone demonstrate the 3rd gen doing that?

 

A year ago I test drove the new '16. I was 95% convinced I was going to "upgrade". I have had an '89 SR5 V6 pickup, '97 Tacoma LX V6, and now my '09 DCSB TRD sport V6. I figured it was "about time" for a new truck. But I just couldn't get past the drive-ability of the new truck. I wanted all the new gadgets, I wanted a moonroof, I wanted a "new" truck, but on the test drive I quickly realized I like my current truck too much and the new one just didn't do it for me. Especially for close to $40k.
Everyone has different needs and wants, but for me, my '09 is good.

 

Wow that's a lot of bitching about the new truck but the fact is it's still the number one selling mid size truck so the majority love the changes. The truck was in need of a major redesign because the competition was coming out with new models. The old 4 litre had to go in favour of a more fuel efficient and environmentally friendly engine. The trend now is smaller displacement motors that have to rev higher to achieve the same power output.

 

While I agree the truck was due for change, some of us are having a hard time swallowing it. I don't believe they need to give up bottom torque to get fuel economy. A lot of people bitched that the 4 l was under powered and sucked gas. So now we have a truck with more power and better fuel economy. I'm not one that bitched. I was quite happy with it the way it was. Anyways, nothing we can do now accept wait until they work the bugs out.

 

It's the nature of the beast, you can't have a small displacement engine with low RPM torque.

 

The new engine gets the same MPG as my 4.0, where is the better fuel economy? And why does it matter, its a truck they never get rated MPG in real life. If you own a truck and don't use it for a truck then sell it and buy a car. If you can't afford the gas you shouldn't have got a loan to buy it.

 

The new 3.5 does get better fuel mileage than the old 4.0 real world. Why does fuel mileage matter? It matters to most that drive. Better fuel economy also equates to less emissions, the part that most people and the government care about.

 

Thing is if you drive the 3.5 harder than barely feathering the throttle you are going to get similar MPG as the 4.0. The gen 3 throttle is mapped so you need roughly 50% throttle before you get any pull, then the RPMs jump into the stratosphere.

 

I will disagree with that. I almost always meet or exceed advertised mileage. It's a truck so I drive it like a truck, not a race car. If a driver chooses to drive it as such, that's perfectly ok. Mileage is a function of that choice.

 

6 speed in the 3rd gen is all new, actually built to handle more torque than the 5 speed on our 2nd gens.

the 3.5L does dang good with the new trans software update, also if you run with the ETC pwr enabled it makes the trans much more sporty and less hunting. Its a nice setup, yes it does like to rev more but what do you expect out of a smaller motor. (its not like the ole 3.4L out of the 1st gens though... those v6s produced alot of torque down load.. but its bore and stroke was VASTLY different)