2016 Tacoma

[calicamper]

www.youtube.com/watch?v=SRbanutJM84

Not a fan of those taillights, nor the chrome trimmings. Seems like lots of plastic still on the interior, but overall, it still looks much more refined than the Colorado. Leather is a nice option and looks good. I like the brown/blue contrast on that Limited model. Front end looks good, too, as well as little things like, "Toyota" on the rear tailgate latch (I like dumb little things like that). Couple of nitpicks, but a lot to like.

No power/MPG figures, unfortunately. Looks like Toyota's going to keep us on the edge of the seat for a while longer...

Toyota will stall till the inventory for the older truck is brought down. Also if you have entire regional areas regarding all dealers owned by the same parent company "Auto Group" like we have here in CA all the dealers will keep inventory off the lot and claim no inventory on the one or two trucks parked out front to drive up prices. This has been happening in CA for years and years now. If buyers call BS on this fake price push due to fake inventory shortage claims by the dealers then the prices would be far more reasonable.

In the Bay Area San Francisco area all our Toyota Dealers are owned by the same parent company based in LA. After dealing with them and actually having a sales manager tell me you can drive 500 miles "out of our covered area for price fixing" your welcome to go find a better price. No not kidding!!! After that experience I will never buy new from a Toyota dealer owned by a larger parent company period! So in my case given where I live that means I will never buy a new Toyota again. Same Auto group owns Audi and many of the VW dealers around here also. Very similar practices by the way at those dealers. They have enough VW dealers in the region they were successful in creating a perception that the TDI's were impossible to find there for over MSRP was the only number they would talk with a buyer. Funny enough I found a family owned VW dealer that had all kinds of TDI's. They could get any color version model you wanted and no MSRP was not the numbers being discussed with buyers.

So watch your self buying new cars!!! Research the dealers find out who owns them and which dealers are owned by the same company. They play off each other and do track buyers and push pricing higher for specific models and regions.

If I could buy a new Tacoma via my Amazon.com Prime account I'd take that route and have it delivered to my house. No seriously I would. Time for the concept of Dealers to fade away like Hippies and Skinny Genes.

 

[sandcrawler]

Time for the concept of Dealers to fade away like Hippies and Skinny Genes.

hey, some of us just come by our Skinny Genes naturally. don't be hatin', bro!

 

[calicamper]

Ha ha - Sandcrawler watch out for the Hipster hunters ha ha..

 

[washington taco]

Ha, that is the same combo I have been considering. You can pick those RCLB Tundras up cheap.



I built one on the Toyota web site the other night for $32,000 MSRP. I am sure I could get it cheaper!

Last summer I ran the Whipsaw Trail up in BC Canada with a quad cab Power Wagen (bobbed 10") and a Mega Cab 6' bed Dodge and was impressed with how they got around. The Mega Cab did get some damage but that was the drives fault and the RCLB Tundra is shorter!

 

[Clutch]

I built one on the Toyota web site the other night for $32,000 MSRP. I am sure I could get it cheaper!

Last summer I ran the Whipsaw Trail up in BC Canada with a quad cab Power Wagen (bobbed 10") and a Mega Cab 6' bed Dodge and was impressed with how they got around. The Mega Cab did get some damage but that was the drives fault and the RCLB Tundra is shorter!

I saw a used one with only 6000 miles on it for only $22K. No one wants RC trucks anymore for the most part. Nice thing about the Tundra RC it has about the same room behind the seat as our 1st Gen Tacos.

Here is one with only 17K miles under $22K. Link Practically brand new.

 

[Clutch]

www.youtube.com/watch?v=SRbanutJM84

Not a fan of those taillights, nor the chrome trimmings. Seems like lots of plastic still on the interior, but overall, it still looks much more refined than the Colorado. Leather is a nice option and looks good. I like the brown/blue contrast on that Limited model. Front end looks good, too, as well as little things like, "Toyota" on the rear tailgate latch (I like dumb little things like that). Couple of nitpicks, but a lot to like.

No power/MPG figures, unfortunately. Looks like Toyota's going to keep us on the edge of the seat for a while longer...

It isn't bad...but nothing about it makes me go "OMG! I must have that!"

 

[p nut]

Toyota will stall till the inventory for the older truck is brought down. Also if you have entire regional areas regarding all dealers owned by the same parent company "Auto Group" like we have here in CA all the dealers will keep inventory off the lot and claim no inventory on the one or two trucks parked out front to drive up prices. This has been happening in CA for years and years now. If buyers call BS on this fake price push due to fake inventory shortage claims by the dealers then the prices would be far more reasonable.

In the Bay Area San Francisco area all our Toyota Dealers are owned by the same parent company based in LA. After dealing with them and actually having a sales manager tell me you can drive 500 miles "out of our covered area for price fixing" your welcome to go find a better price. No not kidding!!! After that experience I will never buy new from a Toyota dealer owned by a larger parent company period! So in my case given where I live that means I will never buy a new Toyota again. Same Auto group owns Audi and many of the VW dealers around here also. Very similar practices by the way at those dealers. They have enough VW dealers in the region they were successful in creating a perception that the TDI's were impossible to find there for over MSRP was the only number they would talk with a buyer. Funny enough I found a family owned VW dealer that had all kinds of TDI's. They could get any color version model you wanted and no MSRP was not the numbers being discussed with buyers.

So watch your self buying new cars!!! Research the dealers find out who owns them and which dealers are owned by the same company. They play off each other and do track buyers and push pricing higher for specific models and regions.

If I could buy a new Tacoma via my Amazon.com Prime account I'd take that route and have it delivered to my house. No seriously I would. Time for the concept of Dealers to fade away like Hippies and Skinny Genes.

Interesting info. I'm sure the new Taco will demand higher pricing, simply because big T can charge it.

It isn't bad...but nothing about it makes me go "OMG! I must have that!"

That's because you've already got a truck! Go without one for a while and you go googly-eyed at anything with an open bed.

 

[calicamper]

Interesting info. I'm sure the new Taco will demand higher pricing, simply because big T can charge it.




That's because you've already got a truck! Go without one for a while and you go googly-eyed at anything with an open bed.

^ Automotive version of beer goggles at closing time?

 

[Clutch]

That's because you've already got a truck! Go without one for a while and you go googly-eyed at anything with an open bed.

Ha Ha! True true!

I went 6 weeks without the trusty ol' Taco, had to use my Trooper. Couldn't live with a SUV alone, I was sooo wanting my Taco back.
Even the better half wants to add another truck to stable. (probably because of my b!tching for those 6 weeks )

 

[Larry]

Toyota Tacoma Diesel Not Worth it Says Chief Engineer

Toyota Tacoma Diesel Not Worth it Says Chief Engineer

Bad news for the diesel bong hitters but a brutally honest assessment of diesel power for the Tacoma by Chief Engineer Mike Sweers. He is right on right on the money. I too will be surprised if the Colorado will still have a diesel option after 2019 model year.

 

[calicamper]

Toyota Tacoma Diesel Not Worth it Says Chief Engineer

Bad news for the diesel bong hitters but a brutally honest assessment of diesel power for the Tacoma by Chief Engineer Mike Sweers. He is right on right on the money. I too will be surprised if the Colorado will still have a diesel option after 2019 model year.

No surprise from me either. I caught a really cool and candid PBS type interview with a Ford Exec and he was asked point blank about diesel vehicles. His answer was interesting and strait to the point. He said all the auto makers have the same marketing data and the at pump price that will drive enough demand for light duty diesel vehicles is $5 a gallon. He pointed out that every Ford model they have today could have a US spec and certified diesel power plant in it tomorrow if we he had $5 a gallon fuel prices at the pumps.

 

[Gregster]

Toyota Tacoma Diesel Not Worth it Says Chief Engineer

Bad news for the diesel bong hitters but a brutally honest assessment of diesel power for the Tacoma by Chief Engineer Mike Sweers. He is right on right on the money. I too will be surprised if the Colorado will still have a diesel option after 2019 model year.

Looks like there is still hope for the diesel bong hitters in the new Nissan Frontier.

 

[DaveInDenver]

I think the argument boils down to fuel economy for me.

I do prefer to drive a gas engine, although I can't admit to having much experience with small diesels and my gut tells me that a Powerstroke-to-gasser is not a fair comparison to a modern, small diesel. Not to mention that delivery truck engines in Cruisers and the 3L-T against a 1GR or even a 22R-E are also not really apple-to-apple. But on a daily basis I really do like this 4.0L V6. Although, a co-worked had a diesel VW Toureg and that thing drove like any other luxury car and was very nice, so I think current designs can be very easy to live with.

The argument he makes is that diesel requires expensive emissions gear, so if Toyota can get the MPG up without having to resort to similar levels of complexity in their gasoline engines, then fine. I don't think the argument is valid when to do so requires hybrids and highly complex gasoline engine controls, though. As it is our engines now ARE very complex in a lot of ways, so why not get the benefit of that 30% bump? In low range the improvement would be monumental, too.

 

[calicamper]

I think the argument boils down to fuel economy for me.

I do prefer to drive a gas engine, although I can't admit to having much experience with small diesels and my gut tells me that a Powerstroke-to-gasser is not a fair comparison to a modern, small diesel. Not to mention that delivery truck engines in Cruisers and the 3L-T against a 1GR or even a 22R-E are also not really apple-to-apple. But on a daily basis I really do like this 4.0L V6. Although, a co-worked had a diesel VW Toureg and that thing drove like any other luxury car and was very nice, so I think current designs can be very easy to live with.

The argument he makes is that diesel requires expensive emissions gear, so if Toyota can get the MPG up without having to resort to similar levels of complexity in their gasoline engines, then fine. I don't think the argument is valid when to do so requires hybrids and highly complex gasoline engine controls, though. As it is our engines now ARE very complex in a lot of ways, so why not get the benefit of that 30% bump? In low range the improvement would be monumental, too.

I think the big indicator is the success of the Dodge 1500. People value mileage today and are willing to pay for it. Toyota has sat at the top in the midsized game for a long time they can afford to do a very minimal refresh to fix a few known issues and not go big with little risk. GM had to do something given it was getting its *** kicked in the truck game.

Nissan is in a very unique position now seeing all the players cards on the table they could knock it out of the park.

What I can say is that the mid sized truck market game has changed to some extent. The Target buyers are the CUV owners and Subaru owners who want all the nice stuff they had in a more capable package with truck ability etc. Which case all of the makers are trying to up the game on tech, interior style and seating comfort. Not exactly a bad thing per say. I take our Subaru on all our road trips and figure out how to make it work on our camping trips simply because it can knock down big pavement miles very comfortably. That and it has range to do it.

My interest in the new smaller diesels are #1 the Subaru like range. #2 The nice diesel low end tractor grunt which makes them so enjoyable to drive around town.

The logical argument of cost vs savings and current fuel pump costs isn't much different than the logic of trying to justify getting a $40,000 4dr pickup so I can haul more stuff camping when I have managed to make my Subarus work for me since 2001 and 230,000 miles two different cars primarly because we wanted the space in the new wider and better set up 2010 etc.

I think the small diesels in the midsized trucks will have a value and attract buyers but not because the age old cost savings on fuel. It will be for the unique power and added range they offer.

I do think its a mistake to not release the Diesel version of these trucks at the time of the primary release of the new designs. GM's whole marketing and push for the Canyon and Colorado was horribly done and super weak. Even worse they don't post any truck details like payload numbers etc on their website. You need to dig through 3rd party sites to find any details that matter to truck people. Makes me think GM either ran out of gas or doesn't want to call too much attention to their new truck. If one could have a quiet product release GM seems to have found a way to do it this time around. "Tech Stuff" really thats what truck folks want to know? LOL

 

[nickw]

Meh. I sold my paid for 2001 3.4 Tacoma for a manual Diesel Jetta Wagon. The diesel is cool, it's fun to drive, but we here on Expo are unique in this I think. Nobody else is going to appreciate the way a diesel feels or it's unique driving characteristics, all they are going to care about MPG and what it costs them at the end of the day. When things start getting expensive, diesel is going to get old quick....but in a day an age of looking and the here and now, not the big picture or life cycle cost, I can see the allure.

If I had to do it again, I'd probably stick with a gas to be honest. The diesel range is great, filling up once every 2-3 weeks with a daily commute of 20 miles is convenient sure, but the potential $$ to fix the emissions system hanging over my head is not. The gas engines are so proven and fine tuned over the years, there is so much less to go wrong. Funny how times change, the same could be send for diesel over gas 15+ years ago.

I think that another primary driver in keeping Toyota from playing in the diesel market here is the complexity of the systems to make a diesel pass EPA req's. They are complex and a PITA when it comes time to fix. There are work arounds, on the VW's, but you have to modify the stock systems, voiding warranties and generally deviating from the way the engineers designed the thing. If I put myself in Toyotas shoes, would I want these complex systems (potentially) dilluting the marques ratings? Very expensive to fix? After all, we buy Toyotas for 200k miles of trouble free service, VW owners, by comparison, expect to spend some money and know it's part of the 'experience' or so I'm told.