For one... I personally don't think the F150's are all that much bigger than a 3rd Gen Tacoma...but that is my perspective...yours might be different. Gotta remember I am from the construction world...I am used to driving things much much bigger. F150 is a toy to me. How many different vehicles have you driven? Me, have quite few under my belt. Biggest is a R-Series Tri-Axle Mack dump we used to have. You can also toss in a D9 Cat...but not really a road vehicle...will certainly tear one up though.
Second...you need to go look of how they are priced on the dealer lots and get off the website builders. Of course you can spec it to make your argument. but I can spec it the other way to make mine. Cheapest F150 I can find on dealer lots is in the low $20's... RCSB NA V6 4WD. Try doing that with a Tacoma.
I can get a 4WD 2.7 EcoBoost SCSB F150 for the same price...that the 4WD V6 Tacoma ACLB are going for. Both are in the low $30's in my neck of the woods. If you dig a little deeper the NA 3.3 V6 F150's are little cheaper...specs are nearly identical to the Tacoma in power, payload, towing capacity. (You can look it up) The F150 is the better buy. And you get a truck that is just "touch" bigger than the Taco...with 170º opening rear doors. Toyota really needs to add that feature to the Access Cab.
I have been driving Toyotas longer than you have been I alive. I love their trucks...but aren't the best thing out there anymore. Sorry bub.
Quite a few more than you'd imagine, but mainly the sort of crappy performance cars other enthusiasts had in high school an college(I've taken a hard lean towards off road lately, but I like cars that can handle too). Nothing bigger than a half ton and nothing bigger than my truck off road so you've got me there. I've just been doing a lot of alternating weekends with both my vehicles this summer. The difference between the Rover and the Tacoma is proportionately very similar to the difference between a midsize and a full size in pretty much every respect(size, wieght, capacity, power) and once the pavement ends it's a more pleasant experience in every way, assuming everything's functioning properly mechanically(there's a reason the Tacoma still sees plenty of trail use lol, especially if I'm solo).
If you live in a rural area, work in construction and are looking for a toy hauler then a half ton probably does fit your needs the best. If you're a software engineer who lives in a city and are looking for something that's properly off road capable to get out exploring in the summer, take you and possibly several others to the mountain in the winter(especially if the mountain is getting dumped with snow) and grind the commute every day it doesn't make any sense. I used the config for a quick and dirty comparison, but I just used their finder tool instead. The cheapest 4x4 with a back seat(reg cab won't work for me, extended cab would be fine) within 100-miles of me is an XL listed at $34.8k from an MSRP of $37.7k. My truck was listed at $33k from an MSRP of $35k, out the door at $32.5. Even if it ended up the same or a bit cheaper out-the-door it's worse equipped so I'd be giving up a locker, ATRAC, reasonable stock underbody protection, a navigation system, a nicer stereo system, better factory tires and the ability to fit in my garage for a couple hundred pounds of towing and payload that I'm not going to use. Others have mentioned some absurd rebates from Ford:
Lol... Getting 6k off a domestic fullsize is stupid easy. They routinely run rebates larger than that here in central Florida. I got 9k off for financing with Ford, then another 1k for being military and an EMT. That was before we even started to haggle about price. At the end of the day my F150 was cheaper than a similarly equipped Tacoma.
Be careful with that, trucks are higher margin so it's a little different but I've talked numbers with a Ford dealer on both a new Focus ST and CPO Focus RS. They offer some big rebates on a financed new vehicle(I don't remember the number, not $9k, but proportianally similar when we're talking about a cheaper and lower-margin car). They can offer these because in-house financing allows Ford to set the MSRP a little artificially high and then offer people a shockingly huge rebate for signing the dotted line if(and only if) they're financing. If you dig into the numbers though: Truck has an MSRP of(say) $45k. Both Ford and the Ford dealer turn a reasonable profit if the truck's out the door for $40k, $40k would also be a fair price for the buyer. In house financing means they can offer a $10k rebate, now you're getting a hell of a lot of truck for $35k! Except you'll end up paying $6k in interest and fees over the course of the loan. So, the buyer gives Ford $41k out of pocket for the truck, who kicks a generous portion to the dealer so they push the in-house financing. Similar percentages on the ST but smaller numbers. When I made it clear I wanted to pay cash all of a sudden the out the door price was significantly higher(after spending literally half an hour shaking a number out of them). Even the recent college grad discount they were offering me vanished if I didn't want to use Ford financing.
Toyota does not do in-house financing. So you agree on the price with the dealer, and then figure out how you'll pay. The truck costs what it costs and if you're financing you can cross-shop and get yourself a better interest rate. If you pay cash, you're done. There's no such thing as free money.
