Tacoma Tribulations

[Redline]

Well you know the trade-offs as you have had and used the big trucks and now had a taste of the smaller rigs. I too have 'seen the light' of smaller lighter vehicles, first with my '05 Rubicon and now with a 4Runner.

Unless you get a rare lemon, you should be very happy with the reliability, quality, and ease of use from a new Tacoma. But I agree with Martinjmpr, don't expect much better fuel economy in normal use from the Tacoma. It will take a yet to be introduced diesel to make these vehicles routinely get over 20-MPG for most users.

Martin,

I actually owned a '99 F-250 crew cab diesel w/6 speed manual for four years. It was a dandy vehicle but I never did see much better than 16-17 mpg with it, which still isn't bad considering the size of the vehicle. It did have plenty of room and power to spare. It was a bit of a handful off-road and in low traction situations due to excessive wheel spin and hop. A locker or LSD would have helped.

I got tired of dealing with the diesel in cold weather, electronics problems, and general poor build quality of the Ford. I sold it and got an '04 Chevy 2500 HD extended cab work truck with the 6.0 V8, 5 speed NV4500, 4.10 gears, vinyl floors and not much else. A wonderful vehicle. Plenty of power, great transmission, easy to clean. We left the ranch in Montana and moved to Utah and decided we just didn't two full size trucks any more (other vehicle is a 1996 Chevy 3/4 ton Suburban with 454/4.10s. I let my wife trade the 2500 in on an '07 Nissan Xterra.

The nimbleness of the Xterra is what got me checking out some of the smaller trucks. Alas, I think there is no way to eat my cake and have it, too.

I hunt around the Kemmerer area. Cody is indeed a beautiful place. Getting expensive and changing fast, much like the rest of the Mountain West.

Brian

 

[boblynch]

Dodge and Ford are expected to debut new 1/2 ton trucks at the Detroit Auto Show in January. The RAM 1500 is expected to include a small V8 Cummins. The F150 will get a modified version of the V8 used in the Rover. Chevy is also working on a small Duramax diesel for the Silverado.

The actual production dates for these diesels have not been announced.

With the crazy fuel prices and poor financial health of these companies, maybe they will get smart and push up the diesel release dates. Hopefully we'll find out more at the show.

Bob