Why I switched from a Tacoma to an F150

[rruff]

So the tundra gets the same fuel economy as my F-250 tremor with 4:30 gears, 35’s and a gas big block? That’s not good at all.

My Tundra does better than EPA with 35s... YMMV. The same source I'm using for MPG (Fuelly) says the F250s with the 7.3 average ~11.5 vs 14 for the Tundra.

 

[montypower]

Skip the F150... Keep the Tacoma for fun and buy a real HD truck (like the Super Duty). Then you have the best of both worlds. F150 is basically a big truck that doesn't do big truck stuff.

 

[phsycle]

Skip the F150... Keep the Tacoma for fun and buy a real HD truck (like the Super Duty). Then you have the best of both worlds. F150 is basically a big truck that doesn't do big truck stuff.

Everyone’s need are different. 90% of the folks that buy 1/2 ton trucks don’t need 3k lb payload nor 20k lb towing capacity.

F150’s drive smaller (because they are), ride better (empty or moderate loads), and most importantly, better mpg. 24-25mpg in my old 2.7 and 23 in my 3.5.

I keep window-shopping Powerwagon and F250 Tremors but always comes back to the points above.

When I retire and get a slide in camper, I’ll get an F250-350. Until then, 3/4 ton would be wasted capacity and lots of gas $.

 

[Todd n Natalie]

Everyone’s need are different. 90% of the folks that buy 1/2 ton trucks don’t need 3k lb payload nor 20k lb towing capacity.

F150’s drive smaller (because they are), ride better (empty or moderate loads), and most importantly, better mpg. 24-25mpg in my old 2.7 and 23 in my 3.5.

I keep window-shopping Powerwagon and F250 Tremors but always comes back to the points above.

When I retire and get a slide in camper, I’ll get an F250-350. Until then, 3/4 ton would be wasted capacity and lots of gas $.

That's what keeps me in a half ton. They just seem to do everything I need them to.

Really don't think I'll have a trailer that's more than 7,000 lbs empty. Eyeballing ones in the 5,500lb empty mark... But just window shopping....

Current trailer is 5,000 wet and loaded. Plus some firewood in the box. Well within my 1,800 payload and 10,900 tow rating. HD truck would be overkill for me.

 

[calicamper]

27 yrs of Toyota’s. I grew up with Dodge’s and Fords. Both were used hard and kept for 20+ yrs. Shoot my little brother got Grandpa’s short bed Step side Top hand to drive in HS. Toyota guys will need to Google that lol.

I switched back to Ford in 2016 when my wife needed a C level sedan plugin/ hybrid for work. The Fusion Energi pretty much owned the market. Even today you won’t find a plugin with cooled seats, but the Fusion does!! Awesome car.

2019 my dad needed a vehicle badly old guy no money. So he got my 07 Sequoia cherry 100,000 miles on it. Actually 98,900 to be exact. His first Toyota ever. He hates the lousy mileage by the way. Sequoia replaced his 1999 Explorer which we sold for $3200 running, still a daily driver with 330,000 miles on it.

My replacement was a fully loaded Heavy tow pack Platinum 2019 Expedition. The expedition replaced my Sequoia and my local runabout Subaru because no joke the Expedition was / is only 2mpg average lower than the old subaru, rides and drives fantastic, passenger comfort is fantastic etc.

I actually made an offer on a brand new old gen Yukon Denali but for some stupid reason the dealers were selling that old being replaced model over msrp?. So went to the same Ford dealer who in 2016 I took down from yr old lot queen at msrp to 400 below invoice on my wifes fresh off the factory floor yr newer car. I called him up told him what I wanted and to make his best deal because he already knew I drive across town and get the same damn truck for better if he didn’t. 2 hours later Friday night they delivered it to my house $12,000 below msrp. At that time Platinum’s msrp at $85,400 were not selling, optioned out Limiteds msrp at 73,000 were sold out and no negotiation if they had one. So my fully loaded Platinum cost less than the optioned up Limited?

Never even looked / set foot on the Toyota sales lot. They had nothing remotely interesting. 2016 I looked at the top trim plugin Prius for the wife. Charge port was still on the Japanese/ right hand side of the car, interior was too loud for work calls at 60mph, seats were covered in the same doctors exam table plastic stuff and all the Toyota dealers wanted msrp plus a number of BS dealer fees ??. Nope

 

[escadventure]

As usual, this post is full of well informed and quantified info. Love this forum.

Ultimately it comes down to the fact we want to feel adequately compensated for trading in our dollars for a truck.

Last year I worked briefly at a dealership before moving out of state, and was exposed to more vehicles than I had been in awhile. And here are a few surprising but 'hands on - saw it for myself' observations I made:
1- new, low miles Toyotas are being traded in for domestics by the boatload.
2- new Toyotas are still made of cheaper, thinner metal with less sound dampening and more prone to corrosion. And what appear to be 40 year old plastic compounds - so the vehicle feels, sounds and looks cheap.
3- I never saw what looked like a nicely appointed Toyota.
4- I was shocked at the fit and finish quality and material quality of the domestics, some being very nicely appointed.

Conclusions from my observations:
1- Toyota quit on themselves years ago
2- MARTINJMPR aptly used the term - "Toyota Tax" and I saw many people who pay it, regret it
3- Nowadays I feel better compensated by trading my dollars for a domestic

 

[jmodz]

As usual, this post is full of well informed and quantified info. Love this forum.

Ultimately it comes down to the fact we want to feel adequately compensated for trading in our dollars for a truck.

Last year I worked briefly at a dealership before moving out of state, and was exposed to more vehicles than I had been in awhile. And here are a few surprising but 'hands on - saw it for myself' observations I made:
1- new, low miles Toyotas are being traded in for domestics by the boatload.
2- new Toyotas are still made of cheaper, thinner metal with less sound dampening and more prone to corrosion. And what appear to be 40 year old plastic compounds - so the vehicle feels, sounds and looks cheap.
3- I never saw what looked like a nicely appointed Toyota.
4- I was shocked at the fit and finish quality and material quality of the domestics, some being very nicely appointed.

Conclusions from my observations:
1- Toyota quit on themselves years ago
2- MARTINJMPR aptly used the term - "Toyota Tax" and I saw many people who pay it, regret it
3- Nowadays I feel better compensated by trading my dollars for a domestic

Interesting viewpoint. My 2011 SR5 tundra had tons of hard (maybe cheap) plastic on the interior but it never rattled, squeaked, or gave me the impression that it was poorly built. My 2017 F150 XLT had tons of hard (maybe cheap) plastic as well, but again it never rattled or squeaked. The reason I’d rate fit and finish higher on the Toyota though is the seats in the tundra felt more supportive and cushioned where as the F150 had a flatter seat. Also the interior door handle on the f150 always bothered me. I don’t like where they put it on the door and that always did feel super cheap and flimsy.
I don’t think Toyota quit on themselves, especially in the full-size game. Back in 2000 we would’ve been complaining that Toyota didn’t even make a true full sized truck and the tundra was disappointing because it was small and didn’t tow as much or have enough power. I was young when the 1st gen tundra was on sale but even I remember people saying just that. The 2nd gen tundra was a huge step for Toyota and it probably paid off well for them. Toyota isn’t a huge player in the full sized market so they’ll never offer all the engines, trims, and sizes that domestics do but they’ll always be chugging along with a good product that people like.
I will agree with everybody’s sentiment that domestics have caught up. Funny though this discussion seems to only be about Ford vs Toyota. I’d be intersting to hear more about real world mpg, reliability, and owner satisfaction from people with the Silverado and Ram.
Lastly, I’m not sure there is a Toyota tax. When you option each model out similarly they always seem to be in the same ballpark. If we are talking used then absolutely there is a tax, but with the pandemic even that point is moot as domestics cars are just as expensive for now.

 

[escadventure]

Yeah the Toyota tax is definitely more in regards to the used market. And most of what we're discussing is totally subjective. Everyone has their own paradigm of what nice is. And even a lot of the touted facts are unreliable - I'm fundamentally skeptical about most reliability metrics because of the way the info is gathered. And there are a lot of retards who complain about the most ridiculous things.

 

[Alloy]

Wh‐

Interesting viewpoint. My 2011 SR5 tundra had tons of hard (maybe cheap) plastic on the interior but it never rattled, squeaked, or gave me the impression that it was poorly built. My 2017 F150 XLT had tons of hard (maybe cheap) plastic as well, but again it never rattled or squeaked. The reason I’d rate fit and finish higher on the Toyota though is the seats in the tundra felt more supportive and cushioned where as the F150 had a flatter seat. Also the interior door handle on the f150 always bothered me. I don’t like where they put it on the door and that always did feel super cheap and flimsy.
I don’t think Toyota quit on themselves, especially in the full-size game. Back in 2000 we would’ve been complaining that Toyota didn’t even make a true full sized truck and the tundra was disappointing because it was small and didn’t tow as much or have enough power. I was young when the 1st gen tundra was on sale but even I remember people saying just that. The 2nd gen tundra was a huge step for Toyota and it probably paid off well for them. Toyota isn’t a huge player in the full sized market so they’ll never offer all the engines, trims, and sizes that domestics do but they’ll always be chugging along with a good product that people like.
I will agree with everybody’s sentiment that domestics have caught up. Funny though this discussion seems to only be about Ford vs Toyota. I’d be intersting to hear more about real world mpg, reliability, and owner satisfaction from people with the Silverado and Ram.
Lastly, I’m not sure there is a Toyota tax. When you option each model out similarly they always seem to be in the same ballpark. If we are talking used then absolutely there is a tax, but with the pandemic even that point is moot as domestics cars are just as expensive for now.

In 2009 when Chev and Dodge were struggling Ford was copying the Japaneses system and making the dealers return warranty parts so they could learn how to make it cheaper and better. That's been showing benefits for the last few years. What's getting to FORD is strung out product line. It's impossible for anyone to keep track of. Techs don't know how to work on all of them. I just had my truck in and they replaced $2,300.00 in parts under warranty. The computer said the parts were faulty and it turned out to be a harness plug that had to be pulled apart and pushed back in.

 

[Todd n Natalie]

Interesting viewpoint. My 2011 SR5 tundra had tons of hard (maybe cheap) plastic on the interior but it never rattled, squeaked, or gave me the impression that it was poorly built. My 2017 F150 XLT had tons of hard (maybe cheap) plastic as well, but again it never rattled or squeaked. The reason I’d rate fit and finish higher on the Toyota though is the seats in the tundra felt more supportive and cushioned where as the F150 had a flatter seat. Also the interior door handle on the f150 always bothered me. I don’t like where they put it on the door and that always did feel super cheap and flimsy.
I don’t think Toyota quit on themselves, especially in the full-size game. Back in 2000 we would’ve been complaining that Toyota didn’t even make a true full sized truck and the tundra was disappointing because it was small and didn’t tow as much or have enough power. I was young when the 1st gen tundra was on sale but even I remember people saying just that. The 2nd gen tundra was a huge step for Toyota and it probably paid off well for them. Toyota isn’t a huge player in the full sized market so they’ll never offer all the engines, trims, and sizes that domestics do but they’ll always be chugging along with a good product that people like.
I will agree with everybody’s sentiment that domestics have caught up. Funny though this discussion seems to only be about Ford vs Toyota. I’d be intersting to hear more about real world mpg, reliability, and owner satisfaction from people with the Silverado and Ram.
Lastly, I’m not sure there is a Toyota tax. When you option each model out similarly they always seem to be in the same ballpark. If we are talking used then absolutely there is a tax, but with the pandemic even that point is moot as domestics cars are just as expensive for now.

Agreed.

When I was looking at 2022's the SR5 Crewmax TRD O/R was actually cheaper than the 302a Supercrew FX4. I think the Toyota was $56,000 and the Ford $64,000?

Edit : I guess they were closer than I recalled.




To be fair I did add the following to the Ford:
Max tow - Not available on Tundra
Tow Mirrors - Not available until platinum in Canada
OnBoard Scale - Not available on Tundra
Tailgate step - Not available on Tundra
Fold flat under seat storage - not available on Tundra

 

[rruff]

When I was looking at 2022's the SR5 Crewmax TRD O/R was actually cheaper than the 302a Supercrew FX4. I think the Toyota was $56,000 and the Ford $64,000?
Edit : I guess they were closer than I recalled.

The Toyota is a long bed, the Ford is not (I think?). Don't know if that matters.

I think the tow package came standard on my bottom of the line SR; had tow mirrors also. Maybe "max tow" is something else though...

 

[Todd n Natalie]

The Toyota is a long bed, the Ford is not (I think?). Don't know if that matters.

I think the tow package came standard on my bottom of the line SR; had tow mirrors also. Maybe "max tow" is something else though...

Both trucks are crew cabs with the longer box. (6'5") on the F150.

FX4 / TRD O/R
Mid Level w/ cloth heated seats. (heated wheel in the Tundra)
Remote start - but Toyota charges a monthly fee after a year to 'subscribe' to the option..
What annoyed me about both, in similar trim levels GM and Ram would have had a 4 wheel drive auto function. Something I'd use 6 months out of the year.

Tow mirrors aren't an option in Canada. No clue why we didn't get the same option packages that the US did. Our trucks only come one way.

Yes, Max Tow is as separate option that the standard tow pack. (Ford also includes backup pro assist for backing up trailer which Toyota does not)


Never used back up assist before. Wonder if it'll screw me up as I'm used to turning left to go right etc.. when backing up a trailer...

All in all both nice trucks. But the Ford seemed to offer more of what we would use in a truck.

 

[phsycle]

Back up assist: After a few tries, it becomes second nature. For a seasoned pro that tows on a regular basis, it’s probably not needed.
But for folks like me that tow very occasionally, it’s nice. Much easier and more precise than old traditional method.

 

[MBRicochet]

Last I checked the F150 and the f250/f350 have the same sized cabs, just different layouts. It has been years since I ran the measurements. A crew cab F150 with the 6' bed is basically all the same width and length as a superduty *mind the mirrors* lol. Additionally by the time you add 35s and all the other goodies you throw away a lot of the MPG advantages of the F150. Fully done up with tents, tires and toy the difference between 16mpg with an F150 and 14mpg in an f350 on highway is a different measurement in my mind.

That being said I love my F150 with the 2.7tt. I am not heavily upgraded and just put on some Michelin Defenders to replace the stock tires at 80k ish miles. Truck is at 110k miles. It is it is a 2015. Average 20mpg. It has been a very reliable truck for me. Has never left me stranded anywhere.

If I had to do it over again today I would skip the 150 and get the f350 tremor with 7.3 and get the bigger titan tank for more range or the 6.7 because *power*. You pay to play. Simple as.

 

[Todd n Natalie]

Last I checked the F150 and the f250/f350 have the same sized cabs, just different layouts. It has been years since I ran the measurements. A crew cab F150 with the 6' bed is basically all the same width and length as a superduty *mind the mirrors* lol. Additionally by the time you add 35s and all the other goodies you throw away a lot of the MPG advantages of the F150. Fully done up with tents, tires and toy the difference between 16mpg with an F150 and 14mpg in an f350 on highway is a different measurement in my mind.

That being said I love my F150 with the 2.7tt. I am not heavily upgraded and just put on some Michelin Defenders to replace the stock tires at 80k ish miles. Truck is at 110k miles. It is it is a 2015. Average 20mpg. It has been a very reliable truck for me. Has never left me stranded anywhere.

If I had to do it over again today I would skip the 150 and get the f350 tremor with 7.3 and get the bigger titan tank for more range or the 6.7 because *power*. You pay to play. Simple as.

I'm getting tow mirrors on mine. Size wise it won't be a lot different than a Super Duty. But it'll stay relatively stock except for tires once the factory set is warn.

Being honest with my usage, I don't need a lift, 35's etc, etc... So unleaden it will get better mileage than a Super Duty. Which is probably 95% of my driving. And 60 miles per day of work commute. A similarly equipped Super Duty would cost more up front as well.

Back up assist: After a few tries, it becomes second nature. For a seasoned pro that tows on a regular basis, it’s probably not needed.
But for folks like me that tow very occasionally, it’s nice. Much easier and more precise than old traditional method.

Okay. I'm looking forward to trying it out.