Great info guys! Thanks

Drove a Tacoma and a Frontier for work. The Frontier had more zip and was way more comfortable. If I didnt have to have car seats, Id own one. The Tacoma is like driving a slow corvette with 4 wheel drive-you sit on the floor. Im not sold on this Toyota reliability either. 5k head gasket at just over 100k on my Tundra, along with electrical problems. Horrible mileage. But, it is very comfortable, Ill give it that.

I have been looking at replacing my tacoma with a new one and so far I have learn that the 2024 are all 4 bangers and they have upgraded the seats to a much more comfortable one that you can adjust. If you are looking to pull trailers this is not the truck for that.

I guess it's subjective.
Brother and I rented a Tundra in Denver, drove all thru Wyoming.
Both of us found the seats horrible.

In fact, after a week in, he declared that the interior was a Japanese plot, so when they attacked us again, we'd all be too crippled up to fight back....

Thats a pretty accurate description of seating in my opinion lol. They've always been that way. The new 4th generation is suppose to be more "comfortable". That'll likely appeal to many but I'm afraid they may have negatively impacted the performance by doing so. Much of the lack of space/comfort inside of them was due to the floor being held up higher than most which squished you into it but that also provided decent running ground clearance. The 4th generation lowered the floor and compensated by putting them on 33" tires vs 31" but even with that the last specs I saw had it losing just a touch of clearance. Probably the bigger win will be easier to move to 35" tires from 33"

J.Brooks---1) expect to not get great gas mileage. My 3rd gen in stock configuration could get 23mpg at best running long distance on flat ground with cruise set around 70ish. Much faster and it starts dropping pretty good. Dropped to around 17-18mpg when trailer was behind. Overall in mixed driving conditions during the summer 20mpg was the norm with 17-18 in winter being in 4 wheel lots of the time. Move off stock configuration at all and it only gets worse---not sure how much worse really as I never recalibrated my speedometer but it surely didnt get better lol

2) personally if you could find the right 2nd generation I'd likely take that over the 3rds. I just am not a fan of the electronics that came on the 3rds but I'd be happy with a bare bones truck so obviously biased in that regard.


Which takes us to item 3). When looking at used, the first year of the 3rd generations (2016) is normally considered problematic. I'm sure they arent all that way but I'd likely avoid them. It seems that 2018-2021 are the sweet spot for the 3rd generation. The electronics on the truck became outdated fairly quickly compared to what the Big 3 started putting on the market to compete with the tacoma so Toyota responded with alot of upgrades in the recent years. Seems the upgrades may have not been much for improvements as there are no shortage of complaints about them in the last 2 years.


I've had all 3 generations and my opinion is that its a pretty niche truck. You won't get the comforts that you can get from any of the american full sized trucks which for the majority are only used to go to the store or town anyway. If comfort is important look elsewhere. It has limited towing and cargo capacity---if you haul alot its going to struggle. In the long run as a class of vehicle its still way more reliable than its competitors but the newer models arent nearly as problem free as the old ones as all the bells and whistles have been added. Where it really shines is that has some jeep style capability with option to haul a little bit of stuff in the bed---itll take you into places that you likely shouldnt drive to begin with and hopefully bring you back to the pavement. I'm currently in the market for a used F150 for more hauling capability. But as a hunting/trapping rig there are only two other vehicles that I'd consider alongside the tacoma and that'd be a Frontier or the new jeep but the reliability from that manufacturer is so poor that it scares the heck out of me  

I put 30-40k miles a year on my tacoma. Lots of them not on the pavement. It's an 09 that I bought a few years back from an older fella with low mileage. The 4.0 has been very good to me. The only work I've done on the truck is changing the fluids.

If I had to buy another one, it would be another "2nd gen." Not interested in the newer models with the 3.5L engine and more electronics. I get 18-19 mpg average daily around town, drops off to low teens when towing.

I went on a turkey hunting trip to northern Vermont last year. Drove 16 hours up there and found myself in the middle of nowhere. Hunted for 3 or 4 days and took the truck down trails in the mountains most guys would avoid with their fourwheeler. Trails bad enough my buddy had to get out to spot me. Put a massive dent in the muffler from a big rock on one of the trails. Drove it 16 hours back home without a hitch. You simply will not do things like that in an F150. The reliability is not there with other trucks.

If you are wondering about reliability/longevity, ask Paul how many miles he has on his trucks.

I have two complaints with my truck: rear legroom and bed space. I am probably going to sell this truck soon just to buy the same truck with a long bed. I cannot stand the 5' bed, I'll never own another truck with one. You can't even lay a shovel or rake down in the bed and close the tailgate. 4 grown men won't go anywhere further than 20-30 minutes in my truck. Hunting trips with the whole crew aren't a thing in a tacoma due to the cramped back seat. The double cab tundras aren't any better.

The tacoma isn't a do it all truck. We have several older Cummins trucks around the house that I use for towing the tractor or skidsteers. As long as I have those heavier duty trucks I will have a tacoma for daily driving and hunting/trapping. They are good dependable trucks that last a long long time.

Spot on...glad I searched a little longer for the long box when I purchased..it was worth the wait.

I've only had this 2006 truck for a little over a year but I have put 25k miles on it. Really like it, very reliable and a truck I can take to the woods and back onto bush roads where you would never take a newer truck. Drove it all the way to North Carolina and back, it was not uncomfortable at all. Mileage of the V6 has bee a little disappointing, highway driving I have not been able to get over 20.

That 1st gen 2004 Tacoma was the apex of Toyota reliability IMO, plus the lines of that truck exceeds all the other generations styling, paired with the perfect size for woods running.

I wish I could run an older gen but the company policy is going to be very specific about needing to be later model…likely no more then 5-8 years old but we haven’t seen the specifics yet.

I mostly run 3/4 ton gassers for my hunting and trapping so all this talk of “terrible” mileage around 18-20+ actually gets me pretty excited, lol.

I am concerned about the bugs on the later models with extra electronics and tech. I have not totally ruled out a full size. My company rig now is a full size four door Silverado 1/2 ton. Super nice for getting down the road and does ok on ranch roads (I appraise farms/ranches for a living) but it is a bit too low for anything not maintained well. Seems like it gets around 16 MPG but I never check it…just going off what I remember the dash saying once when scrolling through the settings.

I like my 2020 access cab 4wd manual trans. Only had it a year but have put it through some crap. Not the best tow vehicle but it handles my old 18' starcraft well. Towed it up to Lake of the Woods Ontario and back fine (2200 miles). I haul gravity wagons with up to 8,000 pounds of feed regularly also. Put about 5,000 trail miles trapping and hunting in the U.P and northern lower with no issues. Only bad thing is the mileage isn't the greatest for the size.

Good luck trying to get parts for a Tacoma,

I just replaced the radiator, serpentine belt, water pump, thermostat, 3 idler pulleys & a belt tensioner pulley assembly on my '08 with factory parts 6 mos back. Has something changed?

I've never encountered a problem getting parts for my Tacomas.

Same here.

ky coyote hunter: I just replace the gauge cluster on an 06 tacoma. it took 4 months to get the parts from Toyota and had to pitch a fit to do that.

Amem

Wow, sorry to hear that. Hate to see part availability problems, and hope that's not the new normal.

I don't have any experience with the new ones. In my opinion 98-04 were their absolute best years (first couple years they had a lighter duty rack and pinion steering on them that had issues when the truck was used offroad much and/or had weight added to the front end, like aftermarket bumpers and winches) but twenty years later they still want not that much less than they sold for new for any in good shape with less than 200K on them. I own an 09, not a lick of problem with it at 170K, but it has the 4 cylinder in it and was the base model, I didn't realize when I bought it (wrecked, so I couldn't test drive it) that the base model had higher gears in them in those years. The gears are way too high, and I haven't changed them yet, spend a lot of time in 4-lo because the gears are too high to putt around in high range. Doesn't have the clearance of either the older or newer models stock, and the 4 cylinder only outperforms the V6 gas mileage wise on the highway empty, put a two snowmobile trailer behind it and three or four hundred pounds in the bed and I drop to 13-14 mpg. My dad owns a 17 4-cylinder and 11 v6, no problems with either and the four cylinder does better on fuel than mine due to the lower gears, but again it drops in the toilet as soon as it has any sort of load or trailer. He also owns a 2000 with the 3.4 v6 (best motor Toyota ever made in my opinion) I sold him with 400K on it, I never had any problems with that truck, a few wear part repairs, u-joints, ball joints, etc. but never touched the motor or tranny. Not sure how many miles he has on it now, but he still hasn't touched the motor or tranny. He bought it to replace his 05 when he had a cylinder go on it at 427K (kid bought that truck and went to rebuild the motor, burnt valve and the one cylinder bad, but his grandpa said the others still looked like new and they only replaced the one piston and just redid the rings on the others, it is back on the road and I expect it to run until that kid totals it). I have a ton of experience with older Toyotas, but not much with those newer than the mid teens, the 3.5l v6 seems to get better mileage than the 4.0 that it replaced, the new high output 4 cylinders haven't been out long enough to know how they will hold up. The newer trucks are wider and won't fit where the older ones will, still smaller than a full size though. Ground clearance has varied over the years but is generally better than any of the other brands with the exception of some Jeep models until you get up into the 3/4 and 1 ton class trucks, and then you are comparing apples to oranges because they are so much wider and longer wheelbase that the ground clearance is negated.

I've put over 300K on half a dozen Toyotas, and only one did I ever rebuild the motor on,(I currently have an 89 that only has 210K on it and that motor has been rebuilt twice and is currently kaput, it is waiting for me to drop a new one it rather than try and rebuild the lemon again, I rebuilt one in a 95 right at 300K, and it wasn't strictly necessary, but it was using oil) and one rebuilt tranny, quite a few clutches though. Most of those were 22RE motors, but the newer Toyota motors both 4, 6 and 8 cylinders seem to hold up just as well. Half the miles on my pickups are off the blacktop, and at least half are pulling either an ATV or snowmobile trailer.

Gas mileage has not been superior to comparable rigs since the 80s to early 90s, but longevity, reliability and off road performance generally has.

This is what I have. It currently has 726,000 + miles on it. The only thing done to the engine was to replace the rear main seal and valve cover gaskets. Engine uses a quart of oil at about 2000 miles. So, one quart between oil changes. Clutch replaced once, three alternators, one radiator, never replaced starter because the mechanic just put new brushes in it when needed. Wore out the standard five speed transmission and had it replaced with a used one. Mechanic took off the gas tank, and repaired the frame, which was suffering from rust damage. He welded plates on it and painted them. It's not as peppy as when I first got it, but it's still going along.