My four word review doubles as a TL;DR for the whole article.
“You Should Get One.”
Seriously though, this truck is awesome. The platonic ideal for what a mid-size truck can be.
Toyota Tacoma 3rd Gen Pros
- Bomb-proof reliability. I got mine at the tail end of the production run, so all the kinks had been worked out. I’m the most defective component in this vehicle.
- Surefooted while towing. I’ve taken it up to the tow limit, and not one pound further. It’s surefooted and comfortable to tow. My first long tow was cross-country, and it handled every weather condition and steep grade perfectly.
- Absurd resale value. If you look on the used market, these things just don’t drop in price. Now, you’re used to a pickup truck retaining value. But this thing is absurd, go look at the Bring a Trailer listings.
Like my partner says, “I’m going to drive the Taco ’til the wheels fall off.” The dealership estimates that’ll be about 30 years from now. That’s not an exaggeration, that’s literally what the service center mechanic said.
Toyota Tacoma 3rd Gen Cons
- No frills.
- Stock suspension is only OK for off-roading
- Bad fuel economy (still bad as a hybrid in the new model year, too)
My least serious factor in the “Cons” column is a backhanded compliment. This is a zero frills truck.
You might have misread that, go back and read it again. I said zero frills, and I meant ABSOLUTELY not a single frill. Do you like quality-of-life features? How about gimmicks? If so, then you might hate this truck.
The suspension, I should tell you what I mean when I say “only OK.” The truck survives off-roading flawlessly. You, on the other hand, might be jostled to death. You really need to pony up to the Tacoma Off-Road if you want to do high-speed off-road hooning.
And the fuel economy, you can’t polish that t___. It sucks. It sucks worse than it ought to as a V6 powerplant. The EPA says it’s 20MPG, but they’re liars and cheats, my dashboard says it’s closer to 16MPG with a good mix of winter driving, towing, and blended city/highway miles.
So, what are you waiting for? Go drive the truck that Christian Bale drives. Just don’t call it a Batmobile, everybody knows, they’re called “Tacos.”
If you want the peanut gallery’s opinion on the matter, check out this thread:
Pros and cons of buying a 3rd gen Tacoma? Go!
byu/slidewayskenny inToyotaTacoma
