Baptism by Fire Road - 2016 Toyota Tacoma Long-Term Road Test

Edmunds.com

Baptism by Fire Road - 2016 Toyota Tacoma Long-Term Road Test

Where do you go the first time you get the keys to a 2016 Toyota Tacoma TRD Off-Road? Why into the mountains onto some forest service fire roads, of course.

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gslippy

Amen on the tires. My 09 Sedona has 16-inch 70-series tires on it, something unheard of these days. They really absorb the road imperfections, and being on steelies I don't even have to worry about damaging an expensive rim. Such tires are fairly affordable, too.

diondi

I'm still really annoyed by Toyota Canada's decision not to bring in the TRD Off-road model to Canada in Double Cab form. How comes America gets it and we are stuck with the Access Cab version only?!

nagant

A good looking truck actually. The square "ish" wheel wells dont look nearly as stupid as the very square wheel wells on the GMC/Chevy trucks. Even my wife that could care less about trucks asked me "why would they put a square well over a round wheel?" Good question, because it looks terrible. The Taco pulls it off.

daryleason

@gslippy : No offense to the family vehicle...but I think this is the first time I've seen a serious post that found a way to relate a minivan to a 4x4 off-road truck. Congratulations.

@diondi : I feel no sympathy for you. The US gets cheated out of some fairly slick hatchbacks & coupes that the Europeans create for their local domestic markets.

As for the comment about the truck being tight. It's brand new. Let's see if it's still tight when it's got 20 grand on the clock, with at least 33% of that time running the trails. If it's still rattle free at that point, I'll be surprised. It's easy for a vehicle to be tight when you just drove it off the lot. It's after a year's worth of use and abuse that it's true colors show through.

5vzfe

daryleason said:

@diondi : I feel no sympathy for you.

Savage! Seriously though, there are some pretty awesome cars and trucks - or even just cool options or trims we don't get in the U.S. for whatever reason. Toyota even changes its own trim levels and equipment depending on what region of the United States you live in.

misterfusion

No complaints about the powertrain I assume? Other outlets have complained some about the new (for Tacoma) engine & transmission. On the other hand, it did win an off-road comparo vs. the new Ram Rebel (in Motor Trend, I think).

maxtitan

So how does it compare to the Chevy Colorado in terms of off-road performance? Are you planning to measure the RTI for the Tacoma?

defyant15

I love the Raptor (menacing etc) but its too big and overkill. I'm sure for most explorers, this is a better choice. Outstanding reliability, good size for trails and it looks like it can offroad pretty well. If I bought a truck, it would probably be this one.

The colorado diesel seems really exciting, but this just looks way more off road worthy.

allthingshonda

I think we forget that Toyota has a lot of experience building off road vehicles for extreme conditions. Toyota Land Cruisers went places in Africa and the Australian Outback that had no roads 50 years ago. For example they purposely left flex in the frame of the truck when everybody else touts that the have the stiffest strongest frames. In extreme off road situations the bending of the frame allows a tire that runs out of suspension travel to have an extra couple of inches to stay on the ground instead of lifting. This sacrificed the amount of weight the truck can carry and tow but Toyota says their research shows that Tacoma owners go off road more than owner of any other truck. Even the fog lights on off road models cast an extra wide beam, like a cornering light, to allow you to see the edges of the road on narrow trails at night.

gslippy

daryleason said:

@gslippy : No offense to the family vehicle...but I think this is the first time I've seen a serious post that found a way to relate a minivan to a 4x4 off-road truck. Congratulations.

I was just remarking on the utility of 70-series tires - no offense taken!