Brake Modulation Lacks Finesse - 2016 Toyota Tacoma Long-Term Road Test
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Brake Modulation Lacks Finesse - 2016 Toyota Tacoma Long-Term Road Test
Edmunds conducts a long-term test of the 2016 Toyota Tacoma and finds its brake modulation could be better.
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I really had high hopes for the Taco.
I wonder if this braking action is something a driver gets accustomed to. For example, I owned a '69 Z28 with four wheel disks (back when it was just an inexpensive 5 year old car), and it would instantly stop just thinking about braking - stop on a dime and leave change. Everyone negatively commented on how touchy the brakes were. It was a pain at first, but I got to really like it. I have never had a car that braked as well, including my Miata.
I am still struggling over owning a Tacoma considering some of its compromises. However, on the plus side it has rock-solid dependability, one of the lowest cost of ownership, good resale, an infinite amount of functional/radically-functional aftermarket parts, and an large collection of experience and modification knowledge -- kind of like a Jeep -- no other truck is close on these attributes. The think is, will the positives or negatives affect me more if I owned it. Just wish it had a few less compromises.
The clutch pedal on my old Mitsubishi Montero Sport was much stiffer and had a radically shorter travel than my parent's Jetta, which was feather light and engaged well above the floor. I stalled their VW repeatedly when starting in 1st because I wasn't used to it, and subsequent shifts were a herky-jerky embarrassment for someone like me who has been driving a stick for a few years.
My current car has an extremely agressive throttle compared to the other cars in our driveway, and it takes some adjusting when I hop back into it - but I eventually get used to it again. There are more differences too, engine power, transmission tuning, handling characteristics etc. that make some cars easier to live with than others in certain scenarios.
After all of that, I'm wondering are the Tacoma's deficiencies actually problems and engineering faux pas, or could you just adapt and live with? Is it just different in the way it goes about its business or does it really warrant the heavy criticism that people have on this forum for it?