Three Reasons to Buy - 2016 Toyota Tacoma Long-Term Road Test

Edmunds.comEdmunds.com Member, Administrator, Moderator Posts: 10,315
edited October 2016 in Toyota
imageThree Reasons to Buy - 2016 Toyota Tacoma Long-Term Road Test

There are three reasons to buy a 2016 Toyota Tacoma. Our man in Fresno tells you what they are.

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Comments

  • geezermikegeezermike Member Posts: 22
    Resale Value - Yeah OK, but all trucks have outrageous used prices in my mind. Off road - OK, but few actually do it (I mean REAL OFF ROAD not driving on a logging trail, which I can do in my CRV and my fried does in his Prius to pick up his hunting season deer). Midsize dimension - This one has the potential for being absolutely wrong depending on which variations are used in the comparison -- so Maybe. A regular cab half ton is shorter and has a shorter turning radius then a Tacoma Crew. And that half ton can have better Ride, Seating, MPG, Payload, Towing, Box capacity, ground clearance, more quiet, nicer driving, cheaper,..... If someone needs seating for more than three, or needs a 6 inch narrower or shorter truck, well the choices for comparison narrow.

    Again I want to point out that the full size and mid size Cab, Engine, and Box configurations create a large overlap in ability and price, and testing should acknowledge and show this overlap for our real world paper comparison pleasure;)
  • geezermikegeezermike Member Posts: 22
    Correction: "needs a 6 inch narrower or shorter truck" should read "needs a 6 inch narrower or less tall truck".
  • ahightowerahightower Member Posts: 539
    The crazy resale is why I bought mine new. Used with 40K miles for $25K, or brand new for $29K?... no brainer.

    I know that for about the same money, I probably could have had an F150, which are always on Super Duper Sale Act Now!!! If you don't get $10K of sticker, you're doing it wrong. At 17 mpg average, I'm probably not saving anything on fuel. And a handful of times, I've wished for more towing capacity. (I did not expect to tow at all, but now I have the opportunity about six times a year, though I usually let one of the other Troop dads with an F250 handle it.)

    98% of the time, I love the Taco's easy size, and parking in my garage at night, which just wouldn't be possible with a full size (I measured). My teenage boys have wished for a bigger back seat, but it's immeasurably better than the jump seats in my high school buddy's old Ranger I used to ride around in (this was before four-door trucks were even a thing), so they can just get over it. It's the perfect daily commuter (short commute, don't care about fuel prices) and super convenient for camping trips with the boys.

    The fact is, I'm actually the target demo for a Pilot. Except dayumn they're ugly, and they hadn't come out yet when I was shopping last year anyway. And that long term test y'all did years ago where it blew out all four shocks on a mild fire road really turned me off. I won't be getting too far off road with my 2WD PreRunner, but I like knowing it won't fall apart when I'm bouncing down a dirt road to a campsite.
  • bohiobohio Member Posts: 59
    AHT, nowhere in your post do you mention what you put in your truck besides yourself and your teenage boys. This is what puzzles me about many people (perhaps not a majority, but still a whole bunch) who buy/drive pickup trucks. Unless you are often putting big/bulky/lots of stuff in your vehicle and need the truck bed for same, then why get a truck instead of an SUV with its permanently attached camper shell so to speak? A truck bed contents are subject to weather, theft, wind damage (think potted plants and Calder mobiles) and bouncing right out of the vehicle. Or, you can put a camper shell (aka "cap" here in New England) on the truck bed and later hassle with taking it off for the occasions when you need to haul home a refrigerator, big tire for Crossfit-type flipping workouts, furniture, and that roadside T-Rex chainsaw sculpture. Now you have an SUV with an inferior (but bigger) way-back compartment.

    With an SUV or any vehicle equipped to tow, you could easily rent a trailer for the day you bring home the new fridge and T-Rex. Or if you can do such tasks in 75 minutes round-trip, then rent the Home Depot ($19) flatbed maybe.

    Regardless, the Taco isn't nearly ideal if you're 6'4"tall and think the rear drum brakes are even dumber than that obsolete 'Securipad' thing that Ford still puts on the driver's door handle of their trucks and other vehicles. (But if I still wore Levi Silver Tab 550 denims and rocked .38 Special on my Blaupunkt aftermarket cassette deck, that keypad would be in the same tier on Maslow's hierarchy...)

    As I put bales of hay in my truck bed yesterday, and each week when I load up the bed with stuff too bulky to fit in any SUV, I think "this is why I have a truck". But we live on a farm now, not in the suburbs.

    Lastly, I think AHT meant to cite the Ridgeline, not the Pilot. And the new Ridgeline isn't nearly as homely as the original.
  • steverstever Guest Posts: 52,454
    I've had 9 bales of hay in and on top of my minivan. And have hauled a frig or two inside. With the door shut. Hauled a goat in my old VW Bus one time. And the liftover height is lower than a SUV.

    So why do you have a truck? :D

    Oh, and there's nothing wrong with rear drums. They work fine and rarely need to be worked on. With the money you save on repairs, you can get a second Calder. I'd go for one of his tapestries though. ;)
  • bohiobohio Member Posts: 59
    HA!! Fair point, and in fact when we moved out here (from CA) we kept our Honda Odyssey for a while because of the cavernous (and weather-tight) interior space. But, its towing ability is modest at best and its lack of AWD made it a no-go in snow and then "mud" season (think 8" deep pancake batter on the road we live on for several weeks in the spring). And, unless I was willing to lay the fridge down (some of them say not to do that), it wasn't going in the van, nor was the massive rolling tool chest and various other things we've added to the farm household. Sigh... the suburbs are easy... As to brakes, my 2006 Xterra (which I owned since new, and which had 148,XXX original miles) still had 40% estimated brake pads remaining, front and rear. The only service that vehicle ever got aside from oil changes (done myself, like tire rotations, every ~ 7,500 miles, to ensure it was done correctly) was changing the transmission oil at about 90k. All the more reason I was so appalled at the new Titan. I really wanted to like/buy another Nissan, but they're in a decade-old rut it seems. As to AWD in a van, the Toyota Sienna is the only player that I know of, and it's too nice IMO to put hay (or pigs -- as were hauled in my truck bed!) inside. Cheers.
  • steverstever Guest Posts: 52,454
    The trick with the frig is to not plug it in for 24 hours to make sure all the oil gets back into the compressor after you set it back upright. :)

    Funny, we passed up a Sienna for a Quest back in '99 because the Toyota was a bit too plush. The Quest rarely had rear brake issues over 200k. The current Grand Caravan with rear disks stops fine, but we live on the gravel and the anti-rattle springs on the rears just won't stay on.

    And yeah, not the rig for ground clearance, towing or snow.

    Old friend of ours stopped by a couple of weeks ago in her new Tacoma, in that pretty blue color. She special ordered it to get the 6' bed. Too bad she lives 6 hours away or I'd find some excuses to borrow it.
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