2024 Toyota Tacoma Musings: spicy comment goes here.
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Let me get to my first lamentation: there is no access cab. There is now an extended cab or what my dad would call the "King cab," and no suicide doors. You can read Andrew Collin's piece as he politely tries to decipher the thought process that led to this decision. I'll quote some of the corporate-speak for your convenience from Toyota's rep from said article:“We looked a little deeper and we saw that 50% of that 34,000 units, people are ordering rear-seat deletes. People aren’t carrying people, they’re carrying things. Stuff. Gear. So we said ‘Hmm, is there a better way to do this?’ Because to be perfectly candid, as we continue to look at side-impact and crashworthiness, it requires a lot to put the suicide doors in. We have to put in a lot of investment and we saw that market shrinking.
“So we thought ‘How can we rethink this? We still want to have an alternative’ (to a full four-door).”
So you're acknowledging that the customers enjoyed the convenience of the access cab and you've gone and deleted the thing that actually made it convenient: the fucking doors.
Simply put: they saved money on development by not having to design another B-pillarless suicide door configuration and they don't have to worry about rear passenger safety to boot -- because there is no option for rear seats on the extended cab. From that same article, the take rate was approximately 1/3 for the access cab on the outgoing Tacoma, but -- again -- "shrinking."
But hey, the front seat folds flat like a Pontiac Vibe or IS300 Sportcross. So that's cool. Although those cars also had rear doors and a hatch. Try to load something bulky and upright over that sumbitch in your Tacoma. Well, I shouldn't complain. It's a truck, so you can get a tonneau cover or canopy for shit you find inconvenient to load in the cab. Advantages are supposedly rigidity and improved NVH. I think my space would be repurposed for a luxurious doggo-space, or select flavors of Kit Kat bars on demand --Hopefully without accidentally combining the two ideas.Further illustrating Toyota's departure from caring about a body style they'll sell even fewer of now: it appears that the extended cab will only be offered on the three lowest trims for 2024. I haven't yet found official confirmation of this, but I hope I am mistaken!
Oh by the way: the PreRunner shown above? Automatic only. There is no manual option for any extended cab variant, so says Motor Trend.
... Let's move on.
There's more snips, but I'm worried I'll lose what little audience I have left here, so here are some BULLET POINTS, WOOOOOOO:
- SR gets a detuned turbo
- SR, SR5, and PreRunner get no hybrid option
- Top trims (TrailHunter and TRD Pro) are hybrid only
- Limited now gets center locking diff option
- did I mention there are eight trim levels now?
"The future is now, old maaaaaan!"
Yes, yes. I need to get with the times. Turbos. Hybrids. More torque more now.
... Or one can just buy a current Frontier with a competent, naturally aspirated V6
Was I going anywhere with this post? Not really.
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@Dr-Zoidberg I also did a double take when I saw that Toyota deleted the convenient half doors. Now it's just a really long single cab to better accommodate tall people.
Color enthusiast, Citroën fanatic, and captain of a 1985 Mercedes 300D
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@WhoIsTheLeader All the inconvenience of being longer than a true single cab, without that pesky utility of being able to easily access the space
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Easy solutions to your lack of door problems.
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@Dr-Zoidberg I don't mind, I never take other people with us, back is just for dogs and stuff and as long as the front seat slides forward it's fine. If I buy a hybrid Tacoma I will be commuting and I don't want a manual, I only want manuals on classic cars, I'm putting an auto in my Dodge truck too. I hope they make a Prime at some point, I'm keeping the Acura for a while so hopefully the solid state Toyota battery efficiency and charging time rumors are true. I bet by 2027 there will be some much better numbers, I'll wait.
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@CB Hmmm my Makita sawzall only has one battery
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@Dr-Zoidberg Honestly my ass is still chapped over the unwillingness of Toyota to allow me to actually order what I want. I would like to be a buyer of an SR 4x4 manual, but the odds of me getting my hands on one of the seven they decide to build are somewhere in line with a tiny meteorite taking off my little toe in my backyard.
1971 Mercury Comet GT
www.burntclutches.com
burntclutchesmedia@gmail.com -
@Dr-Zoidberg I'd have done a Rivian-style side hatch (with optional slider) and then put a folded-seat-level shelf over it behind the front seats
The person reading this is a doo-doo head
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@EssExTee said in 2024 Toyota Tacoma Musings: spicy comment goes here.:
@Dr-Zoidberg I'd have done a Rivian-style side hatch (with optional slider) and then put a folded seat-level shelf over it behind the front seats
That would have been genuinely innovative. I like the idea if you're going to not bother with seats and a door.
2006 Toyota Sienna
2007 Honda Civic
2013 Chevy Equinox -
@siennaman Stuff way down on the floor behind the seat would be a pain to get anyways so might as well make it accessible from outside. Plus, it could eliminate the need for a toolbox that takes up your already limited bed space.
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@Dr-Zoidberg it's hard to fault them for not building things no one buys. It's a bummer and one of the sucky things of our data driven consumerism.
Some kind of sentient rodent - Overland Curator.
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@HammerheadFistpunch said in 2024 Toyota Tacoma Musings: spicy comment goes here.:
@Dr-Zoidberg it's hard to fault them for not building things no one buys. It's a bummer and one of the sucky things of our data driven consumerism.
One third isn't no one!
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@Dr-Zoidberg
That rear access door on the space cab has disappeared in every space cab iteration still available in the Australian market. Only Isuzu offers it and it's automatic only. Edit: Nissan does too but the Navara is being replaced soon with a twin under the skin Mitsubishi Triton.And the only other space cab options left is the Hilux and the soon to be replaced Mitsubishi Triton. Ford yeeted all other body styles apart from the dual cab in the 2024 Ranger.
It also doesn't help that these space cab versions typically cost as much if not more than the equivalent grade dual cab...
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They blew their B-pillar budget on fancy new rear brakes.
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@Dr-Zoidberg The new Tacoma is so freaking ugly. It's like every truck maker is competing to make the ugliest one. Between the taco, and Tundra, Toyota might be wining.
(Speedy Speed Boy woa oh woa oh)
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@BurntClutches said in 2024 Toyota Tacoma Musings: spicy comment goes here.:
Honestly my ass is still chapped over the unwillingness of Toyota to allow me to actually order what
As always, the words "Toyota" and "order" have nothing in common..
Recent times have only made getting any Toyota a combination of wish and luck. And now of course, paying dealers ADM in many cases. -
@Dr-Zoidberg At least it has rear disc brakes.
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@Dr-Zoidberg said in 2024 Toyota Tacoma Musings: spicy comment goes here.:
... Or one can just buy a current Frontier with a competent, naturally aspirated V6
I had a look at the Nissan site at the Frontier - 24+ mpg highway! That's worse than an ecoboost F-150!
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@liam said in 2024 Toyota Tacoma Musings: spicy comment goes here.:
I had a look at the Nissan site at the Frontier - 24+ mpg highway! That's worse than an ecoboost F-150!
When has an EcoBoost F150 ever gotten more than 21 MPG highway?
I'd have been elated if my 2011 got anywhere close to 21 highway.
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@Dr-Zoidberg said in 2024 Toyota Tacoma Musings: spicy comment goes here.:
@HammerheadFistpunch said in 2024 Toyota Tacoma Musings: spicy comment goes here.:
@Dr-Zoidberg it's hard to fault them for not building things no one buys. It's a bummer and one of the sucky things of our data driven consumerism.
One third isn't no one!
"It's also not 100%!"
- 100% of Automanufacturers
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@Dr-Zoidberg How many extraneous numbers/letters are available on the highest trim level? Is there an SR5 ATX SRV Wilderness Xtreme V6?
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@Dr-Zoidberg Rear seats in extended cab midsize trucks are %100 useless anyway, especially since jumper seats are no longer a thing, so eliminating the seats was a good call. Eliminating the doors was monumentally stupid*, but there's a hint right there in Toyota's quote
as we continue to look at side-impact and crashworthiness, it requires a lot to put the suicide doors in
Side impacts, and offset impact tests have to be extremely difficult on these pillarless extended cab trucks and I can't imagine it's cheap to engineer that. Full size trucks went to a standard style door years ago, Ram (back when it was still Dodge) all the way back in 2002, GM in 2013, Tundra in 2007, Colorado/Canyon dropped extended cab for the new generation likely for similar reasons, next gen Ranger will do the same, so the only holdouts left are the Frontier, and Ford F-150/250/350. I still think it's the best format for an extended cab truck, but honestly I'm surprised Ford has stuck with it this long, especially after the infamous 10th gen crash test**.
This got disjointed but anyway, poor choice Toyota. I'm tired of this world where everything is overly optimized for even the smallest majority, I understand the business perspective of it, but numbers and statistics don't always tell the whole story. While the numbers may show only a small number of people purchased these options they fail to show the importance of those options to the people that did.
*Trying to think of the last 2 door extended cab that was actually made, OBS Ford in 1996? F-250 went to '98 technically. 10th gen F-150 got a 3rd door in '97, GM 1500 got an optional 3rd door for '97, Ranger I suppose went to 2011 but it looks like it was optional.
**10th gen was not designed with the mild offset test in mind but it got absolutely shitrocked and it's a more than a little disturbing to see.
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@mhr555 said in 2024 Toyota Tacoma Musings: spicy comment goes here.:
@liam said in 2024 Toyota Tacoma Musings: spicy comment goes here.:
I had a look at the Nissan site at the Frontier - 24+ mpg highway! That's worse than an ecoboost F-150!
When has an EcoBoost F150 ever gotten more than 21 MPG highway?
I'd have been elated if my 2011 got anywhere close to 21 highway.
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@HFV_Junkyardin This. I know trucks aren't sold for looks, but I held the Tundra and Tacoma up as the best truck designs in both of their classes. "First to worst" in one generation. But that's Toyota across the board, IMO.
Sequoia is also painful to see now, too.
It's weird when the Sienna and Highlander are the prettiest rides in the stable.
Just imagine Ryan Reynolds' low-cost backup stunt double.
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@HFV_Junkyardin But it's tough. And rugged. And butch.
