Why Are Some Tacoma Owners Like This?

[JACKSMYDOG]

For 60 years Toyota has offered dozens of quality small diesel motors that with light foot and responsible maintenance easily run 400,00m. Put those in desert climates where the bodies never rust, and you have a 3-5 decade vehicle.

My "slow and steady" friend was getting 40+ mpg from his 85 Taco 5 speed, and diesel was about half the cost of unleaded in the 90s.

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[FoD]

Simple. The world is full of narrow minded narrow visioned asshats and idiots

That would have been the perfect segue into the non damper believers, but the other guys are taking the day off...

 

[dcg]

Just the nature of people wanting to believe the decision they made was the “right” decision.

Every group has these folks. The Jeep crew has the whole “it’s a Jeep thing, you wouldn’t understand!” Toyota fanboys talk about a reliability advantage that may or may not still exist.

There are a lot more Tacomas out there than Rangers, so we see more of them. But I also see stickers with a Taco crossed out and cringe at the idea of putting something like that on a Ranger.

Reality is, the right decision for one person might be different than another. If you’re happy with your truck, who cares? The need for external validation isn’t limited to a particular logo on someone’s steering wheel.

 

[Cowboys22]

I gave the Toyota about 10 minutes of my time in searching for a truck. I think they are ugly as sin.

 

[Slaughterbrau19]

A guy saw my new Ranger, said it looked sick, and amazing for the price. I told him that we bought ours for a very specific reason: be a light trailer TV that is small and efficient enough to be my daily commuter. I also told him this:

The Ford Ranger is superb. The Chevy/GMC Colorado/Canyon is superb. The Toyota Tacoma is superb. Test drive them all. Go with what you like. As long as you're not buying a Frontier, you really can't go wrong in this segment.

Brand-loyal fanboys are the worst.

 

[Slaughterbrau19]

No beef with the Tacoma, but I was searching for info about them, and next thing I know, my browser was full of ads for Axe Body Spray and whey protein.

 

[HenryMac]

Why are Tacoma owners like “this?”
I’m truck shopping, and as part of it, I’m reading forums and Facebook groups for trucks I like. It seems that Tacoma owners simply cannot compliment or acknowledge that a non-Toyota truck is as good as their beloved Tacoma. Their blinders are absolutely ridiculous.
When I see folks posting in the Tacoma Facebook groups that they’ve bought a Chevy/Ford/Ram, it only takes a second before the “good luck with your new piece of crap truck”, “you’ll be back; those trucks are total crap”, “you’re an idiot for leaving the Tacoma” etc.
It’s like they take it so personally that someone dares to buy a non-Tacoma truck. Yet if someone talks about weak & rusty frames (Toyota is still replacing rusted out frames), drum brakes, poor shifting transmissions, no front locker, a rear locker that only works in 4LO, etc. , those guys are jumped on by the fanboys, often times with childish & personal attacks.
I’ve always gone with the mantra of “Drive what you like; Like what you drive.” I just don’t get the childish hostility these guys have against anyone who dares question the Tacoma. It’s like a cult of “brainwashed” owners.
And yes, I’ve had a Tacoma before. It was nice, but far from perfect.
Your thoughts?

My thought's... I drove Tacoma's for about 22 years. Traded our 2002 Tacoma for our current 2019 Ranger.

It was a matter of pride for me. I never once in 22 years had any quality or mechanical issues with our Tacoma's. Drove over 170,000 miles on the 2002... when we traded the Tacoma in it still had it's factory installed: brakes, clutch, lights, spark plugs, plug wires, coils, starter, etc.

I changed the oil & oil filter every 8,000 miles, rotated the tires every 4,000 miles and it never needed any additional oil between oil changes. Replaced the battery 2 or 3 times over 22 years too.

Changed the air filter every 20,000 miles and drained and re-filled the engine coolant 3 times.

Prior to the Tacoma's I was a General Motors guy. Changing brake rotors, calipers, turning drums, replacing brake shoes, starters, alternators, clutches, turning flywheels, batteries, etc. was "just what we all did". We bought a new GMC Jimmy in 1993... Nice truck, leather interior, 5 speed manual, fully loaded. A couple years later the freeze plug between the motor and transmission started leaking and the front brake calipers rusted tight, at just a little over 30,000 miles. It was just out of warranty and the dealer told us "Sorry about your luck" That's when we traded it in on a Tacoma.

So that's why I always said good things about my Tacoma. In comparison to domestic vehicles I was driving, the Tacoma was far superior.

I've been proud of my 2019 Ranger thus far. Great truck, zero issues in over 17,000 miles.

But some of the stuff I've seen here on this website about the cheapskate shit Ford has been doing on the assembly line has me wondering what else is lurking that we all haven't noticed: missing bed tire downs, randomly not putting seam sealer on doors, the fuel in oil lemon law issues, no plastic plugs in rocker panels, revising headrests so they don't tilt, availability of replacement parts... yadda, yadda, yadda. It seems like Ford is going backward, not forward when it comes to quality. That's disheartening.

It's disheartening enough that I warn people about buying a new Ranger, and tell them why.

 

[Msfitoy]

When you're at a light with a Taco behind you...go WOT and see them shrink as if you'd just thrown them into ice water...this works for my 5,500 lb stock porker running 87...but if you're tuned then more power to you... ?

 

[Dr. Zaius]

... Cant wait to see what all these fan boys are going to say when the next Gen Tacoma comes out and it has......A 4cyl turbo!

They will say that once again Toyota is leading the industry and they were waiting until their 4 cylinder turbo was perfect before releasing it.

And it will probably still have drum brakes in the rear.

That will be the conversation to watch if they go to discs after the fanbois have been defending the superiority of drum brakes forever.

 

[dokkerdam]

Why are Tacoma owners like “this?”
I’m truck shopping, and as part of it, I’m reading forums and Facebook groups for trucks I like. It seems that Tacoma owners simply cannot compliment or acknowledge that a non-Toyota truck is as good as their beloved Tacoma. Their blinders are absolutely ridiculous.
When I see folks posting in the Tacoma Facebook groups that they’ve bought a Chevy/Ford/Ram, it only takes a second before the “good luck with your new piece of crap truck”, “you’ll be back; those trucks are total crap”, “you’re an idiot for leaving the Tacoma” etc.
It’s like they take it so personally that someone dares to buy a non-Tacoma truck. Yet if someone talks about weak & rusty frames (Toyota is still replacing rusted out frames), drum brakes, poor shifting transmissions, no front locker, a rear locker that only works in 4LO, etc. , those guys are jumped on by the fanboys, often times with childish & personal attacks.
I’ve always gone with the mantra of “Drive what you like; Like what you drive.” I just don’t get the childish hostility these guys have against anyone who dares question the Tacoma. It’s like a cult of “brainwashed” owners.
And yes, I’ve had a Tacoma before. It was nice, but far from perfect.
Your thoughts?

I had a 2002 and a 2013, both bought new. toyota replaced the frame on the '02 and was probably going to have to do the same on the '13 but i sold it back to a toyota dealership for about what i paid 4 years earlier.

it came time for me to buy another small truck so i tried both tacoma engines side by side with the 4 cyl. ranger (only engine offered). tried everything twice and bought the ranger. tacoma owner's who complain about the ranger simply haven't tried one.

the only reservations i had were resale value (not an issue now since all vehicle prices are skyrocketing) and reliability (not a huge issue with 5 yr./60000 mile warranties.

and, and, my 2nd tacoma (2013) was a huge bore to drive around (even with the long discontinued 4.0). at the time i had a sedan also and always chose it over the truck if possible. this '19 ranger is fun, tight, nimble and quick to drive. i don't even miss having the 2nd cars anymore (both vw jettas, a diesel and a hybrid, so that's alot for the ranger to live up to. it does).

now stay tuned for details about what i don't like about the ranger - mainly radio/ipod software and the bed design but overall i haven't looked back.

dipstick jim

 

[DT444T]

My buddy drives an 2nd gen I4 Toyota, 2005-2015. We went out to Buttonwillow raceway. He was hauling one bike in the bed of his truck, and I had three in my enclosed trailer. I passed him like he was standing still, going UP The Grapevine. There's no way even the most powerful Tacoma is gonna keep up with the Ranger doing that. Especially with their slushbox 5 or 6 speed.

I'm sure the Tacoma is a fine truck. Why would I see the EVERYWHERE if they weren't. But their owners (and by extension 4Runner owners) are whackjobs FAR too often.

 

[CarbonTremor]

Ugh Toyota never did anything for me . The largest selling point literally is the name and the realiabilty of the drive train which was more relevant 25 years ago. Imo they are slower while getting worse gas milage, out dated tech, blah interior with uncomfortable seats. . I never did a "deep dive" into Toyota, but a family member has a 4runner trd pro which is Toyota's top dog.

 

[CarbonTremor]

Also pretty sure multiple reviewers tested the trd pro vs the tremor and deemed the tremor more capable. One reviewer basically acknowledged the tremor was the better truck but would still choose the trd pro just because . .

 

[DT444T]

Ah yes, that's how you review. With your mind already made up before the fact based on nothing.

 

[F150stxguy]

A weird mix of Japophile and ignorant redneck. Believe it or not. I joke about it, but I see soooooo many camo seat covers in Tacoma’s (and yes, even RAV4’s I shit you not). It’s a perceived non-U.S. reliability factor. Many automatically assume since there’s a Toyota logo (they conjure up images of Japan) it’s automatically bullet proof. We have social justice warriors, woke-tards, virtue signalers, hardcore antifa and right wing Nazi’s - there needs to be a classification for Toyota cultists. They’re a weird hybrid of soy boy, hipster and redneck all rolled into one. Usually oblivious to a vehicle’s limitations, towing-payload capacity (remember how powerful that logo is on the front).

A very unusual and weird consumer demographic. If I was into marketing I would diligently study them.

Perceived reliability-durability > power, driving dynamics and fuel economy.

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