Review By Dr. David A. Zatz - ACarPlace.com and ToyoLand.com
2005 Toyota Tacoma pickup truck reviews
| Review Notes: Toyota Tacoma V6 Access Cab 4WD with Six-Speed Manual |
| Personality |
a truck lover's truck, despite interior design |
| Above Average: |
brute-force acceleration with V6; probably reliability; cornering with TRD |
| Needs Work In: |
gas mileage, clutch force (V6), noise (V6), rear seats (Access Cab), wheel hop when braking |
Toyota Tacoma mid-sized pickup
The Toyota Tacoma is a beefier version of a long line of Toyota
pickups
produced in a moderately successful attempt to crack the American
market. While the most popular American vehicles are the GM and Ford
pickups, Toyota's top seller remains the Camry - the best selling car
in America - and it remains far below Dodge in pickup sales, a good
long distance from the Big Two. That situation is bound to change - the
question is how long it will take. The Tacoma is one more step towards
the goal, and, like the Dakota and now the Colorado, it distinguishes
itself partly by moving up from compact to mid-sized, with an optional
large cab, powerful V6, and also by having very quick acceleration.
Our test vehicle was a Tacoma Access Cab, the middle of the range,
with hidden
"suicide
doors" and flip-and-fold rear seats. Ours had the Toyota Racing
Development (TRD) sport package #2, a hefty $4,565
option, with a sport-tuned suspension, 17" alloy wheels, limited
slip differential, AC outlet on the bed, fog lights, hitch, oil cooler,
battery upgrade, power locks, doors, and mirrors, remote, cruise, and
other options and features. Our test car also had a $200 stereo
upgrade, $120 bed mat (a very
good investment), and $370 running boards, which some may find useful
and others can do without. The base price of the 4x4 Access Cab with V6
is a reasonable $22,245, but our model ended up at a somewhat less
impressive $28,038. Even without any options, the Access Cab 4x4 has
four wheel antilock brakes with electronic distribution, a front
passenger airbag cutoff, air conditioning, six-speaker CD player,
tilt/telescoping steering wheel, and engine immobilizing. A base model
Tacoma, with standard two-passenger, two-door cab, four-cylinder engine
producing as much power as a V6 would a few years back (164 hp) is
around $14,000, which is quite reasonable. The fours come with a
five-speed stick or four-speed automatic, while the V6 is coupled to a
six-speed stick or five-speed automatic (though we'd say it needs the
extra gear less).
One
of the features of the Tacoma that shows their attention to the
American market is an engine very different from those of, say, the
Hi-Lux: a 245 horsepower 4-liter V6, featuring four valves per cylinder
and variable valve timing. On ours, this was coupled to a six-speed
manual transmission with a stiff clutch (which is nevertheless not hard
to get smooth shifts out of, despite rather large engine torque and a
low first gear) and a clunky, mechanical-feeling long-throw shifter
which brings home the Tacoma's truckiness. If you're into trucks, it's
a fun transmission that you can still use to drive your wife or parents
around, albeit with extra attention to the clutch. The V6 sounds and
feels much more like an older, low-tech design, which
lots of torque from idle on up for instant reactions, and gas mileage
of 16 city, 20 highway - roughly in the middle of the range for pickups
in its class, albeit running on premium (regular is acceptable, premium
is recommended for the V6; regular is recommended for the four.)
While it's great to have acceleration on tap no matter
what the engine speed is, theV6 is rather raucous, and we
suspect in an American car, reviewers would be jumping over each other
to call it "unrefined." It is, in short, loud. But it's also fast, with
0-60 sprints of under 8 seconds (Toyota claims 7.5 with the automatic
and under 7 for an XRunner), and responsiveness right off idle even
in higher gears.
The first gear is fairly
low, so the engine moves quickly and loudly up to redline; sixth gear
feels comfortable at a fairly low 45 mph, thanks to gobs of low-end
torque, but the overall gear ratio is reasonable, with the engine
running, according to our calculations, at a comfortable 2,600 rpm or
so at 70 mph. At highway speeds, road and wind noise is evident, but
not excessive. The stiff clutch pedal may annoy some people, and we
would have preferred the long-throw six-speed shifter (four cylinders
get five speeds) to have a guard against going into reverse, like the
Volkswagen "left up and push" system. Fortunately, the Tacoma beeps
while in reverse gear, a handy alert to know when you've gone just a
little past first and are set to go in the wrong direction.
The 4x4 system, available on all engines, is
controlled by a simple rotary knob that's easy to turn, with high two
and four wheel drive and low four wheel drive. Stability control is optional.
Getting into the Access Cab is fairly easy for both front and rear
passengers; while the floor is fairly high, it isn't excessive, and the
seats are low. The front doors must be opened to get access to the rear
doors, but once those are open, the entire side of the cab is exposed.
(As with all such designs, sometimes a little planning or maneuvering
is required when getting front and rear passengers out in a parking lot
when another car is parked alongside). This setup seemed a little
easier than most, and to make it even easier, you can still fold and
push the front seats forward, as though there were only two doors.
However, once in, passengers will find the rear seats to be somewhat
disappointing, with little padding and very little seat space. Some car
seats are simply to large to be used in the back, even with the LATCH
system (fortunately, the front passenger seat has LATCH and the
passenger side airbag can easily be shut off). While the rear seats are
somewhat small, there is actually space for sitting, and with the seats
folded up, fairly large amounts of cargo can be stored inside the cab,
away from the elements. Generally, the Access Cab should be considered
a convenience for carrying stuff, with the potential to carry people
for short distances in a pinch. Children may enjoy the back seats, too.
The larger Double Cab version has four full sized doors and a
three-place rear bench seat, which can hold five passengers; to
compensate for the extra cab length, you can get a five foot bed (or
the standard six foot bed that's available on the other Tacomas).
The interior is an interesting styling exercise. The instrument
panel
uses one large circle and two part-circles. deeply set back to avoid
sun glare. The backlighting, which goes on as soon as the car is
started whether the headlights are on or not, is an orange-amber which
helps to preserve night vision; it's consistent across the interior,
except for the red gauge needles. The center pod has the 120 mph
speedometer, the left a tachometer, and the right temperature and gas
level. Various option buttons are scattered across the dashboard; our
truck didn't have enough options for us to tell if the layout was
logical. The retro emergency brake seemed like an affectation - it's
the pull kind, but you have to press and twist to release it - we
thought the last one of these had gone away long ago. It just didn't
seem to mesh well with the modern tilt-telescope steering wheel (which
works by friction, so it's got a continuous range).
The headlights are unusually well focused and bright, a Toyota trademark.
While the optional CD-changer stereo in our Tacoma was surprisingly
good, not just in sound quality and stereo separation but also in voice
(the bass can be turned all the way down), it is an integral system and
replacing it with an aftermarket unit would require serious work to the
center stack. Our main gripe with the system has nothing to do with the
excellent sound, but with how you adjust it: the tuning knob doubles as
an audio button/knob, and there's surprisingly little resistance on the
knob, so that when you press it to get bass, treble, balance, and fade
controls, it's far too easy to change the radio station at the same
time. Beneath the stereo is an LCD clock and the airbag status
indicator, and beneath that the simple, understandable three-dial
climate control (with separate buttons for turning on the air
conditioner or recirculating the air). The entire center stack is done
in a patterned silvery plastic with metal-colored knobs, buttons, or,
in the case of the climate control, knob indicators with black knobs.
The rest of the interior on our test truck was a light or dark beige or
black. There are many styling elements in every part of the truck; it's
not nearly as dull as, say, a full-sized Chevy truck or a Chrysler 300.
There's always some detail to see.
Storage abounds, with a generously sized center console, good-sized
glove compartment, overhead sunglass holder, three front cupholders
(that can be used for other items), cupholders molded into the door map
pockets, and even map pockets in the backs of the front seats, for the
rear passengers. There's also a convenient pickup bed behind the cab,
of course - on our truck, protected by a convenient rubber mat.
The pickup door is much lighter than those on most American models, and
is easy to swing down and latch back up. Just inside the truck is the
optional AC outlet (which can be shut off or turned on from inside the
cab), providing a convenient 400 watts of 120-volt current.
With the TRD setup, cornering is, not surprisingly, very good. Bumps
are definitely felt, but everything is cushioned, as one would expect
from a Toyota; washboard and other nasty surfaces are still very
definitely felt. The ride is on the firm side of comfortable, but it is
still fairly comfortable. Acceleration is, as mentioned before, instant
and quick. There's little body lean and cornering is confident and
capable, but the massive hood with its huge hood scoop (almost
certainly for show rather than go) doesn't help the Tacoma to feel
sporty, and hard braking almost invariably resulted in squeals or wheel
hop.
One of the interesting things about the auto industry is watching
the trends. For years, the Dodge Dakota remained the only mid-sized
truck, and it wasn't especially popular - particularly when compared
with the GM and Ford full sized and compact pickups. The new Chevy
Colorado and the most recent redesign of the Tacoma both return to the
"old pickup feel" (along with the Nissan pickup), with clear mechanical
feeling in the manual transmission, roaring engines, and lots of torque
in the low revs, and both are larger than the compact trucks as defined by the S-10, Ranger, and Hi-Lux.
Of course, automatic-transmission Tacomas without the TRD package,
or with the four-cylinder, will have a very different feel from our
truck. Toyota's specialty, comfortable ride, is no doubt much more in
evidence in the non-sport-tuned trucks, while cornering won't be as
good; but it will almost certainly be good enough for most buyers. Gas
mileage with the four-cylinder is better, and acceleration is still
pretty good. The automatic takes off quite a bit of the Tacoma's edge,
without hurting gas mileage, while the manual preserves the maximum torque-truck feeling and gives
better acceleration in the bargain.
Some traditional big-three pickup buyers may be leery of moving to
Toyota, even after, say, a bad experience with a Ford. But Toyota's
been the standard of pickups and off-road vehicles in many other
countries for years; their traditional quality and reliability are in
their trucks, too. These are not "can't-take-a-beating vehicles. Chevy
and Ford buyers will almost certainly find them to be tough enough,
despite a gaudy-in-spots interior.
The Toyota Tacoma is different enough that we suggest you include it
in your car shopping, though if you want something more refined and
comfortable, the Dodge Dakota may fit the bill more (albeit without the V6's strong acceleration); also in this range is the Chevrolet Colorado.
As for the Tacoma, if you just want a vehicle to carry stuff from point
A to point B, or if you want more comfort, look at the four-cylinder;
if you want speed and sportiness, the TRD package with the V6 (perhaps
the XRunner); and if you're in the middle, the automatic V6 (sans TRD)
may be nice.
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Click thumbnails for larger images
Exterior photos
Interior photos
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