2024 Toyota Tacoma First Drive: Improved and Still Trucky

MotorTrend

Scott Evans takes the all-new 2024 Toyota Tacoma for a First Drive on the road and off road.  Find out why the new Taco is a massively improved pickup that doesn’t lose its essential trucky character.

Transcript

00:00 (upbeat music)

00:01 This thing is new, new, all the way down to the frame.

00:04 And on top of that, you got new engines, cab, bigger bed,

00:08 all the things that were ever on your wishlist

00:10 for the Tacoma.

00:10 Hey y'all, we are here with the hottest new truck

00:14 of the year, the all new Toyota Tacoma.

00:16 And I do mean all new.

00:18 This is not like the last couple of Tacomas

00:20 where they just freshened it up a bit and put it out there.

00:22 Let's talk about those engines

00:23 'cause that old V6 is gone.

00:25 This is a new turbocharged four-cylinder

00:26 that makes up to 278 horsepower.

00:29 And coming a little later is the hybrid model.

00:32 And that thing makes 346 horsepower

00:35 and will come in vehicles like the TRD Pro off-road truck.

00:39 But for today, we've got the TRD Sport.

00:42 The on-road truck is even cooler

00:44 because it has the six-speed manual transmission.

00:47 Yes, that's right.

00:48 You can still get a manual transmission in a pickup truck.

00:51 New looks, you can see it's a bit more inspired

00:56 by the Tundra now, a bit blockier, tougher looking.

00:59 We do gotta talk about this air dam down here

01:03 because everyone's gonna have thoughts about this.

01:05 It's there for aerodynamics.

01:06 It'll get you a bit better fuel economy,

01:08 but it's also only 11 screws to make it go away.

01:12 There's also some cool stuff happening at the back here.

01:18 This truck has two rear suspensions.

01:19 This one is the coil springs for better ride quality,

01:23 better handling, but if you just need to haul stuff

01:25 in your Tacoma, you can still get it with leaf springs.

01:28 All the way around the back here,

01:30 there's cool features like a spot for your high lift jack

01:33 when you're off-road and from the Tundra,

01:35 these exterior releases for the tailgate.

01:39 And now this time, they're on both sides,

01:41 so you don't have to come finding.

01:42 You hit that, gate comes on down,

01:44 and this truck's fully loaded,

01:46 so it's the full power tailgate,

01:47 which means I can also do this.

01:49 And it puts itself away.

01:52 But enough about what's new, let's go drive it.

01:56 (beep)

01:58 Inside of the Tacoma's all new too,

01:59 and you'll see a lot of Tundra influence

02:02 happening in here as well.

02:03 There's a lot of the same blocky styling of the dash,

02:06 and a lot of the same features here,

02:08 including, if you pay for it,

02:09 this enormous screen right in the middle,

02:12 plus digital gauge cluster,

02:14 and all kinds of nice features like wireless phone charger

02:16 and USB-C ports, all those good things.

02:19 But really what's nice and new here

02:23 is it's more comfortable.

02:25 In the old Tacoma, you were basically sitting on the floor

02:27 with your feet straight out in front of you.

02:29 This one isn't like that.

02:30 You get a more normal seating position here,

02:32 and you still got plenty of headroom.

02:34 In the back, the rear seats

02:37 used to basically be straight up and down.

02:38 Now they got a little bit of recline on,

02:40 they're a little more comfortable,

02:41 there's a little more space.

02:42 It's actually a much more comfortable place to be.

02:45 And it rides a bit better too.

02:47 This is a more comfortable ride,

02:48 especially with this optional coil spring

02:51 rear suspension on it.

02:54 You also notice it's quieter in here.

02:59 It's not nearly as loud as it used to be.

03:01 The engine's not working as hard

03:02 and yelling at you as much as it used to be.

03:04 But this engine is, I'd say, a really big improvement here,

03:09 especially the mid-range torque in this.

03:11 That old V6, if we're honest, it was reliable,

03:15 but it wasn't anything special.

03:16 This new turbo motor's got a lot more torque,

03:19 and you really feel it makes the truck

03:20 a lot more drivable here on the road.

03:23 I do think though, what you wanna do

03:24 is just go ahead and put it in sport mode.

03:27 Sounds silly on a truck, but that's what we're calling it.

03:29 It just livens up the throttle,

03:31 makes the truck a bit nicer to drive,

03:33 whether you're driving a stick shift like we are today

03:35 or the automatic.

03:37 And now this stick shift, still truck transmission.

03:40 It's got long throws, but you know what?

03:42 It fits the character of the truck.

03:44 The key thing though is, as much as the Tacoma is improved

03:50 in its driving and handling and riding,

03:53 it's not like driving an SUV.

03:55 It's still got a bit of that truckiness.

03:57 It's still a little rough around the edges.

03:59 It has a little more body roll and a little bit firmer ride.

04:04 It feels more trucky.

04:06 And I think it suits the character of the Tacoma.

04:10 This is going to feel familiar to Tacoma owners

04:13 who love their trucks, but also updated,

04:17 a little newer, a little nicer,

04:18 but without losing that essence of what made

04:21 the old Tacoma so endearing to so many people.

04:24 All right, now we're out here doing real taco stuff.

04:30 And the cool thing about this truck is that

04:33 if you want to be old school and left foot break it

04:35 and do all your own spotting, you can do that

04:38 and you'll have a great time.

04:40 But if you want to just do it the easy way,

04:42 or if you're newer to off-roading,

04:45 all kinds of tools to help you out.

04:47 Like right now, we've got a whole bunch

04:50 of offset moguls in front of us.

04:51 This truck's going to get all twisted up

04:53 and I could do it myself,

04:55 but also I've got the multi-terrain system here

04:57 that'll give me the traction I need

05:00 when we start getting wheels off the ground.

05:01 And I've got the crawl control here

05:03 that's basically off-road cruise control.

05:05 And I'm just going to take my feet off the pedals

05:08 and it's going to drive us through this no problem.

05:10 In fact, at the moment,

05:13 I also have the front sway bar disconnected.

05:15 So the truck is even got more articulation

05:20 to drop into these holes

05:23 without totally throwing us all over the back

05:25 of the truck.

05:26 Now you can see we're moving around a bit,

05:27 but if we had the front end locked up,

05:29 we'd be doing a lot more of this,

05:31 but instead the truck just crawls right through it.

05:33 And remember this isn't even the full boat

05:36 TRD Pro Crazy Off-Road Truck.

05:39 This is the TRD Off-Road model,

05:41 which is some cool parts that make it more off-roady,

05:44 but you can get a lot more extreme than this.

05:46 This is just the first step

05:49 on the off-road ladder for Toyota.

05:50 This duality really is the story of the new Tacoma.

05:56 They've kept the spirit and the character of the Tacoma

06:01 that so many people love,

06:03 but then added a bunch of new features

06:05 and things that people expect from a new car.

06:07 You've got new off-road features, new on-road features,

06:10 new convenience features, all this cool stuff,

06:13 but it still looks like a Tacoma.

06:15 It still drives like a Tacoma.

06:17 It still does all the cool stuff that you want it to,

06:21 but also it's got a more powerful engine,

06:23 even gets better fuel economy.

06:24 What else could you want?

06:26 Manual transmission?

06:28 It's got that too.

06:28 Thanks for watching everybody.

06:35 (upbeat music)

06:37 (upbeat music)

06:40 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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