Why we decided on a 24 Taco Off-Road

Dusdaddy said:
Ben, have you seen this video? Figured you'd be interested as it's a departure from most Taco vids. It's long but interesting. This guy is a Toyota Master Tech. and he went over the new Taco from a mechanical point of view. Explaining all the mechanical improvements and what he sees they did well and what he thinks they didn't do so well. Answers a lot of questions about fears of the turbos and the GDI system as well as others.
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Yeah I posted it in the other tread. LOL 🤣
 
Dusdaddy said:
Ben, have you seen this video? Figured you'd be interested as it's a departure from most Taco vids. It's long but interesting. This guy is a Toyota Master Tech. and he went over the new Taco from a mechanical point of view. Explaining all the mechanical improvements and what he sees they did well and what he thinks they didn't do so well. Answers a lot of questions about fears of the turbos and the GDI system as well as others.
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I could be wrong but I think he posted that somewhere. All I can say, I'm excited to grab a few beers, or coffee depending on timing, and catch up on some YouTube this weekend. A user on TacomaWorld broke down this video... I'll grab his thoughts and paste them over.
 
Here is that user's thoughts: (More of a comparison to the 2nd and 3rd gen on the changes) And yes, the Taco lean was a real thing... annoying as hell.

Watching it -- best deep-dive I've seen so far on the '24.

TL;DR the '24 base model Taco isn't bad but there are some questionable choices in the durability department. I think the 4th gen is going to make the remaining good examples of 2nd gens more valuable over time.

Some issues that stick out, at least on this base model. (Some of this may be different on higher-level off-road trims?)

Engine:
Turbo 4-banger -- err, no thanks. Higher power density (HP-per-liter) = more concentrated heat & loading on parts = less likely to meet traditional high expectations for very long service life. (300K-400K miles.)

Plastic coolant-routing & connection fittings. Just seems real bad, ya know? High temperature fluid under pressure. Valve cover is also plastic. Maybe not quite as bad becuase it's not under pressure, but still subject to lots of thermal cycling & solvent attack from fuel-contaminated used motor oil.

Drivetrain:
Aluminum driveshaft will be much less resistant to denting in off-road situations. (Maybe the higher trim-level off-road configurations with 2-piece will still have steel driveshafts?)

Fuel system:
The narrow and super-long plastic gas tank looks like it would be more susceptible to off-road damage than older-gen Tacos. Maybe the off-road trims will have a different tank shape and/or a separate bash guard under it. (Side note: I bet they finally switched the fuel tank side to passenger side to help offset "Tacoma lean" caused by having driver+battery+fuel all on same side in previous gens.)

Frame/Body:
Rear bumper/tow hitch are permanently welded to the frame rails. Going to make it a lot harder to repair rear-impact damage.

Suspension:
Interesting decision to mount the front shocks to the side of the LCAs, rather than the top. Hard to say without a much closer compariosn, but intuitively a side-mounting location for the shock tabs is not going to be as strong & stiff as the older-generation top-mount.

Aluminum front knuckles + steel hub bearings will be subject to galvanic corrosion, potentially making the front bearings very hard to change in high-mileage vehicles.

Rear leaf springs, at least on the base model in this review, look obviously prone to crapping out early due to rust and/or lack of reinforcement in the spring-pack clamps.

Emergencies:
Base model does not have a full-sized spare wheel/tire.

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On the plus side there are some durability improvements:

Fully-boxed frame with greater attention to rust-prevention.

Looks like the rear bed has moved to 8 bed-mounting bolts. Not sure if the 3rd gen also had 8 bolts? The 2nd gens have only 6 bed-mounting bolts.

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Dusdaddy said:
Ben, have you seen this video? Figured you'd be interested as it's a departure from most Taco vids. It's long but interesting. This guy is a Toyota Master Tech. and he went over the new Taco from a mechanical point of view. Explaining all the mechanical improvements and what he sees they did well and what he thinks they didn't do so well. Answers a lot of questions about fears of the turbos and the GDI system as well as others.
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He's a really nice guy as well. I met him last year at an event. If I lived in the area, I'd do a collab with him for sure.
 
Fightnfire said:
Engine:
Turbo 4-banger -- err, no thanks. Higher power density (HP-per-liter) = more concentrated heat & loading on parts = less likely to meet traditional high expectations for very long service life. (300K-400K miles.)

Frame/Body:
Rear bumper/tow hitch are permanently welded to the frame rails. Going to make it a lot harder to repair rear-impact damage.

Rear leaf springs, at least on the base model in this review, look obviously prone to crapping out early due to rust and/or lack of reinforcement in the spring-pack clamps.

Emergencies:
Base model does not have a full-sized spare wheel/tire.
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A few thoughts.

1. Turbo engines are not new and they have been out for more than a decade. I'm pretty much over talking about them and reliability at this point. They are here and not going anywhere.

2. Bumper welded to the frame? Weird. My chassis video specifically points out how you can remove the bumper and add a steel bumper if you like. It was one of the highlights from the new frame walk around.

3. Rear leaf springs? C'mon man. There's nothing new here with these items.

4. Real spare. We talked about this. If it is the same outside diameter, it will work just fine. Most vehicles these days have narrower spares due to space constraints. If you want an exact size spare, it certainly looks like you'll have to keep it in the bed. I'm eager to get a Tacoma and do a more in-depth video on this. I am pretty shocked this has come out as such a criticism when Toyota is not doing anything nobody else is doing.
 
Dusdaddy said:
That would be great to have such a knowledgeable mechanic giving feedback with you on reviews.
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I think a video here or there would be plenty. I don't want to turn into a mechanic channel and he doesn't want to turn into my channel. That's the beauty of YouTube. You can have channels with all sorts of different viewpoints.
 
testerdahl said:
A few thoughts.

1. Turbo engines are not new and they have been out for more than a decade. I'm pretty much over talking about them and reliability at this point. They are here and not going anywhere.
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Agreed. Enough already. We're back to the complaints about power windows in the 80s.
testerdahl said:
2. Bumper welded to the frame? Weird. My chassis video specifically points out how you can remove the bumper and add a steel bumper if you like. It was one of the highlights from the new frame walk around.
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Not the bumper, just the hitch. I thought that odd as well but I think they are using it as an additional crossmember on the rear. Regardless, nothing concerning. It's not like people change them out for a chrome one.
testerdahl said:
3. Rear leaf springs? C'mon man. There's nothing new here with these items.
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See Turbo above.
testerdahl said:
4. Real spare. We talked about this. If it is the same outside diameter, it will work just fine. Most vehicles these days have narrower spares due to space constraints. If you want an exact size spare, it certainly looks like you'll have to keep it in the bed. I'm eager to get a Tacoma and do a more in-depth video on this. I am pretty shocked this has come out as such a criticism when Toyota is not doing anything nobody else is doing.
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No different than normal. My Ram has a spare that is much narrower than the other tires. So? I'm glad.
 
I agree with both the above! And...Good news, my Taco came off hold and should be here next week so I can break the diff myself. 🤣
 
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