The 2016 Toyota Tacoma Limited 4X4 Double Cab is all the truck you’ll need. And its a bargain at $40,000. Make no mistake; this is not a big truck. But it’ll do almost everything a big truck can do, and it fits in your garage. Powered by a 3.5L V6 engine kicking out 278 horsepower and 265 lb-ft of torque, it has enough power to accomplish the tasks most truck drivers demand but at a much lower fuel cost then those gasoline thirsty large trucks (averaging 20 mph combined driving).
The Limited 4X4 Double Cab comes with Part-Time 4X4 system with 4 high and 4 low selected through an electronic control transfer case providing seamless four-wheel drive when needed. You might think the torque on this truck is a bit less than what you have come to expect in a truck, but after driving it for a week I didn’t find it lacking. It may be a bigger issue when hauling a full load or when towing a large heavy trailer, but the only thing I was hauling were my kids and a dog. If you are hauling horses or carrying a heavy load on a regular basis, you are going to need a large truck and the Tacoma won’t be for you. But for the rest of you who don’t have horses, you should check out the Tacoma Limited.
The Tacoma drives great around town and was very comfortable on the highway. Don’t get me wrong, it drives and feels like a truck, but its center of gravity is not up too high so you don’t get any sway on the highway and its P265/60R/18 tires are perfectly sized for this truck so you don’t get the road noise or bounce you might get from some of these huge tires you see on these massive trucks. The two options on the Limited I tested that don’t come standard are the hard tonneau cover fitted nicely on the bed and conveniently folding back in thirds and the towing package. The rest comes standard on the Limited, including blind spot monitors which is a safety feature I have really come to appreciate and rely upon.
The interior is nicely equipped for a truck in this price range. The Limited comes standard with a touch screen infotainment system with nav and a very practical easy to use interface. I think backup cameras and sensors are a must for trucks because of their long beds and the Tacoma comes with both to keep you from backing into those hard to see objects. I will say I wish Toyota put sensors on the front of this truck. The nose is a bit large and when trying to park in your garage it’s a tight fit. It would help to know when you are close to the front wall before you hit it rather than using the olde thyme tennis-ball-on-a-string-hanging-from-the-ceiling method. Adding a few sensors to the front of this truck and tying it into the existing system wouldn’t be too costly or difficult. Toyota – please take a note!
The back seat has enough leg room if you move the front seats up a bit, otherwise I found it a bit cramped, especially if you have adults in the back. This not a full sized truck, remember, even though from the outside it doesn’t look that small. So I found this to be a reasonable compromise. Cup holders abound in this interior as well as lots of places to put your stuff. In the center console under the dash is a large wireless charging tray that didn’t work for my now relatively ancient iPhone 5S, but it would be great with a newer phone with wireless charging technology. For me it provided a nice place to hold my phone while I charged it using the front USB port and an old fashioned wire (I’ll be wirelessly charging some day soon I hope) and all my other junk.
The seats where covered with what felt like an almost rubber covering which felt fine and appeared to be impervious to just about everything. Coffee, soda, food, box cutters, you name it – these seats looked bullet proof. Which is exactly what you want in a truck. The rear window overlooking the truck bed is operated manually which I found a bit annoying. My kids would leave it open and I would have to stop the truck and climb in back to close it. You really can’t operate it from the front seat. I would like to see this mechanized in the future. Nevertheless, a very useful and practically laid out interior.
All in all this is a great truck for the truck guy or girl who isn’t looking for a full-sized truck. I would argue that it might even make a full-sized truck guy or girl happy if he or she gave it a chance. My almost 13 year-old daughter, who insists that when she turns 16 she’s getting a full-sized truck, took one look at it and exclaimed that it was way too small. Of course she can’t drive. She hasn’t yet had to try and park her full sized truck in a parking garage. Or drive it in the city. Or scape snow and ice off of it in the middle of winter when the temperature is 12 degrees outside because its too big to fit in the garage. And she only has about $156 saved up right now. So she may have to “settle” for a $40,000 almost perfectly optioned (add the front sensors and electric back window please) normal-sized truck that fits in a garage. That’s easy to park. And that is just about perfect in every other way (other than it isn’t “big”). Rather than a $65,000 full-sized truck that isn’t. Four-wheel drive, almost perfectly optioned, great fuel economy, and its fits in your garage!!! What else do you want in a truck? Toyota Tacoma Limited 4X4 Double Cab. Check it out.
