Bring out your clichés. Long in the tooth, older than dirt, past its prime. They can easily apply to the present Toyota Tacoma on sale now. There are elements of Toyota’s ubiquitous midsize truck that date back to its mid-’90s launch in America. That’s Stone Age history in the modern automotive era.
The legions of loyal Tacoma owners past and present couldn’t care less, though. They’ve been too busy rocking and rolling over boulder-strewn trails, traversing rugged overland routes, running flat out on desert tracks, and hacking through concrete jungles in all shapes and sizes of the Tacoma pickup for decades now. In fact, it may take a little convincing to make them believe the all-new, American-bred 2024 Tacoma Tacoma is worth trading up for.
Once they understand how much design and engineering force Toyota has applied to the new fourth-generation Tacoma, though, they’ll line up to go trail-hunting in the all-new Trailhunter trim and every other four-cylinder turbocharged and hybridized flavor of the feature-rich 2024 Tacoma lineup when it arrives in Toyota showrooms late this year.
Tacoma chief engineer Sheldon Brown helped lead the charge to develop the new truck. He was well aware of how much was and is on the line. “We’ve been number one in the segment for 19 years now. We needed to be bold and give them choices,” he said.
Author: Mike Floyd
Source: Motor Trend