Dream Garage: 4x4 Taco Turd

"Harrison Voorhees" (harrisonvoorhees) 03/06/2014 at 15:51 • Filed to: Dream Garage, Toyota, Taco, Nissan, Frontier, TRD

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I ride bikes, I have friends, and I often find myself travelling to places with no pavement. Therefore, I now lust for a full cab, short bed, Toyota Tacoma TRD. Probably none of you know me personally, but take my word for it, this vehicle seems highly out of character for me. It is far too reliable, sensible, and dare I say even boring for a Jalop to be seen in. But it's also perfect. Since my current daily driver is the complete opposite of practical or reliable, I often find myself in situations where all I want is something that works. That really shouldn't be too tall of an order but it is something that I have often found myself desperately yearning for. In addition to the practicality in everyday life, I also have a long time dream of wanting to circumnavigate the world on four wheels and a truck like this would make a very good candidate.

Let's talk about practicality. A quality that really isn't something you would associate with my taste in automobiles, as you will find out in later posts to this !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . I'm all about having fun, and practicality just seems like excitement's archenemy, but I suppose we all need balance in our lives. A nice reliable truck would bring me that balance and this concept was proven to me when one of my roommates got a brand new truck around a month ago. It is a short bed, full cab, Nissan Frontier with cloth seats and satellite radio. I absolutely love it. There is enough space in the bed for at least four bikes and room for five in the cabin. It starts every time, burns gas and not oil, has more ground clearance than a vertically challenged turtle, and is very comfortable and fairly affordable at somewhere around $26,000 (it helps that my roommate's dad owns the Ford and Nissan dealerships). All of this practicality has gotten me all hot and bothered.

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So now that I proved to myself that the concept of a practical truck is something that I would enjoy, I just had to figure out which one I wanted. I knew I wanted a small truck because I'm not planning on hauling a massive trailer anytime soon and don't have a million dollars a year to spend on gas. My original thought was Tacoma. Then I rode in my roommate's Frontier and that meant I had to choose between the two. I'm sure you all know about Build and Price applications on automakers' websites. They're fantastic and if you're like me then you've probably spec'd everything from Toyota's to Porsches and everything in between. Well guess what I did. I built and priced a Frontier PRO-4X and a Tacoma TRD. The Tacoma came out to $33,110 with a manual transmission and the most expensive TRD package. The Frontier came out to $31,760 also with a manual transmission and the fully loaded PRO-4X package. The Tacoma is Spruce Mica (green) and the Frontier is Metallic Blue (blue).

Because the prices for both trucks were so close, and the specifications so similar (both have locking rear differentials and off road Bilstein shocks, etc.), I have to go with whichever one I like better and that's the Taco. I'm sure the Frontier is just as good off-road and probably just as reliable but it certainly isn't as good looking.

Verdict: 2014 Toyota Tacoma TRD Double Cab 4x4 with a short bed and out of pocket costs just over $33,000. Hell yes.

Potential Modifications: Wheels, Tires, ARB bumpers, short wave and HAM radios, cooler, roof rack

For reference, Here are links to my !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and Frontier builds. (Edit: Frontier link won't show you my options because the link is based on cookies)

Cheers.

TL;DR: Tacos are delicious.

HammerheadFistpunch > Harrison Voorhees 03/06/2014 at 16:03

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There are a few Taco owners on here, they are good trucks and im always jealous of the ride quality when Im riding around in one.

Good bike haulers too.

This Taco is a friend of mine's and fellow Opponaut and he went through the same frontier vs Tacoma debate. He might be on here and could help answer your questions, because it seems like you and he (and I) are all looking for the same things.

AM3R > Harrison Voorhees 03/06/2014 at 16:15

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I'm in the same boat. frontier vs taco.

Personally I'd get a metallic blue frontier. If a manual transmission one pops up for around $20-25k it'd be hard to say no.

Chteelers > Harrison Voorhees 03/06/2014 at 16:49

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I owned this exact truck for 3 years in CA. 4x4 doublecab shortbed with TRD offroad. Absolutely loved it. It was comfortable to daily drive and could easily handle snow and some pretty intense off-roading. Flip out bed extender was awesome, which combined with cargo net/tarp, I could haul 4 people's snowboards, gear, and luggage easily. Plenty of power to brakestand, or hang the tail out on the street - not that I did or condone such behavior. I even took it on some pretty intense offroading (wheels in the air type of thing) and it never even batted an eye. Heck, I hardly needed 4wd, it was more fun to gun it and slide around. With 4wd on, it could tackle way more than I was capable as a driver.

Some gripes: gas milage was a bit worse than other trucks in it's class. I averaged about 17mpg, which isn't terrible, but I did seem to fill it up a lot. I partially blame my heavy foot. If I could do it again, I'd get the TRD sport package. I didn't do as much offroading as I thought, and with 4wd and decent tires, I'm sure the sport package would handle just fine off road. And I probably wouldn't have gotten the 4WD at all. The chassis was so capable, it just didn't need it. I was in some pretty intense snow and offroad, and honestly only ever turned on the 4wd cause I felt I paid for it, so might as well use it. But with good tires like BF Good T/As, I would have been fine without it, and wouldn't have the penalty of extra 4WD weight all the time, sapping handling and MPGs.

No way would I consider the Frontier. They feel smaller inside (to me), and I just consider the Taco to be bulletproof, less so the Nissan. I bet the crap out of my 3yr lease, and when I turned it in, not a squeek, rattle, or shimmy. Only thing broke was that stupid electrical trailer connector thing that I busted on a rock while climbing a 45-deg hill that looked just like your last pic. Seriously stupid place to put that thing by the way. It hangs way down.

Consider a CPO vehicle. They're cheaper than new, come with a warranty, and like I said, I was rough with my truck and it still felt new after 3 years. I'd have absolutley zero qualms getting a 3 yr used one. Also, a lot of lease turn-ins have different wheels already, which would save you $1500 in wheels right there.

Chteelers > Chteelers 03/06/2014 at 17:03

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Another thought, don't worry about side steps. Even with the lifted TRD offroad package, the seat is still hip high, so I never needed an extra step, like you would on a full size truck. Plus they just get in the way if you do go offroad.

Make sure to tick the towing package option, if you plan to tow. But figure out a relocation solution for that connector thingy, if they haven't fixed it already. I'm sure you could move the mount somewhere else. The skid plate option isn't really, it's more of a rock shield - it won't take any direct load. Bed extender is the best option by far, do get.

vicariousILive > Harrison Voorhees 03/06/2014 at 18:20

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I was in same boat as you 2 years ago. I h ad a Mazda B4000 pickup that my dad pretty much gave to me when I graduated college. His B3000 was going out and I figured since I didn't purchase it from him, didn't put much miles on it and also replaced a clutch, heads and head gasket and new tires, I figure I would give it back to him in somewhat better condition than I had received it.

When I was deciding what I wanted to replace the Mazda with I was looking at a used Tacoma or Frontier hoping to replace it with a low car payment option. Little did I know that used Tacomas and Frontiers decreased very little in value and I said screw it and started looking at used Silverados, Sierras and F-150s. I realized that those even started to run like crap after 150K miles or so. Being frustrated at high price I said why don't just spend a couple extra thousand and get a brand friggn' new Tacoma or Frontier. So I started looking there. I was looking at going base model and upgrading. I said to hell with that because you get good shocks, lockers, and skid plates already. I figured it would cost more to upgrade anyways. So I knew it was Pro4X or TRD off-road. TRD Sport was out because that hood scoop is stupid and useless and no locker. Price was comparable to both but i went with Tacoma because resale was better(my job security was wavering at the time), looks, and an inch or two in stock lift (I will eventually put an aftermarket lift on one day just not today). Frontier had more power but I didn't really care it wasn't that much more and Tacoma just sounded more reliable from my research. At the time I bought it there was some good incentives to buy a Tundra. I test drove the TRD Tundra and I immediately knew it wasn't for me. It's too big for what I wanted it for.
I bought it in July 2012 for $31k. I got the DCSB because I wanted the space to fit my boy and hopefully a 2nd kid in the future and i wanted the shorter wheel base for a better breakover angle.

Hammerheadfistpunch posted pics of my Taco in his reply to you in this post. So you can see i haven't done that much. But i am mega excited to do some overlanding and exploring with this truck. I plan on slowly upgrading it to the ultimate overland touring machine but for now it's a every other day daily driver so I plan on keeping this thing for a long time. As a daily driver its easy to drive around town(one reason for automatic) and up to the ski hills and bike trails. I have driven it in Moab and other places on some local faily technical off road trails. I haven't taken it on anything more than level 3.5. I love being outdoors but the backcountry skiing and mountian biking is not something my wife enjoys to do. With the Tacoma we have been able to do some good remote camping and exploring without backpacking(something I would not try w/ a 2 year old).

Harrison Voorhees > HammerheadFistpunch 03/06/2014 at 21:28

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Awesome. A truck just seems so useful to me right now.

Harrison Voorhees > vicariousILive 03/06/2014 at 21:31

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Awesome insight. Sounds like we have some pretty similar hobbies. I ride downhill bikes and ski as well. Would love to go back to Moab and do some biking and canyoneering. The Tacoma would be the perfect companion next to the girl of course. =]

Harrison Voorhees > Chteelers 03/06/2014 at 21:34

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Thanks for the insight and advice. Realistically I would definitely consider getting a pre-owned vehicle. So much more bang for your buck as long as the truck was well maintained.

vert304 > Harrison Voorhees 03/06/2014 at 21:52

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Tacos are delicious :P Nice to see you keeping it going. I like trucks but have no use for them in my own life. Its nice to see someone wanting one to use it for what it's for, and not just to drive in the city. I like how different your garage would be. Nice job, and keep it up.

vicariousILive > Harrison Voorhees 03/06/2014 at 21:55

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You can see more of what the stock Tacoma w/sliders is capable of in hammerheadfistpunch's post of our president's day adventure.
http://oppositelock.jalopnik.com/fauxverlanding…

Also when you get that Taco meet us up in Moab. There's an open invite http://oppositelock.jalopnik.com/open-invite-15…

Jim is one of KFCs secret ingredients > Harrison Voorhees 03/10/2014 at 10:11

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Hard part is finding one with the manual trans and the off-road package.

milanst666 > AM3R 03/10/2014 at 18:12

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I have an 2013 Xterra Pro-4x and love it. It's been great for my hiking and skiing/snowboarding hobbies. Gas mileage isn't great but it's been reliable (but still new), comfortable and extremely competent.

AM3R > milanst666 03/10/2014 at 19:00

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I love the xterra. I actually almost bought a Pro-4x but I couldn't find any manual ones. Love them in blue, black, and dark grey. Might be a next car if a MT pops up!