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June 22, 2010
  2010 Toyota Tacoma Double Cab. Click image to enlarge |
My tester’s long 3,570 mm (140.5 in.) wheelbase is all that makes the unloaded Tacoma’s choppy ride bearable, but if cushy comportment is what you’re after, then you’re looking in the wrong place. The rough going is the downside to a rear suspension geared toward handling the truck’s 522 kg (1,150 lb) payload, and we put it to the test carrying that compost home. I don’t know what a cubic yard-and-a-half of mushroom compost weighs, but I do know that the Tacoma’s rear suspension hit the bumpstops a couple of times on the way back into town. For the record, most full-size pickups, not to mention the mid-sized Dodge Dakota, offer higher payload capacities than the Tacoma does, especially in regular cab configuration and even before adding any suspension upgrades.
Dad’s shed proved a good test of the truck’s carrying capacity, too. It came from the store’s warehouse packed in a makeshift wooden crate that was too wide to fit between the wheelhouses, so it had to be loaded into the bed in pieces and hauled home that way.
Only the weighty compost proved much of a challenge for the drivetrain, which worked noticeably harder to get the truck up to speed when loaded down very close to (or even a little over) its payload capacity. The transmission’s shifts were a little harsher, especially in downshifting, and the rear end wallowed over large bumps, the upside being a much more comfortable drive for Mark and I in the cabin.
As alluded to up top, the Tacoma was up to the tasks we put it up to, but its limitations were clear. Payload-wise, the Nissan Frontier can handle more than the Tacoma, at 567 kg (1,250 lbs) in SE Crew Cab form with automatic transmission (and even more with the manual tranny). In order to carry any more than that, you’d most likely have to move up to a full-size truck. It’s also worth noting that of the smaller trucks in the market now, the Tacoma, the tiny Ford Ranger/Mazda B-Series twins and Nissan’s Frontier are the only ones not available with V8 power: GM’s compact Colorado/Canyon models are offered with four-, five- and eight-cylinder power, and the Dodge Dakota comes with V6 and V8 engines only.
       2010 Toyota Tacoma Double Cab. Click image to enlarge |
Despite the Tacoma’s less-than-comfy ride when not loaded, it proved otherwise to be a very comfortable vehicle to be in. The front seats are very supportive and comfortable, and – this was the biggest surprise to me – very little wind or road noise gets into the cabin at highway speeds.
Headroom is generous, but the door openings are short, so getting in requires a slightly awkward manoeuvre involving stepping up to the high floor while simultaneously ducking down to avoid hitting your head on the door frame. The rear seat offers similar headroom, but legroom is only so-so, and while my friends’ one-year-old son’s rear-facing car seat fit in the back, it wouldn’t work without sliding the front passenger seat forward to the point that his six-foot-three dad had to sit on an angle to keep his knees out of the dash.
The Tacoma’s cabin puts functional before fancy. The gauges are large and easy to read, and the controls simple, but there’s not much here in the way of luxury items. You have to move up to the top-option TRD Leather package to get leather upholstery and heated front seats, but automatic climate controls aren’t available anywhere in the lineup. Ergonomically, the only weirdness is the cover for the centre console bin, the release for which is practically hidden on the left side, rather than on the leading edge, where it would be more conspicuous.
Instead, its functional stuff is included as standard. The Tacoma comes with a composite bed liner (important for keeping the metal bed from being scratched), four tie-down cleats that live in tracks running the perimeter of the bed and a few small cubbies in the sides of the bed for stashing small items (a couple of these bins looked as though they’re meant to have flip-down covers on them that weren’t included on my tester). A 400-watt, 115-volt power outlet mounted in the bed is an option on most models (in the SR5 Power Package in the 4×2 Access Cab and with the TRD Sport Package in V6 models).
A vehicle’s shortcomings are only so when you’ve bought the wrong one for your needs: my week with the Tacoma proved it’s decent at hauling both people and stuff, but that it would be easy to exceed the truck’s limitations, especially its relatively modest payload, when compared to some of its competitors and larger trucks that can be had for not much more money.
If there’s any wisdom to be taken away from my experience, it’s that it would pay to shop carefully when buying a pickup. The Tacoma’s options, drive-train and body configurations are relatively simple, but larger trucks are available with a dizzying array of combinations of engine, drive-train, cab and box choices that would make it very easy for a casual truck buyer to wind up with too much or not enough truck for what they want to use it for.
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Pricing: 2010 Toyota Tacoma Double Cab automatic
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Specifications
Competitors
Crash test results
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