What It's Like to Live with a 2024 Toyota Tacoma TRD Off-Road (POV)

All right I made it and I do believe the chair survived. So now just have to offload. Hey crew I've got the key to that 2024 Toyota Tacoma TRD Off-Road and today we're going to see what it's like to live with. Starting with spacing in my driveway and the Tacoma has a challenge today because it's parked next to a Ram TRX one of the widest vehicles you can buy. So how does it measure up? I've got it parked pretty close to the edge here it's sort of at an angle with a few inches of spacing from the edge at the front sitting next to the TRX which is parked really very close to the edge here and yet because this is a mid-size pickup not this extra wide full-size pickup I still have space to walk between the two trucks especially when these mega door mirrors are folded in. And then to check out the length of the Tacoma walking back here we see you've got a few feet between the back of the truck and my garage door. I wanted to leave a little room between the hedge and the back to squeeze by couldn't really manage it while having the front of the truck hovering just over the gutter part of my driveway and for comparison the TRX just doesn't really fit. The back end is another half a foot beyond where the Tacoma ends not going to squeeze between that hedge and the back of the truck. So this is going to fit in just about every driveway whereas a full-size pickup truck maybe not even one as wide as the TRX is going to be a much bigger challenge. And when I'm first getting inside I've got the key fob in my pocket the truck is locked I just put my hands on the handle and the vehicle unlocks. Opening the door I can go out two notches and giving me a nice wide access point to get inside and it's so easy to climb up and in. Hello cabin crew! Thank you for joining me for this day in the life with the new Toyota Tacoma TRD off-road and in this video I want to see if the new Taco is any nicer to live with than the old one. And I'm going to start by finding spaces for all the junk I've brought with me like my 32 ounce water bottle which is not going to fit in the cup holders and not really in the console especially not when I've got GoPro items and my mics in there. Is it going to go in the door? Not standing up but on its side it does stay there so that could work. And then I've got a USB-C cable to stuff that in the console and my smartphone can actually go on the wireless charging pad right there and let's see wallets right there and key fob right next to it. So I've got spots for all my stuff and then I'm just going to press the start stop button and hear the turbo four-cylinder crank on. And before I throw on my seat belt I want to listen to the idle of this truck from outside. It's so subdued. No one is going to be bothered when you start up your Tacoma even early in the morning. And now I'm going to pull the gear selector back into drive, disengage the parking brake and roll on out. I mean I can't really see beyond the TRX but uh yeah we're good now. Are we going to clear? Yes! Clear the trash cans on a more narrow street than it typically is because of trash can day. And as you can see it's a rainier day today. Not a whole lot of water falling right now but perhaps there will be more later and that changes up my schedule. I wanted to deliver a chair to my sister-in-law this morning but I don't want to get that thing soaked nor do I want to do the extra labor to cover it up so we'll do that tomorrow. Instead I want to go get this TRD off-road dirty. Well I guess it wouldn't be dirty with all this rain it'd be muddy. But on the way I'm also going to get coffee and then later maybe tomorrow we'll try to install some car seats to see if the Tacoma can be a good one vehicle solution for small families. The first thing I need to do is listen to the turn signal sound here sitting at the stoplight and find that it's an agreeable tone. Not something that is going to be bothersome if left on for a while. And we saw the turning radius a little when exiting my driveway but let's do a full-on u-turn here. Yikes! And find a super wide turning circle almost on the level of a full-size pickup truck. You may be doing more multi-point turns than you'd expect from a mid-size pickup truck here. And right now I'm in two-wheel drive but if the water really was starting to come down or certainly when we get to the off-road portion I'll want to move into one of four-wheel drive settings for high or for low. And our drive mode is in the normal configuration. I'm going to turn on these windshield wipers here and this turbo four-cylinder has tons of low-end grunt. Boost comes on really early so getting up to speed is a cinch. Rides really nicely as well. This new coil sprung rear end compared to the leaf sprung one of the old truck is so much more compliant. I mean this is just on-road stuff we'll see how it does off-road but right now it just soaks up the road bloom. It's just so much better than the old truck and it's a little less busy as well over the undulations in the road. Typically solid rear axle trucks just hop all over the place. This one just kind of takes it all. And the seats, these fabric chairs, are decently comfortable. Nothing really to write home about but certainly nothing that is going to give me a lot of pain after sitting in them for a while. And I've got this lumbar control on the driver's side which I very much need because I played a tennis tournament yesterday and my low back is killing me. That's funny. Listening to these wipers they're always making noise like is it just me? Am I crazy? It sounds like they're making that noise. And actually it's been raining for a few days and I've been driving this truck for a few days and that noise gets a little irritating. And I think it's the motor noise. I don't think it's the wiper blade because it doesn't matter how much water is on the windshield they still make that noise. Wow. I know it's just that level of compelling insight that draws you to a miles per hour day in the life. Anyway back to noises. Let's say someone cuts you off or as I experienced this morning runs a red light 15 seconds after it's already gone red. Almost causes an accident. And you need to use the horn. What's that going to sound like? Not exactly intimidating but it does get the message across. Turning attention now to the ambience of the interior. You're going to spend a lot of time in this truck. Is that time going to be mundane or is it going to be pleasant? The previous generation Tacoma was, boy it was just dull if nothing else. This new one has a lot more visually to engage you. The flat surfaces, the chunkiness of the dials, the texture to things. This mega 14 inch screen which I'm still honestly getting used to. It's so so big but there is a big benefit and that is that with everything so inflated on a large screen it's hard to miss the icon you're going for. It just it sort of just happens easy enough. And it has redundancies like the volume knob and the single zone of auto climate with these big knobs. Those are nice. The wireless charging pad, well it's not perfect because the rake of it is such that if you really slam on the brakes your phone is going to fly forward. Granted you shouldn't be slamming on the brakes all the time but every time it does happen I just go ah gotta fix the phone again. But I mean that's really the only thing I can complain about in here because it's it's easy enough to see out of. The adjustment of this seat is so much, I don't have to emphasize this enough, it's so much more than the previous Taco where I felt like I was sitting on top of the truck. Now I feel like I'm sitting in it and I can still see out over the hood easily. I can see out the side windows easily. There's a little blind spot at that back pillar there but that's what blind spot monitoring is for and that is standard on this truck. The digital gauge cluster is nice and easy to read and has some cool animations as you float through the drive modes. The steering wheel feels nice and chunky in the hands. It just feels like a graduated pickup truck and a place that I've enjoyed pretty much every mile behind the wheel so far. All right it's coffee time and I'm going to my favorite spots just around the corner from one of my other favorite spots. This is White Sparrow and we've got an opportunity here to do some parallel parking. So let's see how the Taco does. Into reverse. Hopefully this guy's gonna give me some room. Not just gonna plow right through. Okay here we go. Cutting in. Cranking that wheel. Might be too close on the first run. I forgot how bad the turning circle is. Okay here we go. Into drive. One adjustment and we are lined up nicely. Oh and in case you're curious this is how we did in terms of our spacing next to the curb. Here we go. Decaf latte. Why decaf you ask? Well it's because caffeine turns me into a monster. A jittery monster. Cup holders work perfectly for that coffee cup. On to the merry-making off-road. And in fact this drive to the off-road portion gives us an opportunity to simulate a commute in the Tacoma. So before going into sport drive mode or anything like that I just want to see about the passing power. Plopping the foot down and easily picking up speed. Wow there's a ton of grunt to this turbo for. And the 8-speed is also dropping down gears quickly and then smoothening things out now that I'm coasting. I also have features like adaptive cruise control which I can set here. Change my following distance. I've got a lane centering assist as well just to sort of show you what that looks like. You're not supposed to take your hands off the wheel. I'm just showing you how it stays in the center of the lane really well. And then me not touching the brake here. It's slowing down to keep that following distance. The rain's picking up. These features are great and they're all standard on this truck to make the commute in this vehicle so much more pleasant. And listening for the cabin volume at highway speeds. Of course we always have those wipers making that noise. But passing that big semi-truck. Going over this louder road surface. Yes you can hear the tire noise but these all aren't making a whole lot of hum. The road noise is perceptible. But not to a crazy high degree. The rain now pelting off the windshield. There are all these factors here that would say it's going to be really loud inside this truck. But it's definitely quieter than the last Gentaco. Man the rain is really coming down now. I along with most of the people around me. There's the old Gentaco right there. I've decided to slow up a little bit. See water just sort of hovering on the surface of the tarmac here. I'm going to make the decision on the fly to go into four-wheel drive high. Give me a little more confidence. Get those front tires also propelling us forward. More grip. More assurance. And I instantly feel more sure-footed. In two-wheel drive with very little water coming down. I never worried that the taco was going to slip out. But here with four driven wheels. I feel confident carrying a little more speed down the highway. Okay I made it out to our off-road course. Really it's just a fire road. But because of how much it's been raining lately. It creates all these potholes and changes the terrain. Such that it's going to be a decent test for this new Bilstein remote reservoir suspension in the TRD off-road. And I'm already in four-wheel drive high. But I'm also going to go into multi-terrain select. Which used to just be locked into four-wheel drive low. Now we can use it here. And we can see auto, dirt, sand, mud, and deep snow. Right now I'm just going to leave it in auto. And we're in drive. And of course the first thing we have to do is plow through these puddles. How could you not? Okay so look at this road surface. Look at all these crags. These potholes that we're gonna have to traverse. And just think about how this double wishbone front and multi-link coil sprung rear end is having to deal with this. I can hear these impacts. But the truck feels really stable going over them. Even big ones like that. It takes in stride. First time I need to slow here. And the brakes respond decently well. All-terrain tires providing that grip that I'm looking for. Suspension settles in really at speed. Oh my. All iced by a whole lot of mud. Which gives me an idea. Okay first let me wear the responsible adult hat. Which happens to look like a hat with a camera on it. And wade through this mud showing what multi-terrain select can do. So let's go into mud. Still in four high. And effortlessly comb across. But let's say I wanted to be a little more juvenile. Which let's be honest is more accurate. Well then I would go back into two wheel drive high. And I would hold this traction control button until both traction and stability control are disabled. Which they are. And then I'd have a ball. It's not terribly even. Which makes sliding harder. But when the mission was just to be a hooligan. Then this is how you accomplish it. How do you not slide through mud and have a fat grit on your face. How did I do? Oh I just smashed my leg. I did well with that. Fit check. Yeah it's caked on there pretty well. I'd say mission accomplished. By the way this guy over here in the forerunner is the third person that stopped me out of the five people I've even seen out here to say that is a sweet new taco. The other two. One was in a Ford Bronco. The other was in a Chevy Silverado or GMC Sierra. It doesn't matter. Universally people are excited about this new Tacoma. And so far it's been easy to say I love it. Here's something you don't see every day. A Huracan Strado off-road. And not to be outdone. A 911 Dakar. What are they doing out here? Playing in the mud. Just like me. Now I can't leave this area before giving the new Tacoma tier d off-road at least a little bit of a low speed obstacle test. So I am going to head up this hill. Putting it first into four-wheel drive low. Rolling back a little bit to engage. That's good. Down into drive. Let's lock up the rear diff as well. That's nothing new for the TRD off-road. But what is new is the sway bar disconnect for greater front tire articulation. Now I've got all these dialed in. I wish I had a front-facing camera system as well to help me plot the best route up. That's a serious hole right there. Let's see how we're going to do it. Dip the front tire in. Feel a little bit of slip before the locked rear diff sends the power to the other tire. These all-terrains don't seem to have a trouble up front. Clearance isn't an issue at all. The only thing it is is again the turning radius. I wish it was a little bit tighter. Here you can see what we just went over. So I have to adjust once more before clearing this. But wow that was so easy. Now I'm going to do this one more time backwards because it's a very steep descent and a good opportunity therefore to use the downhill assist control which is just for downhill but there's also crawl control for uphill. This off-road cruise control system that I adjust the speed with this dial here faster or slower. I'm going to take it pretty slow here and let the system sort it out. So I'm not going to touch the brake, not touching the throttle, and letting the truck decide how much to give it and just sort of settle down into that hole. This part here is a little clunky but you know what it isn't? Loud. In the old taco this system all you heard were these little clicks that sounded like the truck was braking as it was sorting out where to apply brake or throttle. So much quieter in this new truck. Oh man getting filthy really does build up an appetite. It's time for lunch and it's looking like a good drive-through day. So how about some Chick-fil-a? May I please have two spicy chicken sandwiches and one order of french fries. Spicy chicken sandwiches and one order of french fries. Did you want a small medium or large fry? I'll do a medium fry please. Did you want pickles in your sandwiches? Yes please. Were you in the canyon? I was yeah. It was really muddy really awesome. That's good I can tell. Yeah man you have a good one. Thank you you too. Ah drive-throughs. A great chance to sit there with your foot on the brake for a or just hit the auto hold button and take a break. Hello yes thank you so much. You too. Now I'm going to eat these sandwiches and fries while driving but I want to get set up first. So I'm going to move my empty coffee cup back to these cup holders. Position this here for right now. It's pretty secure. Pull out my waffle fries and stick them here just to the side of the gear selector. That's the wireless charging pad. I'll leave sandwich number two in there for now. Got all these sauces which I don't want them to be loose. Okay door storage that's good and napkins can also hang out here in the door storage. This feels right like I can eat this without being distracted now. Oh that hits the spot. Now that I'm refueled might as well get the Tacoma refueled ahead of tomorrow's delivery of my sister-in-law's chair. And the EPA rates this Tacoma tier D off-road at 19 mpg in the city, 22 on the highway, and 20 combined. Which for 20 combined at 18.2 gallons of fuel we'd have 364 miles on a single tank. Though I've been seeing over the last 196 miles an average of, let's see here, mystery, 17.6 miles per gallon. So less than that 364 miles total. And at current fuel prices of $4.85 for premium fuel we're looking at 88 bucks per fill up. And now moment of truth. Capless fuel. Oh my goodness. How do I? It's not really a way to do that without getting dirty. No capless fueling. Bummer. Oh but those wheels sure look good with a coating of mud on them. Oh there we go. Shoot I just realized something. All this mud looks amazing on this truck like a badge of honor but for moving furniture tomorrow the bed's awfully filthy and it's so easy to get yourself or the furniture dirty. I think I'm going to have to visit this station's car wash. Good luck car wash. Getting all this mud off it's not gonna be easy. Okay it's all done. Now we have to go inspect what kind of a job it did. That's about what I expected. There is mud residue left all over the place. That's what you get with a machine. But hopefully with another full day and into the evening of rain before it clears up tomorrow I'll be in decent enough shape to move that chair without making it just disgusting. All right after a night of rains what do we got? A whole lot of dirt. Yeah so much for that getting cleared out. Really should have hosed it off. Oh well for moving this chair at least I'll have some furniture blankets to keep it protected. And I've also got some clothes here for my sister-in-law's upcoming baby that I think could go here in the cab if I clip these seat bottoms up into place on both sides. And that looks great. Now to get the chair in here. Okay got the chair in wrapped up protected and secured. Thankfully this is not a huge truck so lifting it up onto the tailgate and then sliding it into the bed wasn't all that difficult. And thanks to these adjustable tie-down cleats I can move them just to the right spot that I wanted before locking them into place. And now we're headed to my sister-in-law's. Oh that's cool. With the chair on its side I can actually see straight out the rear view mirror without anything obstructing my view. Though it would be nice in the same way when I was operating to have a front-facing camera to help me plot my route. It'd be cool to have a bed cam to monitor what I've got going on in the bed. All right I made it and I do believe the chair survived. So now just have to upload. So this short bed Tacoma can handle a small furniture delivery job but can the back of the cab handle the installation of car seats? My kiddos have rear-facing car seats that need the lower latch anchors and the Tacoma has two sets of those. But there are also for front-facing car seats three top tethers in this truck. Okay I've got both car seats installed now but to do that I had to move these front seats pretty far forward. So let me test fit myself in the front passenger seat first. Okay knees are smashed up against the glove box there and my seat back angle is too upright. Let's try the driver's seat. All right let's see. Yeah I uh I don't have the leg room I would like here. So for a six-footer or somewhere close to it the front seats with car seats behind them are not going to be great. All right crew I've got the Tacoma out one more time here at night to summarize my thoughts on what it's like to live with. I began this video by asking the question whether this new Toyota Tacoma is nicer to live with than the previous generation model. And after a variety of tasks in a variety of environments the answer is confidently yes. However there's still one or two lingering issues that Toyota needs to address with its Tacoma. Starting with the least and then to the most bothersome these windshield wipers. They're awfully loud. When off-roading in this TRD off-road model I wanted a front-facing camera to help me plot the best route through tighter or really perilous obstacles. Although I didn't really have anything truly perilous today but that would have really been nice here as standard in this off-road grade. Then there's this turning radius which is awfully wide for a mid-size class pickup truck. It's almost on the level of a full-size pickup truck. And finally there's the rear passenger space. Whether it's just putting people back there behind taller front passengers or trying to install car seats it is a bit of a squeeze. Ah but now on to the things this new Tacoma does so much better than the old one. Starting with the ride quality. With this new coil sprung rear end and the Bilstein remote reservoir suspension whether it's on-road or off-road the ride is so much more compliant. And combined with a seating position that is no longer like you're sitting on top of the truck but rather highly adjustable for drivers of all heights you just feel much more in command and relaxed when piloting the new Tacoma. The aesthetics and functionality of this new Tacoma are big wins as well. Whether it's just something you're proud to look at in the parking lot or something that you feel is more substantial and premium inside. And then on top of that you've got all these storage options for you. Places for me to put all of my personal effects. During the week in a commuting environment on the highway you'll really appreciate all of the standard driving assistance features like adaptive cruise and lane keep assist. And then on the weekends this thing thrashes off-road whether it's just playing around in the mud or climbing up and down obstacles or just driving quickly over potholes and ruts. It handles all of it and keeps a smile on your face the whole time. So after living with this new Tacoma while I might be apprehensive to recommend it to anyone with kids in car seats or really tall people in their family or immediate friend group. For everyone else this checks a ton of boxes and has been so enjoyable to live with and certainly certainly better to live with than the previous generation Tacoma. And I'll see you again next time.