The 2024 Toyota Tacoma SR5 Is A Freshly Redone Slightly Pricey Workhorse Truck

In the midsize truck world, the Toyota Tacoma is the sales juggernaut. I mean, this nameplate has been in the States for over 30 years now, and Toyota consistently sells around 250,000 units annually, making this truck the best-selling midsize truck, outselling all of its rivals by about two to one. Now, for 2024, Toyota is finally giving the Tacoma some love in the form of an all-new version, and this is new from the ground up. I'm talking about a new frame, a new powertrain, new exterior design, and an all-new interior with Toyota's latest infotainment system. So this week, as you can see, Toyota has loaned us the more base version of the Tacoma, or should I say the more popular version? This model here is an SR5 double cab with the longer six-foot bed. And the big question I would answer, for those of you who have always had your eye on a Tacoma, but you crave something that was a lot more modern, how does the brand-new 2024 Toyota Tacoma SR5 stack up? Stay tuned to find out. So before we start talking about the updated exterior styling for 2024, I thought I'd pop the hood and show you guys what's powering this thing. Now, previously, Toyota used to offer a choice between a naturally aspirated four-cylinder or a naturally aspirated V6. Both of those are gone, replaced by a 2.4-liter turbo in three different states of tune. And of course, there's the hybrid version, making this truck the only hybrid option if you guys want a midsize truck. Now, I'm gonna have to save the hybrid for a different review, because it is not available on this base SR5 trim, or it's one level up from the base. But what this engine has is the volume engine. This is a 2.4-liter gasoline direct injection turbocharged four-cylinder. You guys know this engine has been replacing the old naturally aspirated V6 across Toyota and Lexus's entire lineup. And the numbers here are pretty impressive. 278 horsepower, matching the output of the old 3.5-liter V6. But we now have 317 pound-feet of torque. That's about 52 more pound-feet of torque versus the old V6. And that torque is achieved at around 1,700 RPM versus 4,600 RPM in the old naturally aspirated V6. It all goes out through an eight-speed automatic transmission, that's two more gears, versus the very sluggish and unresponsive six-speed auto in the previous generation. Toyota, thankfully, is one of the few brands that still offers a six-speed manual. You cannot get it on this SR5 trim, and the manual is available on the SR. The TRD Sport and the TRD Off-Road only comes with the double cab configuration with four-wheel drive with the five-foot bed. And fuel economy for this engine with this transmission is rated at 19 in the city, 23 on the highway. This engine has been retuned to run, of course, on regular gas. And the engine itself has about 50% new parts. So it's not just a pull out of a Lexus NX and then put it into a truck. Toyota has made sure that this engine has the cooling upgrades, the durability upgrades for truck duty, and you can see it's also mounted longitudinally as opposed to transversely. Now, Toyota doesn't quote a zero to 60 time. The last time we tested this truck in California, we got 7.2 seconds. So I'll test it out on my local roads here, see what we can get. It has a top speed of around 107 miles an hour. And in terms of towing, the Tacomas can tow up to 6,400 pounds. Maximum payload is around 1,700 pounds for this particular configuration. That's an estimate. Toyota doesn't have finalized numbers right now. And then in terms of the curb weight, this model here should come in at around 4,700 pounds. In total, the new Tacoma is around two to 300 pounds heavier versus the previous generation. But closing up the hood, let's go ahead and talk about the updated exterior styling. Now, if you guys are familiar with the previous generation Tacoma, which I assume most of you are if you're watching this video, you're gonna probably notice the design of this truck doesn't look all that different. Although at the same time, if you guys also really like the look of the Tundra, this Tacoma kind of just looks like a baby Tundra, which I think is a really good thing. I love the new hood with the hood bulges that you can see. If you guys go for the TRD Sport model, you'll have a fake hood scoop. This particular color that I'm showing you is called Celestial Silver. I personally wouldn't go with this color, but it's a low-maintenance color, and I also like how there's a lot of metallic fleck in the color. You can see all Tacomas, unlike the Chevrolet Colorado, come standard with LED headlights. You can see there are LED low and high beams, incandescent for the turn signal. The daytime running light is basically just the low beam that comes on at a low intensity. If you guys go for the Limited trim, you'll actually have an upgraded LED with sequential full LED headlights. So again, this trim and the other trims come with the just partial LEDs, but at least you get LED low and high beams. The SR5 also includes LED fog lights with kind of like a triple look for the individual LEDs. There are some fake vents over here along with some functional openings for the grille. You can see the Toyota grille is larger this year, but it also isn't too in-your-face. You can see the Toyota Safety Sense 3.0 radar sensor is there. All Tacomas come standard with Toyota Safety Sense 3.0, which means they have adaptive cruise control, automatic emergency braking, lane keep assist, and then you can see down here, there is the aero front air dam. This air dam is removed on the off-road, TRD off-road and the off-road versions. This apparently adds one MPG, but you can easily remove them with several clips. I imagine most owners will do that because as you can see, it significantly affects the approach angle and the ground clearance of this truck. But overall, I do think the styling of the new Tacoma is very nice. It plays it a little safe, but at the same time, people who have the old Tacoma aren't going to be shying away from this design because it's very familiar. Now, moving around the side profile, like I said earlier, this is built on the all-new TNGA-F architecture, a platform that it shares with the new Tundra, the new Land Cruiser, the Lexus GX, of course, the Sequoia. And in this application, Toyota is one of the few brands that still offers multiple cab configurations. So you can take your pick between an extra cab with a six-foot bed, which doesn't have a rear seat. It just has an extra storage area behind the seats. Most will probably go for the double cab configuration, and Toyota is one of the few brands that offers a double cab with the longer six-foot bed. So the overall length of this truck is 226 inches long with a 145-inch long wheelbase. Again, this is approaching half-ton, full-size truck's territory because of that longer bed, which makes this truck, again, a lot more usable if you plan to do truck things. Now, I'm surprised to see the wheel arch moldings here are body-colored, which I actually really like. It just gives it a full paint finish that looks really classy. And then these are the 17-inch wheels that you get with a silver finish, with a six-lug design. The wheels themselves look pretty basic, not really a big fan, and you can see the tires are pretty wimpy, a 245 by 70 R70, or R17 Firestone, basically, road tire. You can see brakes, 12.6-inch rotors in the front, and same-size 12.6-inch rotors in the rear. The drum brakes are finally gone. You have an independent front suspension with a coil spring multi-link rear suspension, but it's still a live axle. The SR trim and some of the other baser trims will still have a leaf spring suspension in the back. This trim here, however, the SR5 double cab includes the coil spring rear suspension, which also improves the ride quality. The Limited is the only trim of the Tacoma to get the adaptive variable suspension, adaptive dampers, but no air suspension, obviously. This is still a Tacoma. I don't have the ground clearance of this trim, but it appears to be maybe 8 1⁄2 inches. I think the TRDs will have just under 11 inches. You can see the side mirrors. They're pretty basic. They don't power fold. There's no integrated turn signals. You cannot get a sunroof on the SR5 trim. You have to step it up to the TRD trims, of course. The door handles are body colored. You can get a running board or an assist step from the dealer as an accessory. And then you can see, backing away from this angle, you can really see just how long this truck is, which, again, if you want a midsize truck that can actually carry stuff in the bed, the Tacoma's one of the few that offers that six-foot bed, and it really shows when you get to the rear of the truck with that extra foot of length with the storage capacity. Now, looking at the tail or the rear of the vehicle, you can see the taillights resemble a lot the new Tundra, especially with this LED design. It's actually a full LED, it looks like, with LED turn signal, LED reverse light, and brake light. Upper trims of the Tacoma will offer a little button here where you could open up the tailgate itself. You can see Tacoma is now stamped into the back of the tailgate. There's a four-by-four badge. You can see it has your usual seven and four-pin connectors for towing. This truck here should tow a maximum of 6,400 pounds, a little bit less than its competitors. And then you can see down here, there is a full-size spare tire mounted underneath the bed, along with an exhaust system here, where you can get a chrome tip if you prefer. Upper trims of the Tacoma will also have more of a damped assist, power assist tailgate. You can see this one is damped, and my tester just has the drop-in bed liner. But you can see here, with six-foot long bed, you can really pack some items in here, which is great. You can also get a bed extender to extend it out even further. This small here has the deck rails and the optional LED bed lighting, which is a nice touch, although you can see there's no power outlet back here. That's something that some competitors offer. That rear window also slides to the side to open up. It doesn't roll down completely like the Tundra. And this model here should carry a maximum of around 1,700 pounds in the bed itself. The range is like 1,300 to 1,700 pounds. Toyota hasn't finalized the numbers here for this trim. But that is an improvement of around 300 pounds compared to the previous generation Tacoma's payload capacity. So the outside of the new Tacoma may not look all that new compared to the previous generation. However, the interior has been completely redesigned. However, before we get inside, let me show you guys the key fob. Surprisingly, all Tacomas come standard with Toyota's intelligent access key with push button start. You can see it's their current key fob. It has your usual lock, unlock button, and panic function. You can see there's no remote tailgate open feature. That is included on the upper trims. There's also no remote start from the fob. Some Toyotas, if you push the lock button three times in sequence and then hold it on the third time, it'll remote start. I tried it several times. It doesn't work, which means this truck on the lower trims obviously is not equipped with the remote start function. But you can get a digital key function and access the vehicle from your smartphone if you're an owner of the car. Now you can see as I approach the door handle, it's a traditional beefy door handle. There's a little area here where if I touch that, that will lock the door. You can see no power folding mirrors. Touch the back of the door handle, that will unlock the door for you. And then you can see my particular test car with that celestial silver has the black cloth interior. You can also get a bolder gray cloth interior if you guys prefer. And then my tester also has the SR5 upgrade package along with the cold weather package. It means you have three level heated seats and you have heated steering wheel. No power seats. You can see it's just a six-way manual, but you do have a nice power lumbar support. But if you want power seats, you have to step it up to one of the TRD trims or the limited trim. Again, the seats for a cloth seat, I will say they are surprisingly comfortable and supportive and the cloth material also doesn't feel horrible. Ignore some of the plastic panels that you see. You can see there's like a shiny finish here on the entire door panel. That's because this model here is an early pre-production truck. So the materials here are not going to be final production spec. I should be getting a production spec truck later this spring. So stay tuned for my full review of that. The door panel material, you can see there are some storage pockets here. You have one touch up down for all four windows, which is nice. There is a padded area here, which I suspect that'll carry over. And then there's more storage over here. My test truck also has the optional JBL sound system. I believe it has like nine speakers. It actually sounds pretty good. And I typically don't like JBL sound systems, but Toyota's latest version in this truck actually sounds pretty upscale. It's about on par with the Bose system that I tested in the GMC Canyon. Now getting inside the truck, I believe this thing has, again, a little over eight and a half or just under nine inches of ground clearance. So it requires a little bit of a step up, but as I get it in and shut the door, the door has a pretty solid sounding thunk. Again, this is an early pre-production truck. So I'll wait to do a retest when I get a productions version of the truck. But you can see a start stop button is located high in the dash, which means you're not going to really lose it when you get in. And this model here is obviously not a hybrid or a mild hybrid. So it has a traditional starter noise. And again, it definitely sounds different versus the V6. When you start pushing or revving the engine, it actually has a kind of a beefier sound. Toyota is trying to make this thing almost sound like a V6. There is a little bit of vibration when you really start pushing the engine into its upper rev range, but it still sounds better to me in this truck versus like the same 2.7 liter four cylinder in the GM twins. Now in terms of the dash materials, again, this is an early pre-production. So I'm not going to criticize the interiors too much, but this is pretty much final production spec. It is hard touch plastic up here. There's some gray plastic and some silver painted plastic. Remember, this is the SR5 trim, which is one notch above the base. So the interior is going to feel a little bit more drab. You have a seven inch helper screen here or instrument panel screen here that shows your tack. You can also change the way that looks by going into the settings from the steering wheel controls. This is the sporty look gauge. There's also like a tough and a classic look. You can see you have analog dials here or analog displays for the temperature and the fuel. The upper trims will have a fully digital 12.3 inch cluster. And then you can see the steering wheel is taken directly from the new Tundra. No paddles on the wheel. It has a manual tilt and telescoping arrangement. I believe the base trim doesn't have a telescope function. I'll have to double check that. The horn, it sounds nice. It sounds appropriately sized given this size of the vehicle. And then you can see the leather wrapped wheel with heat function is part of an optional upgrade that my test truck has, which is nice. You have buttons over here for the auto high beams, stability control, the dimmer control, and that's to adjust the level of your headlights. So there's like five different levels where you can choose how high and how low the headlight aim is going to be, which is kind of nice. It's got the latest versions of Toyota's switch gear in here with the turn signal stock, the wiper controls, of course. And then this right here is the standard eight inch infotainment screen here with Toyota's latest audio multimedia interface. You can see it has wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. There's where my phone is connected via wireless and it looks fine. The graphics are good. It's also quick and snappy. It includes over the air updates, which is nice. However, this screen definitely looks a little bit small. Toyota does offer a bigger 14 inch display, which is literally the biggest in the segment on the higher trims of the Tacoma, not available on this lower trim SR5. At any price, you have to, again, step up to one of the TRD models. I kind of wish Toyota would offer like a screen in between, like a 10 and a half inch screen versus, you know, eight to 14. Six inches makes a pretty big difference. So it kind of cheapens the look here of the truck. You do have a nice volume knob here, which is good. And then you have big meaty controls here for your temperature. You have single zone automatic climate control. You have buttons here for the auto climate control. You have your heated steering wheel button over here and then your heated seat control buttons are over here. Again, upper trims will come with ventilated seats. This is where there's an empty button here. There's a wireless phone charging pad here. And then if I look at this, this is the transmission selector for the eight speed auto. Going to reverse there, you can see there's your backup camera and includes trajectory and includes distance markers and like a tow marker. Toyota does offer a full 360 camera, but again, on other trims, the graphic and resolution there, however, has greatly improved. Electronic parking brake here. And this basically puts the transmission to a power mode. This kind of gives me vibes of Toyota's from the nineties. I'm surprised there's actually a power button here. There's also a sport mode in the transmission itself, but that's really your only drive mode selector is the sport here or the power button here. You have a four wheel drive system, which is part-time. You have four high, two high, four low. Of course, there's a lot of empty buttons here because again, the upper trims will have like a sway bar disconnect, locking rear diff for example, multi-terrain select cup holders here, padded console area over here. Again, decent storage. The seats are relatively comfortable and supportive. Like I said, no center is available on this trim. So you have good headroom space. You have LED map lighting, which is nice. You have a pretty big glove compartment, which again gives you some storage and an upper storage over here. This is for the JBL sound system, which is a Bluetooth speaker that pops out. I couldn't get this to actually work for some reason. It wouldn't turn on, so I couldn't test it out. Hopefully I can test one out later when I have an actual production spec truck. But overall, you can see the interior is definitely decently put together, especially for a pre-production prototype. It offers a good amount of visibility and space as well. Great storage and also finally some modern tech, but I'm looking forward to testing out a higher trim version of this truck. But let's go ahead and hop into the back seat and show you guys the rear of the Tacoma. Now you can see with the double cab configuration, you do have around 33.7 inches of legroom back here. That's actually around an inch to three inches less than its competitors. So sadly Toyota increasing the wheelbase by five inches. They didn't give us any more rear seat room. They actually gave us less. Ignore these materials. Again, this is all pre-production truck, but there's pretty nice storage options back here. You can see these seats do flip up to allow for some nice hidden storage underneath here. The battery will live underneath here if you guys go for the hybrid version of the truck. So kind of keep that in mind. There's a grab handle here to help shorter drivers like myself get in. I'm five foot seven. As you can see, when I get back here, this is where I have the seat to drive. Legroom space is pretty tight, but I can sit back here and get pretty comfortable. Can cross my legs, but again, it's really tight back here. There's a hump here for the middle passenger. There is a 12 volt power outlet, but no actual USBs. Cup holders, no rear seat air vents. You do have one storage pocket here. No armrests, but again, this window does slide open via that control up there in the sunroof area. You can see there is some LED map lighting back here. And then in terms of the headroom space, because there's no sunroof, I have a pretty good amount of headroom, but again, I'm only five foot seven. So overall, the backseat area is very, very cramped. This is actually probably the smallest in the segment, but again, if you want more space, Toyota will happily sell you a Tundra, which has way more rear seat space, but overall the backseat is certainly still usable for average size adults to kids. So it's been about four months since I first had a chance to get behind the wheel of the all new Toyota Tacoma. This truck has been a long time coming because even though Toyota gave us a new Tacoma in 2016, it was basically a heavily revised version of the second gen Tacoma that first came out in 2005. So this truck is a very important vehicle for Toyota. And when I first had a chance to drive it, I was pretty impressed, especially with the new powertrain. Now, of course we will be driving the I-Force Max hybrid powertrain in April and Toyota says they should be sending me a full production version of the Tacoma sometime this spring before we drive, hopefully the I-Force Max, but until then we are driving this SR5 pre-production truck, which comes with the eight speed automatic with four wheel drive, with Toyota's new 2.4 liter turbocharged four cylinder that's basically replacing the old three and a half liter V6 across the board. Now, when I first had a chance to zero to 60 test this truck in California, I think I got 7.2 seconds. That was my best time. So let's go ahead and see what we can get in this truck here. You actually have to put it in four wheel drive to get the best zero to 60 time. I have it in sport mode and power and we'll go ahead and brake torque it. All right, we got zero to 60 in 7.03 seconds there. 7.03 is not a bad time. I actually think that's a pretty respectable. I'd never had a chance to actually zero to 60 test the old Toyota Tacoma with its three and a half liter V6, but that time kind of puts it right in between the Chevrolet Colorado and the GMC Canyon. The quickest Colorado I tested on that same stretch was 6.4 seconds. That was the trail boss model. And then the slowest was a Canyon 84X, which is the heaviest model. That took around 7.6 seconds. So that time is a good number. It's fine by just on paper, but what's really shocking to me is how much better this truck drives in the real world. Thanks to all that delicious low end torque that this engine gives you. I've switched it back into two wheel drive mode as opposed to four high, and we'll just floor it this time from a stop. The sound almost makes it sound like a V6 because of the way Toyota has tuned the engine, but we just got 7.26 seconds there without brake torquing it. That's with more going slightly uphill. That's with leaving it in two wheel drive because remember the Tacoma only comes with a part-time four wheel drive system in this trim. I believe if you go for the limited trim, you do get a full-time four wheel drive system, which definitely wastes more fuel, but it eliminates the need to have to switch over into four high, which you're technically not supposed to drive this truck in four high in normal conditions because it just binds up all the gears and whatnot. It's not good for the system. That's why Toyota, again, goes with a cheaper part-time four wheel drive system because it's just better for longevity. Now, this truck also comes with the coil spring multi-link rear suspension. It's still a live axle, but it's not leaf spring. So this is gonna give you that better ride quality that Toyota was talking about. We have an all new TNGAF fully boxed ladder type frame. It essentially drives like a Tundra. This truck is significantly wider, around three inches wider, around two inches taller. I'm sorry, two inches wider, three inches taller versus the previous generation. And you definitely feel this truck's bigger heft. I mean, it's not sporty. This is a body on frame truck. If you want a sportier driving truck, you're gonna be looking at one of the car-like based vehicles. Although the TRD Sport could, you know, give you that kind of sporty vibe that you're looking for. But really what I love about this powertrain is like, you barely have to put your foot down to get it to, you know, give you that forward thrust. The eight speed auto is smooth. It's got, you know, the perfect amount of gears. It puts the engine right in the meat of the power band. And it also makes a V6 like growl, which is going to, I guess, suffice those of you who prefer that old V6. But again, just so much mid range torque because we've got 317 pound feet at like 1700 RPM. That's basically right off idle. The old V6 required 4,600 RPMs of rev to even make 265 pound feet of torque. So this is 52 more pound feet of torque, the same amount of horsepower. And that's why Toyota has replaced the V6 with this four cylinder. It just is a better powertrain in real world driving. But let's go ahead and try it this time. Leaving it in two wheel drive mode, no launch control or no brake torquing. We'll just floor it. No wheel spin also, which is great. It's short shifts at around 5,500 RPM, 6.9 seconds there. So we'll take that as our best time, which I think is definitely going to be among the quicker in the segment. Only thing that's quicker is the Colorado Trail Boss. And I also had a chance to test out the new Honda Ridgeline, which took about 6.4 seconds. And that's because Honda's old three and a half liter V6 with their nine speed is a pretty quick performer in terms of zero to 60 performance. But the Tacoma definitely has a much more grown up refined feel. I have to say though, this long bed version with the six foot bed is almost as long as a half ton truck. And you feel it's extra length when you're kind of tootling around town. The turning radius is a little bit on the wide side. So you kind of have to plan out, but this is the more useful cab configuration. If you guys plan to actually do truck things, it's one of the few vehicles in the midsize class that offers a crew cab configuration with a longer six foot bed. A lot of the competitors have just gone down to just a one five foot bed option. It's refreshing that Toyota offers the six foot cab configuration with the double cab, which is a great touch. Now, in terms of refinement, this truck is also quieter previously than the old generation truck. It's got less road noise, less wind noise. The engine does sound like an old gruff at times when you really are pushing it. But to solve that, just put the truck out of its sport mode for the transmission, take it out of power mode here, and it just kind of toodles around. It's a really easy truck to drive. Once you get past the extra length, again, if you don't need the six foot, I would just go with the five foot bed, save you a little bit of money, although it's gonna be a little bit less useful. But again, I really like the way this truck feels. It just feels a lot more upscale, a lot more refined than the previous generation. I think people are going to really appreciate just the extra capability, the extra refinement, the extra luxury. This truck also comes with Toyota's Safety Sense 3.0. So it has their pre-collision assist, adaptive cruise control, blind spot monitoring, cross-traffic alert. Cross-traffic braking, I think, is a little bit extra on the higher trims. But those safety features are standard equipment across the board on every Tacoma. Now, all the competitors do come with automatic emergency braking, but if you want adaptive cruise control, it's extra on the Ford, it's extra on the Chevy, it's extra on the GMC. So it's nice that Toyota gives that to you as standard, although I will say that the SR5 trim does feel a little bit basic in this configuration. Even though we've got the SR5 upgrade package, you still can't get the fully digital instrument cluster. You can't get their leatherette seats, their soft-tex leatherette seats. You can't get the 14-inch display. You have to step it up into the TRD Sport or TRD Off-Road or go for the limited trim, which comes standard with that. Now, in terms of the fuel efficiency, this truck is rated at 19 in the city, 23 on the highway. In my week's worth of driving, I averaged around 18 miles to the gallon in mostly city driving. Now, that MPG is pretty decent. It's not gonna be class-leading. I'll be curious to see what the hybrid i-Force Max model is gonna get. We don't have final EPA fuel economy figures yet for the hybrid. On the highway, this truck did around 22 MPG in my testing, which is not bad. That's pretty decent fuel efficiency. Again, I can't quite remember what I got in the old Tacoma with its V6, but this fuel efficiency is about three MPG better versus what I got in a Toyota 4Runner with the old four-liter V6, which I had just a couple of weeks ago. So obviously, the new 2.4 is gonna be more efficient. It's gonna be quicker. It's gonna be more powerful. It's gonna be more refined. Although at higher revs, it does have a little bit more vibration that I would like. But again, it's no more thrashy-sounding versus the 2.7-liter four-cylinder that you'll find in the GMC Canyon or the Chevrolet Colorado. Haven't had a chance to drive the new Ford Ranger. I will be driving that next month, so stay tuned for my full review on that. But overall, the Toyota Tacoma, even though it's not quite groundbreaking in its redesign, Toyota has finally given the Tacoma a modern feel. It finally feels up to par with its competitors. It's got more than enough power. It's got more than enough efficiency. It's got more than enough tech, especially if you guys go for the right trim. And there's also a plethora of different Tacoma models to choose from. Obviously, we are only driving the gas version, but if you guys want even more off-road capability, the TRD Pro and TRD Trailhunter only come as hybrid versions and I will be driving those in about two months. But overall, I'm still very impressed. The seats are also very comfortable and supportive for cloth seats. I'm surprised at how comfortable they are. Visibility is also good out of this truck. You can see out of the front, the side, out of the rear. Although the rear view, that window is a little bit on the small side. Again, you can go for a digital camera rear view mirror to fix that if you guys are requiring maximum rear visibility. But overall, I am pretty impressed with the new Tacoma. If you guys are looking for a compact to mid-sized truck, this thing should definitely be at the very top of your list. So with a little over 234,000 sales here in America in 2023, the Tacoma, again, was the best-selling mid-sized truck, literally outselling everything in the segment. Only the Chevrolet Colorado even came close with around 71,000 units sold. The Ranger literally did half of the Colorado sales. The Honda Ridgeline did around 40,000 sales. The Canyon did around 20,000 sales. So the Tacoma, this is literally the juggernaut. This is the truck that every other brand is going to be looking at and comparing to because Toyota sells so many of these things. But after spending a full week with the all-new fourth generation, even though this is a pre-production truck, I am very impressed with the overall build quality and just the livability factor. That new 2.4 liter turbocharged engine is a gem. Paired up with that lovely eight-speed automatic, it basically puts the truck on par with the 2.7 liter turbo that you also get in the GM twins. Even though the GM twins have significantly more power, like 310 horsepower, 430 pound-feet of torque, the Tacoma's performance, zero to 60, is pretty much right in between the GM vehicles depending on what trim you get because there's a big weight delta compared to a baser trim all the way up to like an AT4X of the Canyon. The ride quality of the new Tacoma is also less truck-like, more refined. In terms of the handling capabilities, it's a body-on-frame vehicle. It is relatively easy to drive, although the six-foot-long bed version of the Tacoma makes it a little bit more cumbersome. But if you're used to driving full-size trucks, you're going to like this. It'll be pretty familiar. But again, if you don't want the extra foot, Toyota will happily sell you a five-foot-long bed. The interior of the Tacoma, again, this one is a pre-production truck with materials that aren't quite finalized for a production spec. I should be getting a production truck to drive hopefully within the next couple of months where it'll be a TRD off-road version supposedly. But it had very little squeaks and rattles. The seats were comfortable even though they're cloth. I like the fact that Toyota does offer heated cloth seats and a heated steering wheel. The eight-inch infotainment system, if you guys have sampled the newer Toyota audio-multimedia interface system, it works fine. Although I would prefer to probably go for the 14-inch screen. I kind of wish Toyota offered a screen that was in the between, like a 10.5-inch screen versus the eight-inch screen, which is starting to look a little bit small. Sadly, the backseat of the Tacoma is on the tight side. Even the new generation, despite how much bigger it is versus the previous model, does trail its competitors in terms of rear seat legroom by about an inch to maybe even three inches depending on the truck that you're looking at. But that obviously is very capable. The fuel efficiency also is now average, although I'm looking forward to driving the hybrid version because the hybrid version should have best-in-class fuel efficiency and performance. Overall, if you guys are looking to get your hands on the new Tacoma, it's still obviously an excellent choice, but it is going to cost you a lot more versus the previous generation. Base pricing is now $31,500 for the base extra cab two-wheel drive SR trim. Now, if you guys want the double cab configuration, that's about an extra $2,200. If you guys want four-wheel drive, that's an extra $3,200. So really, if you guys want a four-wheel drive double cab SR, you're gonna be spending at least $38,000, so almost 40 grand for the configuration that most people tend to buy a truck in. Now, if you guys want the SR5 trim, it's gonna cost you at least $40,000. Again, my tester here has several options on it, including an SR5 upgrade package, a cold weather package, the deck rail system, and whatnot. My tester here, with options that it has, again, this is almost a fully loaded SR5 trim, comes in at around 46,200 bucks. I know 46 grand for a truck that kind of looks more like a base trim sounds expensive until you start looking at the Chevrolet Colorado, GMC Canyon, and Ford Ranger. Those trucks, again, are gonna cost around $45,000 for even a mid-trim equipped kind of like this truck. Now, I will say that the Ford and the Chevy and the GMC do have more aggressive-looking tires. They have nicer interiors with their leather interior. I personally would recommend a TRD Off-Road or a TRD Sport trim. That will start in the mid $40,000 range. However, with options like the heated and ventilated seats, the bigger screen, the JBL stereo system, that can quickly push the price of a Tacoma to over $50,000. A fully loaded TRD Off-Road with the premium package and the sway bar disconnect, that can top around 54 grand, which is crazy. We still don't have final pricing yet of the TRD Pro and the Trailhunter. I suspect those trucks will probably be closer to $60,000 when they do go on sale sometime later this spring. All that said, hope you guys have enjoyed my full overview on this 2024 Toyota Tacoma SR5. If you're also looking to see the latest vehicles I'm testing, be sure to follow me on Instagram at Redline Underscore Reviews. Like us on Facebook. 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