For a full decade the midsized truck segment had only a few offerings which came with little competition. With no entries from both Ford and GM, many of the automakers that still had players in this category left them to give similar features and style year over year with no changes as they sucked up the segment and brought it down from the heights it once was.
The end of this era is finally over with the release of the two midsized truck offerings from GM, the Chevrolet Colorado and GMC Canyon. Having these two show up in the style and capability they offer has sent many of the other truck building teams back to the concept room to come up with a new look and feel for their midsized trucks to be competitive.
Toyota has revamped the Tacoma to offer it with greater style of a bolder new look especially with the large three bar grill and what appears to be even more off road capabilities. The front end is also more squared-off to give it a blockier appearance. Add wheels from the size range of sixteen to eighteen inches and you can easily see how much better this truck has become as it is built to handle a huge workload and be great as a jobsite support.
The 2016 Tacoma will be offered with an inline four-cylinder and a 3.5-liter V6 as it has in the past, but both engines have been revamped to have both direct and port fuel injection, making them more powerful and efficiency. Both engines will be mated to the six-speed automatic transmission to give excellent shifting and be the right choice for allowing the truck in any set up to get the job done whether that job is at a jobsite or the task of taking you out for a weekend of fun.
This new Tacoma will have two cabs and be offered with five trim levels. The two cabs will be the Access Cab and Double Cab, giving you the choice to have the cab you need based on your own desires. The trim levels will offered in either 2WD or 4WD and show up as SR, SR5, TRD Sport, TRD Off-Road and Limited. This gives you up to twenty different setups to choose from in order to have the right truck for to handle your needs, which is nearly as versatile as the Ford F-150 when it comes to the number of variations offered.
The Tacoma will also carry in an upgraded suspension and off road capabilities. For the first time the Tacoma has a tri-fold tonneau cover and an easy lowering tailgate to make it easier to load the truck and protect that load. Add in the Multi-Terrain Select system that makes it easy to select the feature you need and you can easily see how much better the new Tacoma is than the outgoing models. This new Tacoma is expected to be at Toyota dealers in the fall of this year, making this a step forward for the midsized truck segment, leaving the only question to be what will be the next truck to show massive improvements and raise the bar of competition.
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