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Don't lose any sleep over it, Carmaker. We all make errors or slip-ups sometimes.....especially in my case, with over 80,000 posts. You always were, and remain, a credible source of information here on CL.
Thanks Mike, just wish it was that simple. I think the issue I have is, while I recently just created this thread here, back in 2018-19 I saw a space elsewhere of zero information on this and tried to provide insight for the past 4+ years on this truck coming to market, 2-3 years sooner than 99% of its owners expected. They're used to 10+ year cycles, not 7-8 like Toyota set it to be. Save for one major delay related to the modular architecture, I have been dead accurate until now.
Back in December, I might have undone that a big level, uncharacteristic of me. They're a lot of folks out there looking for those mistakes from me, but honestly too bad I guess.
Originally Posted by Blaze876
The misleading information you're referring to is in reference to the press materials from 2016? Or perhaps the powertrain options? (Shocked they were carryover the v6).
Don't be so hard on yourself. No one gets it 100%. Would be a loss to the forum if you no longer post.
This forum isn't the issue LOL, it's definitely the forums for this subject matter itself. I created an account on a major forum for this nameplate, about over 4 years ago when it reached midcycle, to jumpstart discussion on the future of the nameplate. The reportings I made were based on genuine information I had for years and shared on occasion in different Lexus spaces, not so much Toyota. I saw that many of their owners didn't have an inkling of the expectation that their truck would be redesigned sooner than later, so I tried my best to key them in and steer discussion toward it on occasion (logged in infrequently). Because Japanese brands are very secretive, there's not much to know about what's coming down the line. They don't really talk to Western media and make their American employees follow suit religiously. I wanted to make that all more accessible in a responsible manner, the way it was when I closely followed German future developments a decade/dozen-years ago. BMW had their own marketing people (SCOTT26/27, EnI, etc) posting on forums and throwing hints around and sharing background info. Plus some others. As someone finishing college back then, I noticed.
That's why I try to do this, because I don't really see any of those kind of semi-official people from Lexus, Toyota, and many other Japanese brands build up marketing via such posts. It's very clinical by comparison. The few who do so, are taking a risk. I won't name them of course. Even though I work for another, that occasional hobby has never really left me. I ended up in the awkward position, of being a primary source of information on this versus a group of users sharing insight regularly, like you see here. At this point, I can imagine that on Tuesday one will see why and how the several sources I had, would back me into a corner of sorts, versus not saying anything at all. Prior to November, I had no issues at all with keeping the narrative accurate. At this point, I can't say I look forward to 4/4. Conflicting sources will mess someone up horribly and that's just never happened before at this level, because I'm usually good at writing off bad insight. Guess we'll see, but thanks as usual Blaze. Unless I said Lexus was making a TTV12 LC 1000 (yes they would call it that) or the LFR would be powered by jet fuel, then I have nothing to worry about I guess, to even be disappearing from here.
I can already see that some people elsewhere I reading my posts here on CL and plastering it elsewhere for others to read...
Cannot wait for the new Taco! As its former Product Planner very keen to see what they were able to keep and achieve with the new gen. It comes into some heady competition with the new GM mid sizers and the new Ranger as well. Will this be more Grand Highlander (seemingly well-targeted and benchmarked) or Sequoia (amazingly unimpressive outside of updating its powertrain and infotainment).
It comes into some heady competition with the new GM mid sizers and the new Ranger as well.
Ford is about as competitive in the midsize market as Toyota is in the full-size market. Ranger sales have cratered the last couple years and I honestly don't expect it to last much longer in the US. The next gen Taco has nothing to worry about in that regard.
Ford is about as competitive in the midsize market as Toyota is in the full-size market. Ranger sales have cratered the last couple years and I honestly don't expect it to last much longer in the US. The next gen Taco has nothing to worry about in that regard.
Ranger was already pretty aged by the time it got to our shores. Yes it does struggle against F-150 which would always get hefty discounts to keep its factory churning and then the upstart Maverick gives it a squeeze from below. But the new 2024 and supposedly U.S. intro of the Ranger Raptor should inject some life back into it.
. Will this be more Grand Highlander (seemingly well-targeted and benchmarked) or Sequoia (amazingly unimpressive outside of updating its powertrain and infotainment).
We should comapre the Tacoma to the Tundra. Not the Gland Highlander or Sequoia which are a crossover and SUV. New Taco will be a baby Tundra. Made in Mexico
I honestly don't see why it's even necessary to be complaining about Tacoma production in Mexico in the first place, when since December 2004, Tacomas have been produced there. Anyone thinking that's relevant to gripe over now, is doing what I asked not to happen, which is trolling or going off-topic with an incendiary subject matter. Okay maybe not too off topic, but let's not risk bringing politics into this?
Nearly every single Tacoma assembled for the 2022 model year was built in one of two factories in Mexico, as very few 2022s were built in Texas through September 2021 and almost similar for the 2021 model year in 2020-21. Production became exclusively Mexico in October 2021 and nary a mention was made by Toyota, to save face. Instead of celebrating how state of the art Guanajuato is. Toyota were all too happy to mention the factory shift from California to Texas in 2010, but there's a reason why this change never got mentioned...
Let's not go down that route in terms of discussion, if it makes things degenerate very quickly.
On another note, I do find it "interesting" how what I post here keeps making its way around the internet in this manner (per half of post #130).
Some people must have an incomplete perception of things from other individuals' biased accounts of me, which encourages them to repost stuff I divulge here or anywhere else, without me being aware. Good thing I check everything, as this definitely isn't the first time. Not sure whether it's a positive or a negative, as I'm just me, not the interwebz. (they know who I am...)
The specific Seattle location information on those very old press images is something only a select few at Toyota knew about, including maybe one other person on this forum.
Some folks really need to **** off and keep me on ignore if there's really a problem to be had with me, because no ill feelings on my end. If you have dem feelings, keep it movin'...
While I try to be as accurate as possible, it's become obvious to me there are people out there working very hard to provide me bad insight and hoping I will take the bait. Most cases I don't, but unfortunately no one is immune to it in these kind of careless instances pre-reveal on major nameplates.
A number of people have been mentioning American TNGA-F vehicles will have an option for manual transmission in not just the Tacoma, but the 4Runner. I took that with a grain of salt, but I consider it to no longer be trusted and if that does happen at each respective reveal on 4/4 and in January 2024, that's great.
Totally different ballgame when you are being tricked by fellow professionals who do have concrete insight. I thank one of my best sources who has been more earnest and warned me 2 weeks ago to scrub all mention of anything not Dynamic Force. Should've listened to him, but I unfortunately was too busy focused on my trip to Australia.
I am back to my pre-Thanksgiving 2022 expectations, that Toyota is only offering Dynamic Force powertrains in these vehicles and that doesn't include any manual transmission.
That is T24A-FTS 2.4T and Hybrid Max T24A-FTS 2.4T w/THS. It is not called iForceMax, as that's the Tundra V6TT w/THS.
The 4 powertrain lineup above that had been mentioned to me in November, had me very skeptical until someone else trusted tried to immediately, helpfully clear up my skepticism and point out that the very base 2.7L I4 option was to be built for 2 years and then discontinued.
In favoring as many sources as possible to vet it, I believed it once my threshold was met. I not just believed, but I spread the "corrected" powertrain list around like it was the gospel. Well, I didn't even account for the fact there are people out there happy to mislead someone and make them look foolish. More importantly to guard proprietary information from outsiders.
The funniest thing is how, that the Hybrid Max putting out 326 HP and 465 lb-ft, had the same source of this extremely specific information, also confirming that 4 engine lineup 2 weeks ago, as "matching their insight". Are they telling the truth and the rest of 4 sources who said that? There's this Tuesday, which will likely disprove it.
Very obvious that I was tricked then, but more importantly, I likely misled a bunch of people (mostly off CL) and I'm now playing clean up. The ones who tricked me won, but it's whatever. This is just one of many pastime hobbies/interests and I'm not going to discuss it further, if Toyota has people willing to steer me in the wrong direction and have a laugh at my expense. Didn't even see it coming and should know better.
Just correcting what I said, so it is not trusted as factual.
Originally Posted by BrettJacks
Ford is about as competitive in the midsize market as Toyota is in the full-size market. Ranger sales have cratered the last couple years and I honestly don't expect it to last much longer in the US. The next gen Taco has nothing to worry about in that regard.
Honestly, that perspective doesn't even take into account the age of the vehicle, which wasn't designed with Americans in mind in the first place. Australia and Thailand were the core with 11th hour adjustments for USA.
That is like plopping the Hilux in the USA after tweaking it a little bit in Michigan and expecting it to sell with limited production volume compared to the Tacoma which doesn't even share factory space with a hot seller like the Bronco. Other than a few grass is greener luddites, most Americans wouldn't touch it and the Hilux would likely plateau at the same numbers as the Ranger.
I'm not going to say much more about it, but Toyota is going to have a much more challenging time, by this time period next year with so many renewed competitors. And for you to even claim, it's not going to last, is ridiculously unfair. Is that based on an understanding of an automaker's future commitments or just opinion? The Tundra has less of chance of making a segment dent--ever--compared to the Ranger.
Ranger isn't going anywhere and this generation was just a stepping stone, to get back into the midsize fray stateside. The long term goal was always the upcoming model, not this overaged stopgap.
I see no reason as to why Toyota wouldn’t call the 2.4t+hybrid an iForce Max. The 4.7 and 5.7 V8s were alway referred to as iForce powertrains.
As for the Mexico build Tacos. No thanks for me. Made in Japan Toyotas have always been what I have enthusiastically and passionately followed. Buying my Japan made 4Runners are more of a hobby for me than a necessity. I admire the fact my 04 4R is an available as a RHD drive model in many other places in the world..and it’s pretty cool that it is called a Hilux Surf. My Corolla and Corolla Matrix were both made in Canada…and that’s cool but meh….there was a moment where I was gonna buy a 2020 Corolla with a sunroof if I could find one that was made in Japan. I was gonna update just for that reason alone)…but they didn’t come to Canada like they did in the United States. The Corolla hatch is made in Japan but lacks a sunroof (dealbreaker)…the new Corolla awd is imported from Japan but it is hybrid. If I could find a T100 in great shape, fully boxed frame and all, I’d probably get one just for fun
Anyway. Back to Toyota Tacoma. I expect the new Tacoma to be an almost carbon copy of the new Hilux. So there is no real point in exporting the Hilux to America. Interesting enough….the Tacoma and Hilux are both sold in Mexico.
Ford is about as competitive in the midsize market as Toyota is in the full-size market. Ranger sales have cratered the last couple years and I honestly don't expect it to last much longer in the US. The next gen Taco has nothing to worry about in that regard.
By now, it's pretty obvious that Ford made an error by bringing over, to the U.S., a seven-year-old Australian design as the last new Ranger. And I wasn't very impressed with it when I did a review on that Ranger. Next time (if there is another Ranger), they are going to have to do better than that if they want to compete with a new updated Colorado/Canyon and Tacoma.
I think if Nissan plays it right, they can dominate with the Frontier. Having a V6 and might be the last one in the segment is actually a plus and its a sweet engine. I'm seeing a lot of them on the road now and I like it more than the Taco. Now if they can adapt a TTV6 from the Infiniti line and create a Nismo version of it, I dont think the new Taco will stand a chance.
I think if Nissan plays it right, they can dominate with the Frontier. Having a V6 and might be the last one in the segment is actually a plus and its a sweet engine. I'm seeing a lot of them on the road now and I like it more than the Taco. Now if they can adapt a TTV6 from the Infiniti line and create a Nismo version of it, I dont think the new Taco will stand a chance.
Maybe. But the design of the truck is really old. I think older than the ancient current Tacoma