Toyota Tacoma Truck

Author's Car rating:   

Safety	Good
Comfort	Satisfactory
Road Handling	Poor
Security	Satisfactory
Looks	Satisfactory

Advantages:	Perfect for light work, doesn't hog gas, no vibrations, retains value
Disadvantages:	Poor handling around turns, extended cab is a waste, suspension very rigid, occasional wheel locking

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full car review

My father owns this truck (2002 2WD 4 cylinder Extended Cab), but I drove it for over a year. Aside from a problem with a certain 'cable' that completely messed up the acceleration and wasted a lot of gas (though I was still able to accumulate speed gradually) nothing has gone wrong. That problem was at about 43K miles, but before that, we've only had a few minor issues. The acceleration is weak, and horrible at higher speeds, but as I said, with a 4-banger in a pick-up truck, this is pretty expected. It did what it was supposed to do pretty well, though. We sometimes would fill it up with chopped logs for firewood and it could handle this fine. It's probably not meant to tow large things anyway, so I highly doubt it would be useful for such a purpose. If you frequently carry light loads, this is the truck for you.

One thing that does worry me is its ability to turn. I once spun out and hit an old guardrail, but it didn't feel as though this should have happened. At the time I was a very inexperienced driver, but not reckless and I actually didn't turn out of the intersection quite so fast, only a little gas (about 15 mph, for god's sake), and the ground was wet, but I've done this before in other cars and had no problems. So perhaps the stock tires should have had better traction and the handling around turns could have been improved. The seat belts did their job quite well that time but sometimes get jammed while trying to adjust. A few other times I have gone around bends and felt uncomfortable at anything but what would be very slow compared to other cars comfort levels, so this is definitely an issue. I don't know if all trucks handle like this, though.

The extended cab is a complete waste of money, seriously. It has three 'seats' in the back but these are absolutely tiny and could barely fit one person...extremely uncomfortably. This shouldn't have even been an option; perhaps one with a shortened bed and larger back seat space.

It's not really practical for day to day travel but can do in a pinch and doesn't completely devour gas, probably due to the four cylinder engine. Of course, this depended largely on how you drove it, I observed pretty abysmal mileage when I would use the acceleration. So even though it has some acceleration, it should only be used sparingly. Yes, I know that more acceleration decreases mileage, but in other cars I have not observed it to this degree. On the highway, I would observe about 17-18 mpg, but this was because I would drive 75-80, sometimes 85 mph so this is understandable in a car not built for aerodynamics. Slower highway driving would get me about 21-23. I never really kept strict track of this, but I probably was getting 20 around town. It's not very good but it's much better than most 'heavy trucks' out there. It can get somewhat noisy at higher speeds with the engine and the rigid suspension, but I was pleased that there were no vibrations or jitters even at very high speeds. Another small qualm is that sometimes the wheel locks itself and has to be played with while turning the key. Now that I think about it, the clock was pretty hard to see, too.

Overall, it's a good vehicle, fairly reliable, just be careful with the handling and get a good warranty. I now drive a 2006 Honda Civic LX and it suits my daily travel needs much better. My dad is thinking about trading in the truck for a more economical car with rising gas prices and his work moving a few miles away (he normally walks as we live 1/2 miles from his current work), but for light work it is superb. I was also surprised to see that this truck can private sell for about 13-14K with 46000 miles (and a few modest options) on it (11-12K trade in).