Toyota Tacoma 2016 Lifted
The interior
Unless you’re planning to put the new Tacoma in the climate-controlled garage along with the rest of your collection, chances are you’ll spend more time inside the truck than outside looking at the bodywork. Toyota wanted a distinctive look and feel for each of the available trims (SR, SR5, TRD Sport, TRD Off Road, Limited), and the redone digs leapfrog what had been slapped inside before. The lever-style parking brake has been made standard, perhaps to encourage miscreant activities.
The 3.5-liter V-6
The 1GR-FE 4.0-liter V-6’s exodus from the U.S. market continues, with the new, smoother running, and less vocally demonstrative 3.5-liter V-6 coded 2GR-FKS replacing it for 2016. The two V-6s are mechanically quite dissimilar, with the 278-hp, 265-lb-ft 3.5-liter grabbing a net 42-hp advantage and 1-lb-ft reduction. Torque and power peaks have shifted higher in the rev range—the V-6 redline jumps from 5,500 to 6,200 rpm—but estimated EPA fuel economy improves slightly.
The six-speed automatic transmission
With a 6.21 ratio spread, the new six-speed autos supporting both the 2.7-liter inline-four and 3.5-liter V-6 offer greater driving flexibility than the four- (3.94) and five-speed (4.89) units of yesteryear. Though paired with shorter (numerically higher) axle ratios for 2016, the six-speed transmission’s added steps make shifting sound and feel less dramatic, yielding a more relaxed operating environment. The manual gear-select function works well, too.
The crash safety
Much like how you used to assume German luxury sedans were safer than anything else on the road simply because they were German, most people didn’t used to expect much from pickup trucks in terms of safety, save for the reassurance of heavy doors and the crush distance between the tailgate and the cab. In this era of cleverer engineering and advanced software guidance, the best possible crash safety should be a given. To help in this area, the Tacoma’s cabin structure has been significantly reinforced, especially at the critical A- and (on the Double Cab) B-pillars.
The interior
Unless you’re planning to put the new Tacoma in the climate-controlled garage along with the rest of your collection, chances are you’ll spend more time inside the truck than outside looking at the bodywork. Toyota wanted a distinctive look and feel for each of the available trims (SR, SR5, TRD Sport, TRD Off Road, Limited), and the redone digs leapfrog what had been slapped inside before. The lever-style parking brake has been made standard, perhaps to encourage miscreant activities.
The 3.5-liter V-6
The 1GR-FE 4.0-liter V-6’s exodus from the U.S. market continues, with the new, smoother running, and less vocally demonstrative 3.5-liter V-6 coded 2GR-FKS replacing it for 2016. The two V-6s are mechanically quite dissimilar, with the 278-hp, 265-lb-ft 3.5-liter grabbing a net 42-hp advantage and 1-lb-ft reduction. Torque and power peaks have shifted higher in the rev range—the V-6 redline jumps from 5,500 to 6,200 rpm—but estimated EPA fuel economy improves slightly.
The six-speed automatic transmission
With a 6.21 ratio spread, the new six-speed autos supporting both the 2.7-liter inline-four and 3.5-liter V-6 offer greater driving flexibility than the four- (3.94) and five-speed (4.89) units of yesteryear. Though paired with shorter (numerically higher) axle ratios for 2016, the six-speed transmission’s added steps make shifting sound and feel less dramatic, yielding a more relaxed operating environment. The manual gear-select function works well, too.
The crash safety
Much like how you used to assume German luxury sedans were safer than anything else on the road simply because they were German, most people didn’t used to expect much from pickup trucks in terms of safety, save for the reassurance of heavy doors and the crush distance between the tailgate and the cab. In this era of cleverer engineering and advanced software guidance, the best possible crash safety should be a given. To help in this area, the Tacoma’s cabin structure has been significantly reinforced, especially at the critical A- and (on the Double Cab) B-pillars.