Detroit 2015: Toyota Debuting Next-Gen Tacoma In January

Toyota will sell you that now. What they need to do is the same thing they've been doing, only with more power and a lot more fuel efficiency.

Got a 4 cylinder crew cab model about 1 year ago. Automatic; there were zero manuals on the lot. It is almost identical to our 2007 crew cab, except that the 2007 has a 6 cylinder and rides a little higher. Wife at least will ride in the 2014, although she has not driven it yet. I think the ride is a little softer in the 2014, it is a pleasant commuter vehicle, you can take 4 people with you in relative comfort, and you can throw anything in the bed. Toyota should look at adding some creature comforts without requiring a big package upgrade. After I purchased this truck we found out it does not have intermittent wipers. Only single swipe, low, high. Yeah, like it only rains 2 ways in Florida. I had a 1968 Rambler with intermittent wipers. I was told that I should have purchased a "convenience package" that included a fancier radio and blah,blah, for only about another $2200. That is about 8% of the invoice price of the truck. I'll suffer in silence.

@gator marco Intermittent wipers are way overrated. Seriously, Toyota trucks were the last to get shamed into including side view mirrors and rear bumpers as standard equipment

@gator marco Toyota is insane about giving you anything standard. Lexus RX 350 still doesn't come with any modern "infotainment" system unless you get Nav. 90% of them are sold without Nav (which requires the upgraded sound system). We have a 2007...they want us to upgrade and beg for our car all the time. Why would I when the 2015 is the same damned car?

@slance66 That's not really strange, infotainment is an automatic no for me. I refuse to buy anything that has a touchscreen in the dash, and the group of people that feel the same is surely measurable, as the fad seems to be simply an extension of all the digital dash mess we had in the 80s, and all of that looks like ancient technology today. Even mid 00 touchscreen looks like ancient technology, and mid 00 vehicles havent even reached the avg age of vehicles in the U.S.

@gator marco I didn't know such an animal existed. I got a Crew Cab Frontier but only the V6 was offered and the Frontier felt smaller than the Tacoma and no dealer was interested in locating me this base model crew cab Taco around here. The Nissan dealer had no issue. I liked the Tacoma Truck better, but I very much preferred the Nissan's V6 to the Toyota's.

@Hummer Agreed. No infotainment or touch screen please. We have two 2014 RAM 1500s at work. One has Uconnect 3.0 which is a basic radio. The other is Uconnect 5.0 which is touchscreen and reverse camera. I do not mind the camera, but I cannot stand a TV in the dashboard. You cannot turn the thing off. It is always on and always too bright. You can mute the radio, but you cannot turn the damn screen off!! Obviously, I use the Uconnect 3.0 truck exclusively. Unfortunately, these screens are becoming standard on all cars. For my personal vehicle I'd pay an extra $500 to NOT have infotainment/touchscreen garbage

@gator marco Re: intermittent wipers. You can add that feature pretty easily by simply replacing the column stalk with one with the intermittent settings, runs about $100 or so if I remember right, did this on my brother's base Tacoma a year or two back. Wanted to add cruise control too, but that was more involved than I or he wanted to tackle.

@LectroByte Re: DIY intermittent wipers. Yes it's not hard to do. I rigged my own 'automatic headlights' with a couple of relays, on my STX (base '04) F-150. But that's not the point. It did come with 'standard' intermittent wipers, obviously.

@DenverMike I'm on Tacoma #2 now. 2011 4cy.5 sp. 4x4 Access Cab. They bought my identically equipped 2000 back for just over $15K three years ago(frame rust). A basic, dependable, smallish truck. Unfortunately the bean counters convinced engineering to leave out a few common sense items that are standard on even the cheapest cars. No bed lighting at all. How tough to incorporate one into the 3rd brake light? No interior back-lighting at night for the power mirrors, clutch start cancel, dome/gauge dimmer, and the most mind boggling one: No back light at night for the rotary 4X4 selection knob. The most important switch in a 4X4. Not even a glove box light. GM will force Toyota to step it up.

@agroal The all-new Tacoma should see some long awaited upgrades to better compete against the new Colorado/Canyon series. My #3 son drives a tricked out four-door 4x4 Tacoma SR5 TRD and is on pins and needles to see what the new "real-world" Tacoma will surprise its fans with.

Hope so. If nothing else it will quash all of these "the grass is greener on the other side of the fence" discussions. I have a lot of experience with the Hilux and Tacomas and they are way more similar than different. I never understood the need for seperate trucks as the US market trucks held up just as well in the worlds crapholes I have been in as the Hiluxes. Whatever truck we get, I hope it has that sweet diesel the Hilux we had in Afghanistan did. If the Frontier gets the little Cummins though my 2013 will be for sale!

I do not think this is correct. As I understand it, the Tacoma and 4Runner/Surf/Prado/GX460 are all supposedly 120 series frames, but the Tacoma is not fully boxed where as the others are. Am I wrong? Is the world market HiLux fully boxed?

@Speedygreg7, I do think they are all related. The Prado, FJ Cruiser and 70's Series are supposed to have the same frames. I've read that the Tacoma/4Runner/Surf have a lighter frame. I've read that the Taco/Surf frame isn't boxed behind the rear axle, but the Hilux is. When it comes down to cross members and construction of the frames I can't tell you the variations between them. I'll find out if I can find out the differences between the 3 types of chassis's.

@mkirk They do not do that well in Australia as far as reliability US Pickups, then again we have a lot more experience of comparing them than you would have had being posted to Afghanistan. The current Tacoma is based on the ancient Toyota Surf Hilux, same generation as the D22 Nissans. Hilux is similar to the Tacoma, but a much sturdier frame to handle much heavier loads and the unfortunate Toyota Diesel. Hope the new Hilux coming in 2016 is a vast improvement and on par with the Ranger, Mazda and Amarok

@Big Al from Oz I thought the GX460 and US Market 4 Runner shared the Prado frame, along with the FJ Cruiser while the Tacoma was indeed a lighter duty version of the Hilux frame. Are any of them actually related to the 70 series? The bones of that truck date well back in to the Reagan Administration I thought. Plus it is a significantly different beast underneath with a solid front axle and all. I think it only got rid of front leafs in the most recent iteration which was still on the same old frame but as this is a truck American Cruiserheads can only lust after unless we want to import a geriatric specimen I am prepared to be wrong.