you don't have to spend much time in the
Pacific Northwest to know that Toyota
vehicles are very popular
specifically Toyota pickup trucks Brian
what do we have here in Seattle so here
we have - 2018 pickup trucks from Toyota
one the mid-size Tacoma and the other
one the full-size Tundra now the tundra
is a little bit older than the Tacoma
it's you know hasn't been redesigned as
recently but they're actually not as far
apart in price as you would think so the
Tacoma that we have is a TRD off road
and that's 41,000 while the tundra that
we have is an sr5 and that's only 44,000
so it's not that much price difference
for getting a much larger truck that's
amazing we have a half-ton pickup truck
against a midsize and they're close in
price yeah they're close from price and
they're also closed in bed size so our
Tundra has a five and a half foot bed
the Tacoma has a five foot bed and we're
looking at about a sixteen point six
inch difference in the overall length
between the two vehicles and where you
find that matters most is in the
backseat so here in the back of the
tundra is where you really see that
benefits of that added length
it actually has 10 inches more rear
legroom limba Tacoma does and sitting
back here I definitely believe it no
this is fantastic this is the crew max
cab the biggest volume cab of any crew
cab in the segment and you feel it all
in the legroom and in the size back here
it's fantastic and it also has these
huge back doors they seem like the
biggest ones of the segment and they
open really wide almost ninety degrees
so for people who need to store
something back here like a large piece
of cargo that you don't want to throw in
the bed and keep it secure in the cab it
allows you to do things like that as
well two things I really like that the
seat bottoms actually fold up flat to
give you a huge amount of area to store
a big box cargo here and this rear
window is actually the only one in the
segment that drops all the way down
giving kind of a free-flow air flow here
for the cab yeah but and there's always
about with the tundra given how old it
is the back seat is definitely the
highlight of this interior when you move
forward you can definitely see how old
it is and how much this truck is in need
of a redesign there's a lot of very
dated details in that front that whole
center console looks like a transformer
breastplate to me when I look at that
yeah it's big and chunky and kind of not
a not a way that you want in a truck it
doesn't necessarily look rugged it looks
more old and the other problem with
those large knobs and dials is
they make the screen look small so
measurably the screen isn't that small
but in that - it looks undersized and it
makes the truck feel even older there's
no question that truck guys if they're
wearing gloves or if they're on the job
they want big knobs big buttons to
control their truck but with the other
vehicles in the segment making complete
redesigns
in the timeframe that we've only seen
one generation here in the tundra that's
where they're struggling yeah and the
other way that it shows its age is in
its technology offerings so like we said
in it the screen kind of small but it
also comes with Toyota's Entune system
which we don't really like the
navigation maps look dated everything
feels like a generation behind and it
also doesn't offer apple carplay or
Android auto so there are no no
alternatives you have to use that system
and one final way in which it really
seen is old
you get four twelve volt charging ports
but only one USB so if you've got kids
in the back they're gonna have to fight
over one device by contrast here in the
Tacoma definitely feels a lot tighter
back here but but more modern yeah one
of the benefits of the smaller truck
bigger priced is that you're gonna get
more equipment so this is a TRD off road
trim whereas that one's an sr5 so in
this truck you'll find things like their
upholstery heated front seats a wireless
charging pad for your phone and a
moonroof and none of those things you'll
find in the country
doesn't have a drop rear window but it
does have a center section that can
slide back and forth and then there are
some weird areas though which I feel
like the Tacoma does cut costs and one
of that would one of them would be the
front seats which are manual adjust so
manual adjust seats on a forty one
thousand dollar truck yeah that sounds
crazy but technology here - I know we
mentioned in the tundra one USB port in
a whole bunch of twelve volts yeah and
here your charging options are even less
surprisingly so there's still only one
USB port and only two 12-volt ports and
you also get some cheapness
in the backseat as well on the back the
center console here there is no charging
option so if you do want a place on the
in back here you're gonna have to reach
all the way to the front the other
problem that I have with the Tacomas
backseat is that if you get carsick like
I do there's two things that you're
really not gonna like one of them is
there's no adjustable air vents
there's only those two small air vents
down at the bottom of the center console
here which blowing your feet so they
don't help you out and visibility here
is much worse it is like you said a
smaller cabin but I feel like the
windows keep down a little bit far you
don't get the same level of visibility
well another area consumers care about
is what's under the hood let's go take a
look and see how they compare tacoma 3.5
liter v6 278 horsepower 265 foot-pounds
of torque I'm always a little leery of
engines that have higher horsepower
ratings than torque numbers trucks
should be about torque yeah and this is
an engine that's familiar to us it's one
that 2002 uses up and down its lineup
and I didn't like any other applications
and frankly I don't really like it here
what applications is it a Highlander and
that's not a truck engine no it's a
minivan and a SUV engine yeah and it
shows here because it doesn't really
feel like it has any punch in the
mid-range you get decent off-the-line
acceleration when you get it up into the
res it really sings but in the middle
there we want power for like passing or
especially when you're doing things like
towing or carrying a large load you
really want the engine to perform
between like 3 and 5,000 I'm sure this
engine does very well in fuel economy
but it's not very energetic if you want
to push and drive this thing you've got
to work the transmission
like crazy yeah much like the rest of
Tacoma this engine is kind of newer but
I actually prefer the old-school
approach in the tundra here in the
tundra we've got the 5.7 liter v8 they
do offer two v8s but we've got the big
one here 381 horsepower 401 foot-pounds
of torque this engine is made for towing
and hauling yeah and this formula
definitely seems to work better than the
one that you were talking about in the
tacoma this one has more torque than
horsepower and it also has more even
power up and down the rev range so when
you're passing when you're doing
activities like towing hauling as you
mentioned it just has even power and
even delivery all the way through
capability is 9800 pounds I think max
towing for the tundra but even with
something close to that range of a max
tow rating feels very confident when
you've got that much weight behind this
vehicle not so much with the Tacoma one
thing I did really like I noticed that
the air filters on both the v6 and the
v8 the same large size they're both
moving a lot of air through these
engines well we're here at the back end
of these vehicles Tacoma side by side
with the tundra this is where these
vehicles are defined it affricates a
pickup truck after all right so talk to
me about the differences here what are
the obvious things we're seeing
obviously differences are slightly
different lengths so 5 foot better than
the Tacoma five and a half foot bed in
the tundra which is actually closer than
I thought the two would be and since
this is a crew max version of the tundra
you can only get it with a five and a
half foot bed feature wise similar but
there are some key differences you get a
household plug back here with the Dakota
that you don't get in tundra and you
also have this drop-in plastic kind of
bed liner versus the spray in one in the
country yeah that's going to save a lot
of weight it's probably going to wear
and tear a lot better too if you don't
need a huge bed if you're not going to
carry a lot of furniture maybe this
would be perfect for somebody but let's
move over to the tundra so you say five
and a half foot bed on this one yeah and
what things are sticking out here oh you
have an extra rail up front there so you
can outfit the bed a little bit more
than you could the Tacoma this one
actually had a cover on it before which
we removed so you get a little bit more
flexibility that way one thing that I do
like about the tundra the bed is deeper
so the two trucks actually have very
similar load indices maybe under an inch
of difference between the two of them
but the top of the Tacoma and so much
shorter you're able to fit
more than hundreds bed and keep it below
the rim spray in bedliner it's a much
rougher surface so probably things are
going to move around less didn't even
though as we said before the beds are
similar in length five foot versus five
and a half you still have a pretty big
gap in the overall length of the two
vehicles but we're length translates in
a completely different way is out here
on a tight off-road course Brian we've
had a chance to go back and forth with
Tacoma and tundra what are your initial
thoughts yeah I think that both of them
actually got through what we put them
through today rather easily but the size
difference makes it ten times easier to
do it in Tacoma rather than the tundra
so there's a tight section of there
where we had to get through some trees
to get to the lower part of the trail in
the Tacoma you make that turn easily
every time in the tundra you got to kind
of set it up it just takes up more
mental space and it's harder to get the
tundra down through the same trail that
we did the Tacoma that's one of the
things that a consumer has to keep in
mind what what are you going to do with
this vehicle or what do you want to do
or maybe what do you desire to do
sometime in the future and if you're
doing anything off-road the nimble
Tacoma especially with a TRD off-road
package is pretty amazing you have the
power the ratio the gearing the big
wheels and tires it does pretty well
yeah for an sr5 the tons is admirable
but it's out of place here a little bit
this one is at home on a trail it's got
crawl control you have mobile terrain
settings and I also noticed that the
problems that we had with the engine
they kind of dissipate when you're on a
trail when you're in for high or low it
actually feels like the engine gets in
the power more quickly it's easy to
crawl over things whereas we're too high
on the street and we get kind of a flat
disc from the engine and makes us not
like it out there and again a fully
loaded Tacoma with the crawl control
that does some amazing things no matter
what kind of surface you're on versus an
sr5 just has the four-wheel drive fairly
flexible suspension but nothing compared
to the technology that we have in a
$41,000 Tacoma
pick up buyers obviously by vehicles for
very different reasons we've had a
chance to go deep into these two
vehicles toyota offers a midsize pickup
truck in the tacoma and a half-ton
full-size in the tundra we've had a
chance to debate a little bit here brian
let me put you on the spot which if you
had to pick which one would you take
well if i pick one of them I'm taking
home the tundra I don't actually see
that much of a difference technology and
equipment lies between the tundra and
the Tacoma it would be different the
Tacoma had more charging options a
better multimedia system but has the
same antenna system and these two
actually come with identical standard
safety features as of 2018 so I'm going
for the tundra you get more room that
cab is huge you can fit people or cargo
in the back and I think that the
powertrain for me even though you get
worse fuel economy because it is a big
v8 at least you're happy when you're
driving it I love how much you can do
with this tundra but there's so much
that I like about the TRD package all of
them the off-road in particular amazing
capability it's a it's a very well done
midsize pickup truck that's out there
right now maybe that's why it's the
number one selling midsize pickup truck
buy almost two to one against everything
else and it's a coma holds insane value
though anyone who's tried to tried to
buy a used to come on knows the pain
because they just hold their value so
well so I think that there are very
distinct advantages that each truck has
I just I'll take bigger over smaller
every time and it sounds like you'll
take newer and better off-road then the
big v8 here yeah yeah there's a lot of
great details in these two trucks a lot
of things to like about both of them I'm
okay with the split decision for more
information and data so you can make
your own best decision go to pickup
trucks calm