the toyota tacoma is the porsche of mid-sized trucks and the trd pro is the gt3 it's outfitted
for extreme performance and it's hard to find one years before the used car market went
crazy with price you could sell a tacoma trd pro for what you paid for it that's the thing about
this truck it stays expensive for years after you buy one even if it's painted like a tennis ball
there are changes for 2022 significant ones that you can't tell right away so i will show you those
plus my camera car today is another toyota it's a 4runner so we're going to have some fun today
told you so before you buy a 4x4 get your old car out the door with cargurus type a
few details get a cash offer from thousands of dealers nationwide if you like it they'll
pick it up and pay you since this tacoma generation came out for 2016 we've reviewed
one almost every year and this is our third consecutive review with a trd pro winner spring
summer because you all can't get enough i'm gonna save my complaints until the end because right now
i want to have some fun off-road where this truck really belongs
that's the great thing about trucks like this kevlar reinforced tires
i've got 9.4 inches of clearance i don't have to worry about really any sort of mud i could
sync this thing up to the doors not that i really want to try that today but you can you'll be fine
the trd pro is kind of like a candy store there's so many things to press you want to
just see what they do so i've got up here crawl control multi terrain select down here i got the
four wheel drive can shift that into low it's like what do you want to do you press a button
the trd pro makes it happen so let's go into four low
there we go
now it's always nice when you're in four low because the truck does several things for you
turns off the traction control the stability control it turns off the collision warning and
it puts these cameras on the forward and the side cameras on on the screen the whole time they will
not shut off unless you necessarily drive very fast which you don't want to do in four low it
also shows you the pitch angle and you can cycle through different camera modes if you so choose
that is very helpful when you're off-road because you want to be able to see everything
so once you've prepared yourself in 4lo look above hit the mts button and you control this
dial between mud and sand you got loose rock mogul that sounds like fun rock and dirt or just rock i
don't feel like rocking out today so i think i'm gonna choose some mud and sand pretty much a good
default choice what this does is it changes the throttle and the traction control characteristics
so you don't really have to do anything it's not quite as advanced as say
land rover's terrain response system that does even more but it's pretty helpful
what's also nice you can get electronic locking differential that's also standard
so we'll do that it's always better to engage that before you actually need it
and it's going to get a little bumpy in here
but the trd pro just crawls right out and speaking of crawling i can activate crawl control so let's
try that i engage crawl up here what that does it's basically an off-road cruise control so all
you have to do is point and steer it will break for you and will also accelerate for you you can
also adjust the speed using the same knob you use for multi-terrain select so right now i'm on high
what you're hearing now is the abs activating
and say this is too fast of speed drop it down a little bit say i want to go a little slower
now we are truly crawling again i can boost up the speed here to the max setting there's five
and just as much as it works uphill does the same thing downhill that's the good thing about this
system you'll find on a lot of suvs and trucks you have hill descent control that only works downhill
but with this toyota system it's both ways up and down all of these features i just mentioned
you cannot get on the six-speed manual but you do have that choice on the trd pro not on every
tacoma while you get a choice of transmission you get one engine three and a half liter v6 278
horsepower and 265 pound-feet of torque now the way this engine is tuned with the throttle it's
soft it's lazy that's because you want progressive input very deliberate inputs off-road you don't
want anything to be too sharp or aggressive because that'll get you out of control in no time
how i feel in this truck i feel confident i just feel like the suspension is completely sorted you
just drive it point it go it drives over anything at low or higher speeds these fox racing shocks
that are on here and again they're they're two and a half inches in diameter pretty substantial
don't worry about the bumps because the springs have so much travel
and you got to remember how much clearance there is yes it's true that a subaru outback wilderness
has just as much ground clearance as this tacoma but it certainly doesn't have any of the angles
especially the approach angle you can get up some very steep inclines with this thing
who's shooting at us that's just crawl control
pumping the abs for you so all you have to do is sit back and steer and if you can't see
what's ahead of you using the cameras on screen it's a really nice feature
i've had enough of that you can also just shift into a lower gear that also helps
right now we're just crossing a small river no we're not we're crossing a small stream right now
and it's really no big deal in this truck
pitch it kind of wherever you want
and i know there's plenty of spring travel not gonna be an issue
even in four low the transmission is shifting pretty smoothly i like that
finally the last great thing about the tacoma is that it's nice and narrow and it's not too
long if you try taking a full-size pickup truck on any sort of narrow trail forget it it's just
too long the wheelbase is too long so you just can't get over the same obstacles and you just
can't steer clearly around things like you can in a vehicle of this size on the road
v6 engine really kind of labors and when you get it in gear it's got power it's just the
sound well kind of industrial drone to me a lot of times a nice snarl up in the upper rev range
but ordinarily you don't hear that that's because the transmission keeps short shifting the only
way like i've said before to get extra power is to push the button that says power on the dash that's
the only way to do it on the road you'll find yourself dipping more into the throttle because
the tacoma loses a lot of speed these are very knobby tires it's very not aerodynamic and these
gaps in the gears i always talk about that on low gear transmissions it's only a six speed we're in
the year 2022 right the colorado has an eight speed the frontier has nine the ranger has ten
toyota has other transmissions but they leave the six in the tacoma there's also a 2.7 liter
inline four it's not as bad as it sounds because on the highway
not that noisy and the fuel economy is actually better than the epa but in this v6 18 city 22
highway and only 20 combined that number is pretty horrendous especially when you consider
that full-size trucks with the same engine or even larger get the same or better fuel economy
where on the trail the trd pro feels pretty nimble especially compared to
a full-size truck it's easy to place on the road it feels a lot larger than it is
because it's slow to react to basically everything the steering is slow you really have to make some
corrections there's not a ton of on center feel it's noisy you already heard the engine that's
with the special cat-back sport exhaust that comes standard in the trd pro i normally like
loud exhaust but you can throw that one away i don't really need to hear it i will give it this
it is very comfortable so that same great off-road ride from those long travel springs all the damper
settings it translates to a very good on-road ride you never get punished you always feel
like you can drive over anything and you can so it rolls a lot including when you brake
i mean they work right to my brown eyes the tacoma is the best looking midsize truck
electric lime is a new color for 2022 and no doubt it'll be rare and it's a big fun toy
there's actually some streamlined elements to the cab check that out especially from the side kind
of has a sporty profile but really what you're looking at is this front it's such a slab blunt
front end especially that grille toyota in all caps just like the old fj cruisers very classic
look that look is shared if you get the sr5 trail edition that's a much cheaper version that gives
you a lot of this truck style for less money but you do not get these headlights led sequential
turn signals and it lights up trd on the left and pro on the right the trd pro also has fog lights
made by ridgid industries and a very big skid plate with trd stamped in bright red this tacoma
has an accessory underneath the hood it's a trd air filter that lets more flow in that adds some
more power toyota doesn't say but the only issue is that this is where the hood scoop is supposed
to be and there's no air intake none whatsoever so while it looks really cool on the outside
it doesn't do much another standout feature are the black wheels not only does the color match the
fender flares and the bumper and the grill it's got a nice red pop of color here in the center on
those caps i like that and the wheels are wrapped in kevlar reinforced goodyear all-terrain tires
that's what really gets this truck moving what's behind that reinforced forged upper control arms
they're all aluminum and that's a brand new piece of hardware for 2022 and look at that red it just
looks so good matches the center caps they really were thinking what else does it have it has one
and a half inches extra suspension lift in the front and another half inch in the rear that's
another change for 2022 and while the clearance is the same at 9.4 inches across every tacoma model
on the trd pro that extra lift does improve the breakover the approach and the departure angles
the trd pro comes one way as a crew cab with the short five foot bed this one has some special
toyota accessories not only does it have all the cargo lights that you don't normally get
it's got this bed extender that transforms from kind of a luggage cargo area inside when the
tailgate's closed to a normal extender swivel's 180 degrees it's a pretty nice design there's
also a trd exhaust tip to show everybody how trd pro you really are the interior it's a place to
sit and drive now it's not really saying much but this is the best mid-sized pickup truck interior
in terms of materials and finish the tacoma is all basic all the time off-roading is serious business
you know and with that you get good visibility and sight lines at every corner of the truck
one problem there's no rear defroster but there is a power sliding window
the front seats are decent they have an interesting kind of vinyl texture here it kind of
feels like rubber i like that but the back seats i wouldn't subject anyone to a long road trip
these hard plastics don't bother me all that much it's a rugged pickup truck and for fit
and finish it's nicer than a jeep gladiator and a lot of other trucks and here's an option that you
don't normally find in a car but increasingly in pickup trucks a steel safe i don't know why you'd
use that but in case you're wondering combination is one two three four you won't find any fancy
digital displays here just a simple gauge cluster and this small color display the air vents swivel
they don't need a separate flow dial that's a nice simple design the tacoma's best technology
is all the physical four-wheel drive hardware and you can control them all with real knobs
real buttons there's 360 cameras on here but check out the quality of that rear camera now check out
the quality of the front and the sides it kind of has the resolution of a sega genesis it is there
and you can see all this while you're off-roading but the resolution should be a lot better the
infotainment is looking pretty dated but it's like that on a lot of toyota products that haven't
upgraded to toyota's new system you'll find that on the new 2022 tundra it is not on this tacoma
however you can get wired apple carplay and android auto and this one comes with wi-fi you can
use apps from the entune app suite on your phone that's a bit older and there also is a wireless
charging pad and thankfully when you get the trd pro you get a pretty good jbl stereo they've got
some good bass control standard on every tacoma is adaptive cruise forward emergency braking and lane
departure there's no lane centering but there's also front knee airbags and auto high beams and
that's it the 2022 tacoma starts at 27 150 for the sr that's with two wheel drive the access cab
and the four cylinder there are six trims and you'll probably end up paying 40 with options
my trd pro was 51 853 with accessories and destination after three years it'll sell for 51
853 every toyota enthusiast always wants a trd pro but there's competition nissan frontier pro 4x
chevy colorado zr2 bison ford ranger trimmer and the jeep gladiator rubicon that's a lot of good
choices fresh out of the box the tacoma can tread almost anywhere any tacoma is capable but all the
suspension upgrades on the trd pro take it to the next level plus i just buy it for the looks
it's like a big matchbox toy so what do you think this truck nissan frontier we've reviewed them all
check it out on cargurus.com subscribe to the youtube channel where we do videos like this
every single week all year thanks for watching we'll see you next time