2020 F-150 Super Cab XL SXT 2.7 RWD. 26mpg summer and 24mpg in winter.
1 Week Review - 2025 Toyota Tacoma Hybrid Limited
- Thread starter meep
- Start date
You sir are getting excellent mileage out of that f150!
I'm impressed with the fuel mileage. It gets better gas mileage than a 1991 Ranger Super Cab 3.0 manual that I owned.
Very nice truck sir! I went at looked at the Tundra and noticed how nice the Taco is, hoping for many trouble free miles.
Congratulations! A beautiful truck.
Update:
One month in, I am nothing but pleased. I’ve stopped banging my head on the roof console upon entry, and the nimble steering no longer tricks me into over-cutting as I pull out onto a street.
Mpg has settled at 23.7. Driven lightly, it gets perceptibly the same regardless of octane, when driven lightly. However, I’m not going to call this as certain yet because there is an incredible difference in throttle response between regular and high octane. I’ve never driven a vehicle with this stark of a difference. 87 feels about right for a “normal” throttle curve. You can tell the moment 91 hits the ECU as the throttle response changes dramatically, though again, I can’t yet attest to a difference in mpg.
The highway noise is impressive. This is a Toyota? It’s as good as the benchmark F150 for high noise.
The drivetrain is just fun, eager.
Is the hybrid worth it? This is a hard sell. It absolutely contributes in stop and go traffic under 20 mph. A lot, and learning its threshold helps keep it in its sweet spot. There are driving modes where it is clearly useful. I sit in parking lots while I work/study a LOT, and hvac works off the battery. It is useful, though at a price.
Seat comfort and usability is great.
I’ve turned off the HUD, and most days shut off the movie theater / infotainment.
ECO mode is fine. Throttle curve and probably reduces HVAC fan speed by a notch. Cool.
Suspension is loosening some and it’s riding more like it should.
Powered running boards now creak upon deployment. How long with these last?
Mods have started.
OZ wheels with 18x8 and 40mm offset, replace the OE 18x7.5 and 50mm. You hear a touch more wind noise. I’m not feeling any artifacts at the steering wheel, and if I did I wouldn’t be happy. (I think one of the upper trims, maybe TRD Pro, offers this wheel size). It’s costing me about 1 mpg as they stick out maybe 5/8” more each side. Subtly provides a touch more settledness on the highway. I was nervous about going to a 17, because the 18s handle well, but if I had any more risk-taker in me I would have gone for the 17s as I think the NVH would improve without much drop in hwy handling.
As it stands I’ll say this, the oem 18” wheels are incredibly light. You will be hard-pressed to find even an upper tier aftermarket wheel with the same strength and low weight. Toyota isnt bragging about it, and they covered the metal with a plastic hubcap, but there was some thinking behind it. I could feel the unsprung weight, but after 1 day couldn’t really tell enough to have regret.
Lighting mods - exploring - the lighting on this vehicle is CAN Bus all the way. Headlights get 12v, ground and CAN. One can’t tap the leads to find park, low, high signals, so if you like light mods, you’ve got to buy a can interface. CANM8 Cannect is the product to consider. Lord help if you bash one of these headlamp assemblies in, they won’t be cheap to replace. I suspect the tails are the same.
Probing wiring to learn how it works, I appreciate that it is better dressed than the ford truck I came from, which was not bad, but it wasn’t tops either. By comparison, and it’s been a while, but I recall mid-teens wranglers at having some of the best-dressed looms, and probably superior to the Tacoma, but not by a large margin. Toyota did a good job. Not really a comparison, but the copper is thin, and it can be because everything is LED and CAN driven.
The rear suspension feels Great for a truck. I recall when adding a rear anti-sway to the ford, that it really balanced out the handling - you can feel it in the Tacoma as well as the multi-link rear - I don’t know how to describe it but it is reminiscent to something I felt in my 93 ZJ when you had the axles flexed with the body stuck in the middle - you can feel the suspension working for you in odd turns on this truck, feels well balanced.
The gas tank is small. I’m pretty mpg focused and this dissuades me from thoughts of a roof rack or even taller camper shell. It told me “330 miles” range at last fill.
Zero complaints.
I noticed I’ve turned a lot of features off. I still think the hybrid drive is worth getting - it is very active in stop-go traffic, and they really should offer it in the SR/5 trims without the techie features.
-m
One month in, I am nothing but pleased. I’ve stopped banging my head on the roof console upon entry, and the nimble steering no longer tricks me into over-cutting as I pull out onto a street.
Mpg has settled at 23.7. Driven lightly, it gets perceptibly the same regardless of octane, when driven lightly. However, I’m not going to call this as certain yet because there is an incredible difference in throttle response between regular and high octane. I’ve never driven a vehicle with this stark of a difference. 87 feels about right for a “normal” throttle curve. You can tell the moment 91 hits the ECU as the throttle response changes dramatically, though again, I can’t yet attest to a difference in mpg.
The highway noise is impressive. This is a Toyota? It’s as good as the benchmark F150 for high noise.
The drivetrain is just fun, eager.
Is the hybrid worth it? This is a hard sell. It absolutely contributes in stop and go traffic under 20 mph. A lot, and learning its threshold helps keep it in its sweet spot. There are driving modes where it is clearly useful. I sit in parking lots while I work/study a LOT, and hvac works off the battery. It is useful, though at a price.
Seat comfort and usability is great.
I’ve turned off the HUD, and most days shut off the movie theater / infotainment.
ECO mode is fine. Throttle curve and probably reduces HVAC fan speed by a notch. Cool.
Suspension is loosening some and it’s riding more like it should.
Powered running boards now creak upon deployment. How long with these last?
Mods have started.
OZ wheels with 18x8 and 40mm offset, replace the OE 18x7.5 and 50mm. You hear a touch more wind noise. I’m not feeling any artifacts at the steering wheel, and if I did I wouldn’t be happy. (I think one of the upper trims, maybe TRD Pro, offers this wheel size). It’s costing me about 1 mpg as they stick out maybe 5/8” more each side. Subtly provides a touch more settledness on the highway. I was nervous about going to a 17, because the 18s handle well, but if I had any more risk-taker in me I would have gone for the 17s as I think the NVH would improve without much drop in hwy handling.
As it stands I’ll say this, the oem 18” wheels are incredibly light. You will be hard-pressed to find even an upper tier aftermarket wheel with the same strength and low weight. Toyota isnt bragging about it, and they covered the metal with a plastic hubcap, but there was some thinking behind it. I could feel the unsprung weight, but after 1 day couldn’t really tell enough to have regret.
Lighting mods - exploring - the lighting on this vehicle is CAN Bus all the way. Headlights get 12v, ground and CAN. One can’t tap the leads to find park, low, high signals, so if you like light mods, you’ve got to buy a can interface. CANM8 Cannect is the product to consider. Lord help if you bash one of these headlamp assemblies in, they won’t be cheap to replace. I suspect the tails are the same.
Probing wiring to learn how it works, I appreciate that it is better dressed than the ford truck I came from, which was not bad, but it wasn’t tops either. By comparison, and it’s been a while, but I recall mid-teens wranglers at having some of the best-dressed looms, and probably superior to the Tacoma, but not by a large margin. Toyota did a good job. Not really a comparison, but the copper is thin, and it can be because everything is LED and CAN driven.
The rear suspension feels Great for a truck. I recall when adding a rear anti-sway to the ford, that it really balanced out the handling - you can feel it in the Tacoma as well as the multi-link rear - I don’t know how to describe it but it is reminiscent to something I felt in my 93 ZJ when you had the axles flexed with the body stuck in the middle - you can feel the suspension working for you in odd turns on this truck, feels well balanced.
The gas tank is small. I’m pretty mpg focused and this dissuades me from thoughts of a roof rack or even taller camper shell. It told me “330 miles” range at last fill.
Zero complaints.
I noticed I’ve turned a lot of features off. I still think the hybrid drive is worth getting - it is very active in stop-go traffic, and they really should offer it in the SR/5 trims without the techie features.
-m
@meep found the solution to the whistling if you want to remove the air dam again.
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/noise-after-removing-air-dam.832609/page-3#post-29960682
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/noise-after-removing-air-dam.832609/page-3#post-29960682
Toyota is the only company I would fully trust to build a hybrid driveline. It will be great with that aspect.
No other company including Honda has figured it out. They should just buy tech from Toyota.
No other company including Honda has figured it out. They should just buy tech from Toyota.
have to agree
Hopefully those mpgs improve. My 24 Tundra non max gets 19-20. Highest trip average was 24.5. I came from a 15 Tacoma to the Tundra. I was getting 20 on my 4.0L Tacoma.
Why is Honda's transition from gas to hybrid to EV so much smoother than the Toyota's ? Is Honda doing something wrong to get that smoothness . Every reviewer says the same thing . I drove both . And they are spot on .
Why is Honda's transition from gas to hybrid to EV so much smoother than the Toyota's ? Is Honda doing something wrong to get that smoothness . Every reviewer says the same thing . I drove both . And they are spot on .
Which vehicles between Toyota and Honda? Toyota now has 2 different systems. In their RWD trucks the motor/gen replaces the torque converter and the engine is clutched in/out - I think. In low gears you feel the engine clutch in a lot like a stick shift would. In high gears there are times where it’s imperceptible. Granted, the gains here are small, this is better categorized as a mild hybrid.
In their traditional FWD hybrid transaxle, it’s a different arrangement altogether. The transaxle - you can tell but it’s not intrusive. The transaxle arrangement seems far more effective at getting solid MPG numbers than the 8 speed hybrid.
In their traditional FWD hybrid transaxle, it’s a different arrangement altogether. The transaxle - you can tell but it’s not intrusive. The transaxle arrangement seems far more effective at getting solid MPG numbers than the 8 speed hybrid.
- Joined
- Aug 9, 2022
- Messages
- 112
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Ford knows how to build a hybrid as good as Toyota. How, you might ask? A cross licensing/shared technology deal with Toyota many years ago. I’ve had both, Toyota and Ford hybrids and both are excellent. Or are you being specific to the type of hybrid system used in this truck vs the system that is available in the F-150?
Ford can't even figure out how a cam phaser works without rattling.
Last edited:
- Joined
- Aug 9, 2022
- Messages
- 112
I have nothing against Toyota, I just helped my aunt buy a Prius, but this just isn’t true.
Honda and Ford both do hybrids just as good. Ford learned how to do it from Toyota and while Hondas early system was janky the modern gen is very nice.
And you know what hybrid system was still better than anything anyone else has ever made. The Volt! Now THAT was a smooth system. GM was a leader, and now they don’t make a single hybrid. Sad!
