Hello, I'm a longtime lurker on the forum, I just made an account and thought my first post would be a review of my Tacoma which I bought new and now has about 65,000 miles on it.
Exterior: 2012 saw the Tacoma's interior and exterior refreshed. On the outside, the front bumper, grill and headlights are different, the tail lights may be different. I appreciate the new front. My Tacoma is a 2wd five lug so it has almost comically small tires and huge tire to fender gaps. The bed exterior is made of pretty thin sheet metal. I tripped and fell into the side carrying a 24 pack of Monster energy drinks and it left a decent size dent. The rear bumper is also a bit chintzy. I dented part of mine pushing a car a few feet.
Interior: Changed for 2012 was new radio/console, new dash, new steering wheel, new seat material, and vinyl on the door panels instead of the mouse fur on the previous years which got dirty fast. Overall it's a noticeable improvement over the 2011s. Now for the bad parts. The seat hight isn't adjustable. I'm 6ft tall and I feel a little low in the cab, if you're shorter this might be a problem. Also the steering wheel, while adjustable, doesn't come out far enough to be within easy reach, unless the seat is far enough forward to make my legs uncomfortable. However, the seats seem to be pretty comfortable, I've taken it on many long drives. The drivers seat has adjustable lumbar support, the passenger seat folds forward completely and has a plastic back that can be used as a table. The seat material on the front seats is pretty good. Once, on one of the aforementioned long drives, a Sugar Baby dropped from my mouth, between my legs, and came to rest lodged between the seat of my pants and the seat. Over the next few hundred miles, heat and humidity slowly turned it from delicious candy into something approximating brown s#!t smeared on my pants and car seat. This mess came off surprisingly easy. The rear jump seats are a different material and stain easily. One last thing, the passenger seat will vibrate and bump around if empty and slid all the way back
Performance: Slow acceleration. No surprise with 158 horsepower and a 4 speed auto. I have noticed some driveline vibration with a load at slow speed under heavy acceleration. I noticed this more when the truck was new, I don't know if it went away or I got used to it. It is a common issue with Tacomas possibly due to the two piece driveshaft. I've only towed more than a small utility trailer with it one time when pulling a 1973 Lincoln Continental on a uhaul car hauler. I drove about three hundred miles of hilly interstate and it was a white knuckle experience. It did manage to stay in third gear most of the time though. MPG was about 14 while towing the Continental. I average about 21-22 normally. The truck rides smoothly. There is a lot of understeer. The truck is equipped with a brake based "E-LSD". Press a button on the dash and traction control will be disabled and the E-LSD activated. It's no replacement for a mechanical locker. It will brake the spinning wheel, but then the other wheel will start spinning so it will brake that wheel. This leads to a back and forth of spinning wheels.
Reliability: No issues other than a loose speaker wire and faulty aux input port. The truck hasn't required anything yet but, oil and filters. It's still on it's first set of tires.
Conclusion: It's a good, reliable truck, but with an outdated power train. It's possible to get something more capable, comfortable, and with similar gas mileage.
Exterior: 2012 saw the Tacoma's interior and exterior refreshed. On the outside, the front bumper, grill and headlights are different, the tail lights may be different. I appreciate the new front. My Tacoma is a 2wd five lug so it has almost comically small tires and huge tire to fender gaps. The bed exterior is made of pretty thin sheet metal. I tripped and fell into the side carrying a 24 pack of Monster energy drinks and it left a decent size dent. The rear bumper is also a bit chintzy. I dented part of mine pushing a car a few feet.
Interior: Changed for 2012 was new radio/console, new dash, new steering wheel, new seat material, and vinyl on the door panels instead of the mouse fur on the previous years which got dirty fast. Overall it's a noticeable improvement over the 2011s. Now for the bad parts. The seat hight isn't adjustable. I'm 6ft tall and I feel a little low in the cab, if you're shorter this might be a problem. Also the steering wheel, while adjustable, doesn't come out far enough to be within easy reach, unless the seat is far enough forward to make my legs uncomfortable. However, the seats seem to be pretty comfortable, I've taken it on many long drives. The drivers seat has adjustable lumbar support, the passenger seat folds forward completely and has a plastic back that can be used as a table. The seat material on the front seats is pretty good. Once, on one of the aforementioned long drives, a Sugar Baby dropped from my mouth, between my legs, and came to rest lodged between the seat of my pants and the seat. Over the next few hundred miles, heat and humidity slowly turned it from delicious candy into something approximating brown s#!t smeared on my pants and car seat. This mess came off surprisingly easy. The rear jump seats are a different material and stain easily. One last thing, the passenger seat will vibrate and bump around if empty and slid all the way back
Performance: Slow acceleration. No surprise with 158 horsepower and a 4 speed auto. I have noticed some driveline vibration with a load at slow speed under heavy acceleration. I noticed this more when the truck was new, I don't know if it went away or I got used to it. It is a common issue with Tacomas possibly due to the two piece driveshaft. I've only towed more than a small utility trailer with it one time when pulling a 1973 Lincoln Continental on a uhaul car hauler. I drove about three hundred miles of hilly interstate and it was a white knuckle experience. It did manage to stay in third gear most of the time though. MPG was about 14 while towing the Continental. I average about 21-22 normally. The truck rides smoothly. There is a lot of understeer. The truck is equipped with a brake based "E-LSD". Press a button on the dash and traction control will be disabled and the E-LSD activated. It's no replacement for a mechanical locker. It will brake the spinning wheel, but then the other wheel will start spinning so it will brake that wheel. This leads to a back and forth of spinning wheels.
Reliability: No issues other than a loose speaker wire and faulty aux input port. The truck hasn't required anything yet but, oil and filters. It's still on it's first set of tires.
Conclusion: It's a good, reliable truck, but with an outdated power train. It's possible to get something more capable, comfortable, and with similar gas mileage.
