When looking for a new Toyota truck, you may be asking yourself, should I buy a Tacoma or Tundra? Well, at Toy Car Care, we know how excellently built all Toyota vehicles are, so the choice is really about weighing the pros and cons of each model and comparing how well the different features will suit your specific lifestyle. Read on for some helpful comparisons between the Toyota Tacoma and the Toyota Tundra before making your decision.
Toyota Tacoma
Since 1995, the Toyota Tacoma has been gracing the streets of America, and people love this light to medium-duty pickup truck. Over the years, it has even become larger for today’s drivers. In 2005, Toyota launched the 2nd generation, larger version of this truck, and people loved it. Here in Colorado, they’re great for camping, towing toys and generally getting to and from the mountains, even in bad weather. The Chevy Canyon is really the only other truck that can compare to its beefiness when side by side.
Toyota Tundra
The Toyota Tundra replaced the Toyota T100 which was not a huge success with truck buyers. It was also initially named the Toyota T150, which Ford thought was too close to their F100 series trucks name and soon followed with a lawsuit over it. So, Toyota introduced the Tundra and made some heads turn. Today, the Tundra is one of America’s top-selling full-sized pickup trucks.
Now let’s get into the comparisons and how to decide, should I buy a Tacoma or Tundra?
Drive Train:
This is one of the most critical factors that make a pickup truck, a pickup truck. The drive train determines how well they tow, how much they can tow, and how much of a payload they can bear. If the engine has no horsepower then it just becomes a slow slug climbing up the mountain, and the same thing goes for the transmission, if it cannot keep up with the demands, it will soon overheat.
In the Toyota Tundra, a V6 and a V8 are available, so towing is a cake walk. Most Tundra’s with the V6 is going to be your base model work truck and are good for simple everyday hauling, but don’t expect to haul around anything too heavy. The nice thing is, you have the option for a factory supercharger, which jumps your horsepower and torque up massively.
The Toyota Tacoma comes with either an inline 4 (older models) or a V6 (newer models). The reason being is, when the Tacoma grew in size, it became the go-to truck for heavy work, and requires a larger, more powerful engine, upping the tow rating to 6,500 lbs. in the V6.
So as far as drivetrains go, the Tacoma with the V6 is less powerful than the Tundra with the V8, but you will be spending more money on fuel with the bigger version, so if commuting is your primary use, you may want to opt for the Tacoma.
Price:
We all want to pay a fair price, and this is where you will need to hone your negotiating skills, as prices vary on many levels. You can expect to pay about $5,000 less for a Tacoma base model in comparison with a Tundra, but depending on the add-ons and upgrades you want, both these trucks can get well into the $40,000 range. So, deciding should I buy a Tacoma or Tundra isn’t so much about price since bells and whistles vary so much.
Interior:
You are going to spend a lot of time here, so make sure you are happy and comfortable. The Tacoma offers some new interior feature upgrades, scoring it high points, but it is smaller than the Tundra inside. So if leg room and ample seating are on your list of must-haves for a truck, go for the bigger vehicle when deciding should I buy a Tacoma or Tundra.
Needs:
Now it comes to your specific needs and desires when buying a pickup. Do you do a lot of outdoor activities that require heavy towing of your toys such as a large RV, trailer or second vehicles? If you are towing less than 4000 lbs., you can get away with the Tacoma, but for anything beyond that, go for the Tundra that has immense towing power. The Tacoma is much easier to maneuver in hard to reach areas, and much more fuel efficient, so adjust according to your lifestyle.
Hopefully, we have answered the hard question of, should I buy a Tacoma or Tundra. If you are still looking for some great advice on the subject, stop by Toy Car Care today and ask our friendly service staff and our certified technicians for their thoughts on the subject, from everything to do with maintenance costs, parts and servicing, we are here to take care of all your Toyota needs.