Today was quite an eye opening day at work. I had an 05 TRD Tacoma in my stall all day diagnosing a peculiar wind noise problem. ....I had to drive said Tacoma several miles to test my various repairs, I probably put 45 miles on this dudes truck easily. Anyway....This was the kickarse offroad 6 speed manual 4 wheel drive 4 litre beast Toyota put out for this year. I actually wanted to purchase a new Tacoma while i was shopping for a truck b/c, why not, i work for them, may as well have one, i have access to unlimited information and parts are readily available at my disposal and i think it's an attractive rig. The price tag scared me away instantly. Today i got to really drive one of these things and hated every moment of it. The transmission was sloppy, the fly by wire system was sort of awkward, the interior is stylish but the power just wasnt there, it was a really unenjoyable experience. I really am glad i decided to purchase my Ranger, Dont get me wrong the Tacoma is a killer truck but just dosent stand up to the ol' Edge. WORD UP.

 

hahaha

I was the some way when i wanted to get a Tacoma

 

Go drive a Nismo Frontier.

 

Wow, was it that dissappointing? On paper, that truck looks awesome with all the features on it!

 

Yeah I was in the market for a Taco also. Dealer wouldn't let me drive one though because I wasn't 18 when I was shopping. They were expensive as hell though! Glad to hear I made the right decision. I absolutely love my Ranger!

 

this is interesting, doesnt the taco have 245 hp? (265? i dunno) and supposed to rock the socks of most the other trucks...

this is a good comparision from an unbiased POV, i like it. i personally think the 4.0 SOHC is peppy as hell with 4:10 rears and the tranny shifts very well. i think i need to make my rounds test driving a few new trucks...:-D

 

i thought the new frontier had the most hp.. hmm i dunno, i love the looks of the new nismo though. KA

 

yeah the Frontier has 265.

 

frontier has 265, taco 245, my dad is in the market for a taco right now... maybe its not such a good idea. but he hasnt gone to test drive one yet so well find out then i guess.

 

I weighed my options against the taco before I seriously started truck shopping. Too pricey from my taste, this makes me even more glad to have bought my ranger.

 

I've said it before and I'll say it again.. In 2003, when I was shopping, a comfortably equipped Ranger 4x4 and Taco 4x4 stickered for about the same money. The difference was you (or at least I) could get the Ranger for THOUSANDS off sticker.. although I could not do the same for the Taco. I went for the Ranger because I knew I could get a LOT more truck for my money.. at least from a feature standpoint.

And besides, the '03 taco had a really cramped interior and just was not a very comfortable truck to drive. The Ranger (esp the FX4 w/ the buckets) was far more comfortable and roomy inside.

The new Tacoma looks like a huge leap in the right direction for them. I've yet to sit in one, but from the outside they look like they just have to be more comfortable. They may well be worth the extra money at this point.

 

http://www.edmunds.com/news/autoshow...4/page014.html
http://www.nissannews.com/multimedia...er_nismo.shtml

New Frontier has the 265 HP

 

DROOL

 

I cringe at the sight of the Nissan. I'm pretty sure the English translation for Nissan is "Ugly as sin"... correct me if I'm wrong.

 

Opinions are like ******** everybody has one.

 

FWIW, I agree. At least it's an improvement over the older Fontier w/ the fake bolt heads on the fender flares. And the interior shows some improvement. Neither are beauty queens in my book though.

Although the new Taco on the other hand, that's pretty darn sharp!


Sadly the Ranger seems to be getting uglier w/ each new model year. I thought my '03 was pretty sharp. The '04/05's are close, but a slight step down.. then the 06's look to be a step off the deep end!

 

Yeah I think the 01-03s are the best looking Rangers IMO. Now if only we had electric lockers and supercharged 265 hp crew cabs!

 

I'm the opposite I guess. Even though my truck is an '01, the '01-'03 trucks are my least favorite, lol. I was planning on getting a 3rd gen, but the damn things kept getting sold before I could get to the dealer. I really like my truck though.

 

I wouldnt trade my ranger in for any other truck. period Dont get me wrong I wouldnt mind having a sd or f1 but I still wouldnt trade my ranger in for it.

 

haha i'm with brent. my best friend has the same model and year as i do. and i tried to get my other best friend to get one too but he got an 04 tacoma. i drove it and i hated it. shifting is just not as smooth as rangers. plus when you lift our trucks and fix em up, you just can't beat us in the looks department. i just wish i had the 4.0 like i was supposed to.

 

I agree. I found out the same thing. Plus, the reports, reviews, and road tests on the two that I read on the internet, and I read a lot, generally rated the trucks about equal. I only paid $15,885 for mine brand new (see my signature to find out what all I have) after the dealer came down from the MSRP and applied the $3,000 rebate that was then in effect. The Toyota dealer wouldn't deal at all. They said that they can sell them at sticker price so they wouldn't come down from that. I figure I got a helluva lot for the money. And I've had no problems with it.

 

That's the exact same reply I got from the Toyota dealers up my way. Some were slicker than others, but the bottom line was always: if you don't buy it at this price, someone else will, thanks for playing!

Although this was in late July. Ford folks seemed to be getting antsy and willing to move inventory. They weren't quite into the model year changeover, but they seemed to be starting to think about it. I'm told the foreign makes have a different model year/release schedule. I might have made out better w/ Toyota (or worse w/ Ford!) had it been a different time of the year.

FWIW: Sticker on my nearly-fully loaded truck was something like $27-28k. I paid ~$19.5k before trade but after rebates, incentives, etc. They taco I was after (ex-cab, everything except the TRD) was retailing for just a bit less.. call it $25-26k. But they weren't ready to talk much at all..

 

As of early last fall, the Toyota dealer in Helena hadn't changed. Toyoyas and Fords are sold by the same Helena dealer. I stopped in last Sept. just to check out the new Rangers, tho I wasn't interested in buying one. They didn't have ANY on the lot. I asked a salesman about it and he said they don't sell many Rangers (this in spite of the fact that Rangers are all over the place in the Helena area) and most people want the full size Ford truck. I replied that of course they don't sell many; they don't have any for people to look at and test drive. I had looked at the new Tacomas (this was when the Taco was still a small truck, not the new mid-sized version), of which they had 12 or 13 on the lot. I commented on the no Rangers, but 12 or 13 Tacos, disparity and then asked about the $23,000-$25,000 price on every one of the Tacos and what they were actually selling them for. He said that they wouldn't come down from the MSRP and there was no rebate because they can easily sell them for the sticker price. I conclude that Taco buyers are all suckers. There's one born every minute and a Taco salesman waiting in line to take his money.

 

I dunno man. I sometimes think after the trouble I had w/ my Ranger and Toyota's rep for zero problems, I'm not sure it isn't worth the price.. But then I go to pay my car loan each month and thank myself for going w/ the Ranger. It's a damned if you do, damned if you don't situation from where I stand.

I shoped (and bought from) one of these mega-dealers up in Manchester (largest city in NH). They've got 'branches' that sell half a dozen different makes all on the same campus. Ford, Hyndai, Honda, and even Toyota. The Ford people definitely had the largest stock. They had something foolish like > 100 Rangers in stock in just about every trim imaginable. So I was able to find a few that were equipped the way I wanted. The Toyota guy probably had 20 or so tacos in stock. Although I believe the taco line gives fewer options. Every trim and major package was probably represented, but you didn't have a huge selection in colors or things like that.

What I found most striking was the attitude of the sales people. The Toyota people were wheelers and dealers. They wasted a huge amount of my time one evening in 'negotiations' that never really went anywhere. Ford's pitch was here's the vehicle, here's the price, yah want one? The only things we negotiated was trade and choosing a finance program. I love 'no-dicker' dealers.

And Toyota required that a salesman go on the test drive with me, something Ford didn't do. Also they were quite **** about photocopying my license and that sort of thing, something Ford didn't do. Ford's attitude was "Here's the keys, if you run out of gas station X has an agreement w/ us, just tell them you are from us. Have fun!" The Ford people were also a lot busier. I was one of maybe 2-3 customers in the Toyota shop, but there were people all over the place in Ford. On one visit my saleswoman was actually dealing w/ two of us simultaniously. She eventually passed me off to an associate when the other guy required too much of her time. All this worked very well w/ me as I already had done a lot of homework and just wanted to touch and feel at that point, something best done w/o someone looking over my shoulder.

One disapointing thing about the Ford people was their lack of knowledge of the product. They knew very little about the individual packages and options. I knew far more just from reading www.fordvehicles.com. This was especially true of the LII package. The Toyota guy actually drove a taco himself.. we even took his personal vehicle on a test drive at one point. He was able to tell me what options I'd want and which ones I wouldn't.. and why. Although I'm sure there was a salesman's spin on that advice too. At least he had some hands on experience though. My saleswoman at Ford was a Mustang buff, something that did me zero good.

 

= POOP

if your drooling over it so bad trade your truck in and go buy one.