Tacoma-Hilux's North American "Clone"

Although Hilux Dafa is good, but Lao Mei's requirements for comfort and safety configuration make Hilux seem a little uncomfortable in the North American market. So in 1995, on the basis of Hilux platform, Tacoma was born, and it has been extended to the third generation of models.

The first generation of Tacoma

The early Tacoma used to be equipped with a 4.0L V6 engine, and now it is equipped with a 270-horsepower, 336N·m 3.5-liter V6 engine and a 2.7-liter four-cylinder engine that matches a 6AT gearbox. Since it is exclusively for North America, Tacoma's configuration is certainly more abundant than Hilux. As early as around 2000, Tacoma was equipped with safety features such as daytime running lights, ABS, ESP, and TCS. In the later period, electric doors and windows, front seat side airbags, side air curtains, active head restraints, etc. were added, and they were evaluated by TOP SAFE in the IIHS crash test. The current price in North America is only US$23,660 (approximately RMB 155,000).

Moreover, compared to Hilux, which is purely a tool car, Tacoma has the potential to play with rally. When the first generation of Tacoma was born, Toyota's royal modification department TRD introduced a modification kit. Today, there are also high-performance TRD Pro models in the Tacoma car series. It is equipped with a 4.0-liter V6 engine with 236 horsepower and a peak torque of 360N.m. It is matched with a 6MT or 5AT gearbox, as well as enhanced shock absorbers and springs, and A/T. Rally kits such as tires, and the price is only about 37,000 US dollars (about 243,000 yuan). At the same time, all Tacoma series including TRD Pro can also spend about $10,000, and the optional TRD supercharger kit is enough to make domestic car fans envy and hate.

The basic 2020 Tacoma is powered by a 2.7-liter four-cylinder engine that produces 159 hp and 180 lb-ft of torque. The standard configuration is a six-speed automatic transmission. If four-wheel drive is specified, a six-speed manual transmission is provided. In the rear-wheel drive configuration, the fuel economy of this engine is 20/23 mpg in city/highway, where four-wheel drive subtracts one mpg (automatic transmission) from each corresponding measurement. The manual gearbox reduces the efficiency to 17/21 mpg.

Tacoma also offers 278 hp, a 3.5-liter V-6. The 265 lb-ft of torque for this device is managed by the same gearbox team listed above, and the manual is only found in TRD off-road and TRD Pro trucks. The automatic transmission offers 19/24 mpg (2WD) and 18/22 mpg (4WD), while the manual transmission offers 17/20 mpg.

In 2020, Toyota Tacoma was awarded the title of "Highest Safety Choice" by IIHS and scored "good" in all crash test results. However, the overlap of the front passenger side crash test was small and achieved an "acceptable" level. According to the decoration level, its headlight level is displayed as "good" or "edge", and its front anti-collision system is rated as "advanced". The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) gave Tacoma four out of five stars in the crash test.

Tacoma is equipped with forward collision warning with pedestrian detection, automatic braking, lane departure warning and adaptive cruise control as standard equipment. These functions are part of the Toyota Safety Sense P driver assistant package. Some models also provide a blind spot monitoring system with rear traffic warning.

2020 Tacoma can use a four-passenger cab and a five-seater double cab version, the latter adds a set of full-size rear doors. The legroom of the smaller pickup is 42.9 inches for the front passenger and 24.6 inches for the rear passenger, while the larger Double Cab is 32.6 inches in the second row. The truck can choose five-foot and six-foot, one-inch pallets.

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