Chevy Colorado VS Frontier VS Tacoma?
 

Hi beautiful people.


My father is looking at trucks and i'm thinking of just getting him a brand new (or almost) one in mid summer for his bday, since, he has never had a brand new vehicle in his life due to rasising 3 of us and pushing us to college.

Now, I have experience with older Toyota (22re) pickups and older (x<2000) Nissan Frontiers, but it is still not enough experience to buy one without much research.

Moving one, which would you guys recommend and why? Ever owned one? Ever had issues with one?

List of priorities of what he needs/wants:

1) 4 door truck (non suicide models) and size needs to not be humongous hehe
2) MPG @ hwy speed
3) easy to work on engine (self tune up at home)
4) Price
5) maintenance cost

When you equip them similarly the Toyota will be cheapest.

The only one I have ever personally owned is the Toyota Tacoma and I can say that thing was bulletproof and it helds its value like a champ.

Bought in 2007 for $25000
Put over 100000 miles on it.
Wife totaled it in 2013. Insurance wrote me a check for $17000

So I got ~6 years of driving out of it and over 100000 miles and it cost me ~$8000.

You wont get that with a Chevy or Nissan.

new Colorados and Canyons are just not that great. I work at a GM dealer and they are mhe. For the price you can almost move up to a 1/2 ton anyways

We took out a Tacoma, Colorado, and Frontier to an off road vehicle park. Colorado was least capable, and had to be excused from certain obstacles (didn't want to damage it). Frontier was very bumpy, cheap looking, and my coworker smacked his head on the pillar from how jarring the ride was.

Tacoma would be the way I go, and that's not just cuz I sell them. They're best value and best performing imo. You can get a loaded double cab, TRD off road, short bed for 39k. Gets you blind spot monitor with RCTA, rear parking sensors, smart key system, and a great JBL system (among other features). Skip the tri folding tonneau cover as it's garbage in relation to how I see Toyota quality is. Toyota needs to switch suppliers for it.

I had a '98 Tacoma that I loved to drive...my dad has a 2007 that I hate to drive even though it is very useful and works great overall at doing truck things. I just can'take stand how they changed the driving position and shifting feel in the manual transmission...it'seems like you'really driving a freaking bus or something and the clutch is awfully as well. My '98 was a sports car in comparison, better heel-toe than the FR-S with a much better feeling clutch. I do like how the newer Tacoma rides and goes offroad... just a matter of all the driver inputs feeling so wrong in comparison to the previous gen.

I'm actually looking to maybe go with a late 200X Frontier in the near future... it seems to be more like the older gen Tacoma than the newer Tacoma's (but I've yet to drive one). I'm just looking for an inexpensive, lightweight truck that is moderately offroad capable and can autocross. I spanked every other truck driver and was faster than nearly half the sportscar drivers in my stock height Tacoma that was fully functional as a 1/2 ton truck...

https://vracer111.smugmug.com/photos.../i-rChvNZn.jpg

I heard about you guys at one of Toyota meetings.
We don't do off road drive anymore because one of sales guy went out of track and flipped it. Thanks bro, now we only do street drive and lame cone set up:

I had a 2001 Frontier and a 2004 and a 2007 and 2009 Titan.

I had a 1995 4Runner (got rid of it at 250,000k miles...needed lots of work) and I have a 2013 4Runner Trail edition.

My wife has a 2013 Silverado.

My new 4Runner is amazingly well built. I want to say the V6 Tacoma has the same engine and it is solid engine.

I would recommend the Tacoma. I am extremely happy with my 4Runner.

Lol! We didn't flip a truck. My region is still allowed to do OHV track testing. Curious to see what they have in store for us for the '16 Prius and Rav4 launch...not that it would help me out since I probably know as much as the trainer.

Get a Tacoma XRunner (if you can find one that isn't bashed/thrashed). Don't think I'd do any off roading in one tho.

Don't get any small/midsize. For the price, spend the extra couple thousand and get a truck that you can fit a damn sheet of drywall into.

Gas mileage is roughly the same and resale value will be better. Plus you can tow/haul more.

While I agree that the price of these mid-sized trucks is getting out of control there are still cases where people would rather have them vs a full sized.

Myself for example.

I will only buy vehicles that fit in my garage (which is small) and a Tacoma double cab will fit in with about 2-4 inches to spare.

A full size will not.

So I am a mid-sized truck buyer.

Resale value is higher on a Tacoma than a Tundra. While it is getting to be the same price, the Tacoma will be more loaded than the Tundra.

Who in their right mind would buy a Tundra over an American truck? I enjoy hauling and towing while not being price gouged.

Have you seen how much an F150 can cost? A lot more than a Tundra. And have you seen the criticism of the new F150? The Tundra is a great choice, unless one needs a diesel.