The Tacoma also includes an array of safety features, such as driver and front passenger front and seat-mounted side airbags, 3-point seatbelts, and side-impact door beams in all doors. Also onboard is Toyota's Star Safety system, which includes vehicle stability control, traction control, and electronic brake-force distribution.
My test vehicle was a 2011 Toyota Tacoma 4X4 Double Cab, silver, with shiny 16-in. alloy wheels: elegant but understated. It’s a really handsome truck.
The 2011 Toyota Tacoma is officially denoted a “midsize” pickup, up from the compact status Toyota’s small pickup enjoyed a couple of generations ago, but it’s still a nice size. (Yes, I know the Tacoma’s assembled right here in Texas, but it’s a Japanese truck all the same. The Tacoma mimics a full-sized truck in everything but actual dimensions. Not so the Tacoma, which is trim, elegant, and well-proportioned. It comes in three configurations, one more than the average competitor offers: Regular Cab, Access Cab (an extended cab with small clamshell doors), and Double Cab (crew cab with four normal doors). The Regular and Access Cabs boast a 6-foot bed. A 6-foot bed is available as an option, but with a 140.6-inch-wheelbase it transforms the Tacoma into a genuinely big truck, unwieldy in parking lots.
Although you can buy a base Tacoma Regular Cab for $16K or so, most customers head for the Double Cab like mine, which came with four-wheel-drive and a slightly astonishing sticker price of $31,000. In the Tacoma it puts out 236 horses.
Just turn the knob on the dashboard to engage the part-time four-wheel-drive system, and hit the trail. It’s still a truck. Inside, the Tacoma’s a comfy place to while away the miles. The front buckets are a bit low, but they’re plush to sit in, and anyway, with the truck’s ride height, the lower level of the seats hardly matters. Along with the TRD package already noted, my truck was stuffed with safety wizardry: hill-start assistance control (HAC), downhill assistance control (DAC), stability and traction control, four-wheel ABS (rear drums, though: why, at this price point?), a full array of airbags including seat-mounted side and side-curtain ones, and a tire-pressure monitoring system. I’ve long wanted another truck; the last one I owned was a ’97 Nissan Hardbody of unsainted memory.