It’s been about 8 months since I bought my Tacoma, and I’ve driven it about 18 thousand miles. I’ve found a few things I’d love to change and a few I couldn’t live without. Here is my list:

5 Things I Love:

1. Touch Keypad Entry System

I had no idea this was part of the truck when I bought it, but this is a game-changer for me. I regularly surf and kite, and I am constantly in the water. I have spent an unfortunate amount of time trying to find the ideal board shorts that will also house my car key safely. I even lobbied two brands’ employees directly to encourage them to add a key loop to the inside of their zipped hydro short pocket. But at last, with the keypad system, this is no longer relevant. I can just leave the keys in the car and lock and unlock it with the keypad on the windshield and a simple lock code. 

2. The safety features

I never even considered this when I was looking at vehicles. My previous MDX was about 15 years old and just had basic cruise control. I did not value ‘safety features’, but now having had them, I absolutely do. Of course, I could live without them if I had to, but they make life so much easier. 

Specifically: Adaptive Cruise Control, Lane Departure Alerts, Blind Spot Monitoring, Back up warnings, Cross lane detection, Pre-collision detection, Brake Assist, and Smart Stop. These are all game-changers; they make driving feel so much easier and more comfortable. It’s not that I felt uncomfortable before, but just knowing that if I stop paying attention, the car will come to my rescue. It gives me great peace of mind while texting and driving. (I’m kidding. Don’t do that!)

3. Heated seats with lumbar support 

Having heated seats are so underrated. It’s like an always-available heat pad for your back. I usually keep this on low even when it’s warm out. The lumbar support is clutch. Before I found this adjustment button on my seat, my back would start to kill me after about an hour of driving. I searched the internet for cures and found many complaints about the lumbar support on the Tacoma and potential (hacky) solutions. Eventually, I found my way to a page on the Toyota site for parts for the built-in lumbar support, and that lead me to realize I actually had this feature, and all I had to do was press the mildly hidden button on the side of my seat. My problems were instantly resolved. 

4. The 6-foot truck bed

I am so so glad I got the long bed version of the Tacoma. A 5-foot bed is just not long enough. My wife and I have spent a weekend in our truck bed in a specially made truck tent. We have spent many afternoons picnicking on the tailgate, and on the Fourth of July, we even grilled steaks while standing in the back of the bed. We then watched a firework display with our chairs sitting in the bed. The bed of a truck is the reason you buy a truck, and cutting that bed to 5 feet is robbing your truck of its potential. 

5. My Retrax Retractable Tonneau Cover

This was the first and most important accessory I’ve purchased for my Tacoma, and I don’t know if I could live without it. It is just so nice sliding the truck bed closed and being able to lock it. It even gives a solid “shelf” on the sides of the truck and behind the cab. And it looks sweet as hell.

5 Things I Hate:

1. The constant beeping

This drives me nuts. If you turn your car off and open the door, it will beep at you until you close the door. What the heck is that?! Why is unsafe to have the door open while you are parked? And, even if it is remotely unsafe, it doesn’t justify the excruciating annoyance that it brings because I frequently have the door open in park for more than 2 seconds. 

I have done everything I could to try to resolve this, even asking Toyota technicians. They say it is part of the safety system, and there is nothing they can do. The best thing I can find is to make sure I turn the car off before I open the door, and then if you press the black button on the inside of the door jam, it thinks you closed the door and will stop beeping. 

That is the most common and annoying example of the beeping, but there are several others. There are times when the car is beeping about two separate things at the same time, and I have to tell it to chill the eff out. It never listens.

2. Tongue Weight and Cargo Capacity

Towing a camper was one of the primary reasons I bought my Tacoma, but I just assumed that a truck with 6800 lb towing capacity could tow the camper I had my heart set on, the Nucame Avia, which weighs in at 5200 lbs. But I did not know anything about “Tongue Weight”. This is the amount of force that towing a trailer puts on the hitch, and a vehicle has a hitch weight of 10% of its towing capacity. The Avia, as it turns out, has a tongue weight of 700lbs, so I was heartbroken to realize the camper I had my eyes on would not be compatible.

After I got fixated on those, I started to look into truck bed campers, and I learned about payload capacity. This is the amount of weight that the truck can carry, including passengers at any given time. My Tacoma only has a cargo capacity of about 1000 lbs and the truck campers I was looking at have a weight of 1500+ lbs, meaning my truck was not compatible with those either.

3. No Front Parking Sensor

I often will take it a little close to the edge when parking, on both the front and the back. In the back, I don’t have to worry about hitting anything because I have both a backup camera and a rear proximity sensor that yells at me if I get too close. But in the front, I have nothing. I’m flying blind. It would be really really nice to have it beep at me if I am getting too close for comfort in the front.

4. No lane keeping assistance

After I realized how amazing adaptive cruise control is, I dreamt of being able to just chill and let the car drive itself. With the cruise control controlling the gas and the lane departure alert telling me when I started to drift lanes, I realized I was oh-so-close. I just needed the car to fix itself when I started to drift. That, I learned is called lane keeping assist and is on all kinds of other cars, including some others by Toyota. But it is not available on the Tacoma just yet. I imagine that will change in 2021.

5. No wireless CarPlay

I love Apple Car Play, but I hate that it only works when I have it connected via a cable. This is solved by Wireless CarPlay, which is available in some vehicles, but not the Tacoma just yet. Hopefully, they’ll add it next year or even add support for it via a firmware update. In the meantime, I have a small Bluetooth receiver I plug into the port that allows me to use CarPlay wirelessly. Unfortunately, it doesn’t work very well as it often cuts off the connection, and I have to reconnect.

Up Next:

I’ll go through the list of all of the favorite accessories I’ve purchased for my Tacoma for under $25.