On Wheels by Brooks Peterson

Saturday, April 21, 2001

Toyota truck is a small gem

It isn't easy these days to be a serious player in the pickup market - not even at the lower end, where the little guys like the Ford Courier and the Chevy LUV started things rolling back in primordial times.
   Badge-engineered trucklets (the Courier was built by Mazda, the LUV by Isuzu) offered room for two - maybe three in a major crunch - a bed out back for toting stuff, maybe an AM radio . . . and that was it. Particularly in the oil crunch days, they met a need, but no one thought back then they'd amount to much.
   Guess again.
   True, the focus remains on the big guys - the Ford F-150s, the Chevy Silverados, the Dodge Rams - but there is all sorts of activity going on further down the food chain. (And if gas prices continue to rise, well . . .)
   Consider: crew cabs for compact pickups.
   What's the most crucial failing of these little guys? Not cargo capacity: Everyone - OK, virtually everyone - knows that if you intend to do big-time toting or serious hauling, you buy one of the big boys. Nossir, the real problem has been the little trucks' people-toting prowess, or lack thereof.
   In the fullness of time, expanded-cab versions came along (as they did with the big trucks), and they were a help. But not even the most slavish corporate flack could claim with a straight face that these accommodations - either fold-down jump seats or minuscule bench seats - were satisfactory for more than the shortest of hops.
   'Course, the big guys had been offering the crew-cab format for years - almost exclusively for working trucks that had to carry crews (get it?) to work sites, along with their gear. But it wasn't until the last couple of model years that someone awakened to the potential of adapting this approach to the little guys.
   Truck Lust
   Nissan started it with the Frontier; now we've got Toyota with the four-door Tacoma; Ford and Mazda both have crew-cab versions in the pipeline, if Reliable Sources are to be believed; and in reasonably short order it can be expected everybody will be on board. (I should mention that Dodge's Dakota, a step above these guys size-wise, also has its nifty Quad Cab.)
   As well they should: Even to those who have not been entirely carried away by Truck Lust, the crew-cab format adds dramatically to the appeal of a little truck. Sure, you'll lose a bit of capacity in the pickup bed, but multitudes won't miss it.
   And while all the returns have yet to come in, I've got to tell you that the Tacoma crew cab - OK, "Double Cab," as Toyota dubs it - leads the pack at this point. Along with the usual high quality of materials we've come to expect from Toyota, you've got enough room to accommodate five real, live adults.
   Overload
   Leg room is almost startling; head room is better than adequate. Hip and shoulder room, now, is another matter - but again, you gotta keep things in context.
   OK: So this Toyota truck embodies a seriously excellent idea. Agreed?
   We're not finished, however. Our tester also embodies another idea that is . . . puzzling. Some, indeed, would characterize it as . . . well . . . preposterous. But that can't be true: They seem to be selling like hotcakes.
   Cognitive dissonance. Overload. Overload. Does not compute.
   Y'see, in addition to being a Double Cab, this here vehicle is a PreRunner.
   Now, as nearly as I can figure out, this particular package was conjured up to meet the needs of would-be buyers who want the lofty ground clearance, occasionally punishing ride and, uh, problematic handling of a 4WD truck . . . but without the 4WD. So: You get all the disadvantages of a 4WD rigs, but none of the advantages (save the ground clearance).
   Enhanced tippiness
   What we have here, then, is a melding of logic and illogic: an eminently functional notion (the crew cab format) folded into a flight of fancy (4WD underpinnings for a 2WD truck) that can only be characterized as zany.
   (In fairness, I will point out that on this model - and all V-6-equipped Tacomas - an on-demand locking rear differential is an option. Better'n nuthin', but still . . .)
   On the road, this translates into a stiff-legged gait even on smooth interstates. That rapidly deteriorates into jouncy on pothole-pocked urban streets and/or under-maintained rural byways.
   Like a real truck-driving sonofagun, you've got that king of the road, above-the-fray stance - but you've also got enhanced tippiness in the corners.
   User-friendly package
   On one point, no complaints at all: The optional 3.4-liter, 190-hp V-6 produces enough power to keep things moving along at brisk pace, and its thirst for petrol, while substantial, is downright dainty if you compare it to the big guys'.
   The accommodations, as noted, are spacious; they're also nicely finished (though a touch of color amid all that dove-gray plastic, fabric and plasvinyl would have been nice.) Getting in should present no problem, providing you've got the optional running boards, and once inside you're in clover - until the bumpy bits.
   There is another nugget of good news I've saved to the last: You can get the Double Cab on a regular 4x2 Tacoma. That would give you a considerably more user-friendly package for significantly fewer bucks. Assuming, of course, that you can dispense with the Jeremiah Johnson attitude of the PreRunner.
   The marketplace can get a little giddy now and then - but, happily, there's room in it for all of us. Ya gotta love it.
  

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