2024 Tacoma - Here’s The New Competition! 🥊 Hybrid Model Added 🔋

[AstroZombie]

just sayin! Whatever the Toy can or can’t do. It will or won’t do it with the doors and top on. I’ve had Jeeps, Broncos, and full size trucks of all brands. The Gladiator Mojave leaves them all in the dust. Nothing off-roads like a jeep. Most vehicles need 4x4 and low range, to get where the average Jeep goes in 2wd. Sway bar disconnect won’t matter. My advice to those who compromise is, be sure to have good, accessible recovery hooks…….so I can pull you out easier

facts, i had a 2.54l YJ with a broke vacuum switch for front axle disconnect. never got stuck and never had issues in the snow in Flagstaff.

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[montechie]

As much as I hate that screen, it is a beautiful interior design. The exterior really isn’t my taste. Too many lines/edges or something. Maybe it’ll look better in person like the latest Tundra though.

Ha, yeah that was also my reaction to the Tundra. I didn't like it in stock form in photos, but in person they look much better.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

I really like the interior and overall drivetrain of the truck. But that front end looks a bit too Rav-4ish to me. I prefer the current gen Tacoma's exterior, but I'm sure it'll grow on me. One thing I think (and hope) will fade fast is the black fender flares. I just prefer body-color fenders I guess. Overall a good package, but nothing that will take me out of my Gladiator.

Pretty much me - not that I'd buy one anyway, too many other choices for my personal use, but the front end turns me off.
The side view I actually like. It's industrial looking,
The front looks like a certain dogs with a lower lip pulled up. It's like they tried to give it a face. Never cared for the look of the lower part of the front - on any vehicle. Someone gave it a wedgie?
Side view - decent proportions, rear is ok, interior is, well, Toyota, not bad. Maybe a bit too trim, but not bad.
All personal opinions of course, Art is in the eye of the beholder, and if we all loved the same exact designs, we'd all be driving EVs based on a model T design and all in black.

 

[antwon412]

465ft Lbs. Great, now I am gonna be gapped by overlanding bros in Tacomas with bed racks and MaxTrax boards.

Only until you get to some actual rocks to crawl over.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

Most vehicles need 4x4 and low range, to get where the average Jeep goes in 2wd.

That's actually funny. I've had my Jeep stop progressing up my own driveway in winter where other vehicles would do fine. In 2wd unless you have excellent tires, I mean really good tires, it will spin. Not so my Chevy in 2wd. The electronics would literally walk it up the driveway. You could feel it working. I never bothered moving the transfer case dial on the Chevy truck except for one time pulling my trailer out of where I keep it parked - on gravel, and you go up quite an incline to get out. I MUST put the JT in 4 wheel drive to pull my trailer out. It's the only truck I've had where I literally had to do it, or sit and spin on the gravel. Get into loose gravel going from a standstill with a load, up an incline - the JT won't make it where others would. Light in it's ass end.

 

[Cansberry]

I think some of y'all are missing some points in a JT vs Taco argument The Taco is a midsize truck that can off road. A JT is a Jeep that can truck. I agree, the 3.6 is not my favorite power plant, but I prefer a naturally aspirated V6 to a turbo 4, and especially a hybrid. If Jeep can stuff a Hurricane in there, I'd be stoked, but I won't hold my breath. Jeep's have always had meh engines.

As far as screens and tech, thats not what Jeep is. I'm probably a bit younger than the net average on this forum, so my peer group might be a bit different, but I don't know a whole lot of people in real life who want that crap. Extra parts to break down. Screens that make night driving irritating, OTA updates leaving you to the whim of manufacturers, drive modes you'll never use, and so on and so on. You pay extra for crap that mostly will go unused at best and be annoying at worst.

Jeep shines in simplicity. All Jeep needs to do is keep making the JT, JL, and their successors off road kings. Then use their other models to outshine the shiny crap from others.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

You are not wrong…but….the Gladiators future does not depend on off-road capability, it depends on improving its marketability. Don’t get me wrong, I love my Gladiator! However, after I put 120k on it in four years of work use (hwy driving) I plan to drop a 392 or hurricane engine into it and build it into the badass overlander I want. Not much is badass about a Gladiator (stock) right now, they are fun and unique from the factory.

Jeep needs better options to compete in the high end of this market. That Tacoma is going to appeal to a lot of buyers but most are NEVER going to make it off the pavement, without a solid front axle it will likely drive much better on pavement. Sure we can take our tops off, but I even I miss having a panoramic roof with a simple two second sunroof open/close while driving….

Most of the “off-road” midsized trucks sold are shiny objects that look tough and will tow some kids jet ski or carry a kayak. Jeep is going to need to make them shinier and I for one look forward to it!

Exactly. Too many Jeep people here think that Jeep sells because of off-roading capability. If that was the case, they'd be out of business. The few thousand who actually use them for that aren't enough to keep them in business.
I'd bet 80%+ never see anything worse than gravel roads, dirt lanes, maybe old logging trails.
Jeep can't rely on that alone. It's not why they sell.
I'd tell people - get beyond the end of your nose, get away from your home territory or where YOU take it off-road and look around at the Jeeps out there. Not lifted, 35" is the biggest tire if they even bother to change, they just aren't far from stock.
You can't judge by a forum - it's where people gather to show their stuff or ask about "which lift should I buy". If you really know about off-roading, you already have that done. Even on a forum like this, I'd bet not even half of the registered members hit trails that a WJ couldn't handle.
Jeep must appeal to new customers, younger customers with other priorities as the old farts die off. Or Jeep will die.
Drop the pride and see how Jeep must see things to survive.
Of all of the Jeeps we saw in Florida, I could count on one hand those that even had a hint of being used for anything off a paved road, perhaps a beach (none of the beaches we were at would have allowed powered vehicles)

 

[Raven65]

My '22 Gladiator is my first Jeep product, and while I'm loving it so far, the jury is still out on it quality-wise. If I have a lot of trouble with it before the warranty expires, I WILL be trading it in on one of these new Tacos and never looking back. I know there are a LOT of dyed-in-the-wool Jeep fanatics on here, but it never ceases to amaze me how often DEFECTS and straight-up poor workmanship in these vehicles are just mindlessly accepted/excused as "just a Jeep thing". Well, they aren't getting off that easy with me! That mindset would be OK if these were inexpensive vehicles, but they are very much the opposite of that! I bought a 2009 Taco brand new and drove it for over 9 years & over 230k miles before my daughter totaled it (or it would still be going strong) and it never once saw the inside of a repair shop. Not. Once. Didn't leak/burn a drop of oil. Literally the only actual "repair" it ever needed was to rebuild the starter solenoid somewhere after 200k miles - which I did myself in less than an hour with a $25 rebuild kit from Amazon and a the aid of a YouTube video. It was literally as reliable as an anvil. I've owned several other Toyotas over the years as well - and they also fully lived up to Toyota's reputation for quality.

As for Jeep keeping the Gladiator competitive, replacing the wheezy Pentastar with the new I-6 Hurricane would likely be a big step in the right direction (although that's a brand new engine so its reliability is unknown). So would offering a GOOD manual transmission with a correctly-sized clutch and properly chosen gear ratios. Other than that, I think the interior & tech are fine just like they are - especially with the '24 year model updates (side curtain airbags being a BIG improvement).

Like I said, I'm loving my Gladiator so far - and if it proves to be reliable, I'll keep/enjoy it for many years, but if it isn't, you'll find it on a Toyota dealer's used vehicle lot in a couple of years after I trade it in for a new Taco.

 

[DailyMoparGuy]

If it looks anything like this Tundra does in person, then I’d fully change my mind on the exterior. My god

 

[ShadowsPapa]

If it looks anything like this Tundra does in person, then I’d fully change my mind on the exterior. My god

Now that's a truck front end. One I could like Too bad Tacoma didn't replicate that in a smaller scale to some extend. Hmmm, I prefer that to the newer Ford front ends. Yikes, did I actually say that?

 

[montechie]

If my 3rd gen TRD OR had these improvements, I probably wouldn't have paid the premium for the JTR, at least if Toyo actually fixed the reliability of their T-case switch and mated the Trans+engine better. I'm more of a Jeep guy with my Wranglers/XJs and was easily pulled towards the JT from my ho-hum Taco 3rd gen.

Things I'm liking vs past Yotas:
- Great power and payload, my JTR with all it's off road goodies has better payload than my 3rd gen TRD OR had.
- I imagine mating an electric motor to a turbo'd one may take care of turbo lag in slow-crawly situations.
- Suspension seating
- TRD Pro has adjustable compression on the shocks (I'll take that over Live Valve at this point). The shocks in general on the Pro and Trailhunter seem sweet. I had Icons on my 3rd gen and still miss the ride despite having covered-wagon level suspension on the rear.
- Box frame! If I read that right, they ditched the crappy C-channel finally.
- Disc brakes on all 4 corners like my '05 LJR has, way to modernize...
- OEM tires that don't suck off pavement, "but do they have Kevlar brah?"
- 33" tires (and hopefully gearing to match) on the upper trims, 3rd gen had anemic gearing for anything over 31" tires. Hopefully to do 35s isn't any harder than it was to bump to 32s on the 3rd gen.
- The hood is more tapered down, hopefully this plus better seating position will improve visibility off road. 3rd gen had ridiculously poor visibility. My '03 F150 with twice the engine had a smaller hood profile.
- 360 camera! When my 3rd gen Taco was produced, Toyo had 360 offered on the flippin' Rav4s!
- Disconnecting sway bars. Probably not as articulate as a JTR, but still sweet.
- Kept a 6' bed option, this was the hardest to give up going to the JT. Only my pop-up topper allowed me to rationalize the switch.
- Finally, this bodes well for the next gen 4runner. I'm sorry, but the current 4runner has a crappy trans and engine combo (my 05 Jeep is smoother).

That being said, unless the JTR's electronics start having reliability issues, I'm not switching trucks anytime soon. Several times this winter during snowzilla in Montana I rescued or went way beyond folks in their rear locker + A-trac systems, ie, locked at all 4 is hard to beat in the soft stuff. Also on our typical winter highway conditions, 4-auto is awesome and superior to a 4 part-time.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

I think some of y'all are missing some points in a JT vs Taco argument The Taco is a midsize truck that can off road. A JT is a Jeep that can truck. I agree, the 3.6 is not my favorite power plant, but I prefer a naturally aspirated V6 to a turbo 4, and especially a hybrid. If Jeep can stuff a Hurricane in there, I'd be stoked, but I won't hold my breath. Jeep's have always had meh engines.

As far as screens and tech, thats not what Jeep is. I'm probably a bit younger than the net average on this forum, so my peer group might be a bit different, but I don't know a whole lot of people in real life who want that crap. Extra parts to break down. Screens that make night driving irritating, OTA updates leaving you to the whim of manufacturers, drive modes you'll never use, and so on and so on. You pay extra for crap that mostly will go unused at best and be annoying at worst.

Jeep shines in simplicity. All Jeep needs to do is keep making the JT, JL, and their successors off road kings. Then use their other models to outshine the shiny crap from others.

Have you experienced the torque and capability of a hybrid off-road? Amazing. Full torque from the moment that pedal moves 0.1" - it just goes. Instant torque - no waiting. And it can be applied as slowly and easily as needed.
The 3.6 is a joke next to my wife's 4xe. Her Wrangler could pull my JT against its will and up hill, too.
No need to downshift when you hit the mountain grades, and if it does, it's maybe for a short time, 1 gear, where the JT drops from 8 to 5 and still has to wind up to make it. The hybrid yawns at such things.

As for your "a bit younger" I did have to laugh to myself because the younger prefer bigger screens, more electronics, and spend far far more hours look at screens than anyone else. Especially getting into the 20-somethings - they want screens, they want i this or i that and thus the igeneration moniker - spending 6 hours a day on screen time (phones mostly)
It's the young driving the move to more and larger screens. Look at the marketing. 20-somethings are driving TikTok and Apple to produce more and more and more.
The screens are for you younger folks. I'm good with them and as I age I need the screen to be larger, but I can live with dials and buttons and knobs.
My star ship controls would look like this -

 

[Tank43]

That fee is only for the app, I have no issue starting with my fob. You just have to be in site of the vehicle

Thanks for the clarification. Seems like people were making a big deal out of it and I didn't see it applied only to the app.

 

[Closet Jeep guy]

Thanks for the clarification. Seems like people were making a big deal out of it and I didn't see it applied only to the app.

Yeah , people can be divas when they complain or they don't know you can use a fob

 

[MF Comics]

I like both personally, so pray I win the lottery so I can have a JTRD and a TRD OR

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