Toyota Tacoma Double Cab Review

"...maybe it's time we got back to the basics of trucks...."
---Waylon Jennings, "Luckenbach, Texas" (1976)

Okay, hold the e-mails. I know Waylon sang "love", not "trucks". Sure would make a great TV spot for the Toyota Tacoma, though. Especially one equipped like our tester.

If you're a TireKicker regular, you know I have a soft spot for the basic...and that all too many manufacturers send out press fleet vehicles loaded to the gills with every conceivable option.

Well, Toyota did the unusual: They built, and then sent to automotive journalists, a Toyota Tacoma (their midsize truck) Double Cab 4X4 with a manual transmission, cloth interior and useful options. And in the process, reminded yours truly what a revelation Toyota pickups were back in the day. Rugged, reliable and reasonable...the new 3 "R"s of autodom (circa 1976, which links us back to Waylon).

The Tacoma comes with a 236 horsepower 4-liter V6. Fuel economy's on the grim side, 14 city, 19 highway, but it's not out of line. It aces every one of the government crash tests (five stars for everyone, four out of four for rollover protection), and generally feels like it will last forever.

All at a base price of $25,695...and that's for the Double Cab four-by-four.

Options on the one I drove? An off-road extra value package (suspension upgrades, tougher tires, skid plates, and tow hooks combined with an upgraded audio system, Bluetooth, sport seats and more for $4,690), daytime running lights for $40, the towing package ($650), floor mats ($199) and a VIP security system ($479). With delivery charges, it came to $32,498, but there's a $950 discount for the extra value package, so the real bottom line was $31,548.

Dump the off-road package, the towing package, the daytime running lights and pick up some floormats from the aftermarket and this would come in just over $26,000...which is a terrific deal for a right-size truck that wins you over with its basic goodness, not a bunch of add-ons.

With $45,000 monster Tundras fuzzing up the image the past few years, the Tacoma is a great way to remind yourself just what a Toyota pickup is all about.

Suzuki Equator Review

Gee, stranger...you look familiar.

Welcome to our brave new world...where badge engineering is no longer something that happens between divisions of the same automaker. Nope, now competing companies are swapping product and slapping nameplates on them.

Okay, it's not really new. Honda and Isuzu had the same kind of deal 15 years ago with the Rodeo and Passport SUVs and Oasis and Odyssey minivans.

In that particular deal, Honda provided the Odyssey for rebadging as the Oasis and Isuzu shipped some Rodeos over to Honda to be rechristened as Passports. Why buy one instead of the other? Well, Isuzu actually had the edge, even with the Honda-made product, by virtue of the stronger warranty.

That's essentially what's going on with the Suzuki Equator. What we have here is a Nissan Frontier pickup with an arguably more aggressive grille. That's it. Otherwise the same truck...right down to an identical EPA estimate of 15 city and 19 highway miles per gallon.

The Suzuki's base price is about $800 more than the comparably equipped Nissan...but wait. The Nissan limited warranty is 3 years or 36,000 miles with a powertrain warranty of 5 years or 50,000 miles. Suzuki jacks the ante way up with a 7 year/100,000 mile warranty. Which, if you're planning on keeping the truck more than 5 years, will more than cover the $800 price difference. Plus, dealers are hungry right now and Suzuki dealers are likely ravenous. I'd bet on your ability to make the $800 difference go away. You might even get a better deal on an Equator than you could a Frontier, depending on the dealers involved.

The Equator/Frontier's a nice truck (read my review of the Frontier here). Buying one from the Suzuki store could be a very smart move.

Ford F-150 Harley Davidson Review

Upside to the current downturn in car (and especially truck) sales: There are still vehicles on dealer lots that should have been gone a long time ago...and you can get screaming deals.

Case in point: The 2008 Ford F-150 Harley Davidson. It's the most powerful factory-built F-series truck ever. Just how powerful is that? 450 horsepower and 500 lbs/ft of torque from a 5.4 liter supercharged V8 engine. And all that's wrapped in some of the baddest-looking truck on the road. What do you get? Let's just quote liberally from the Ford press release:

Unique chrome billet grille and lower front valance.

Body color bumper, mirror caps, ground effects, door and tailgate handles.

Blacked-out headlamps with black bulb shield and dark tinted, smoked-out taillamps.

Windshield with Bar & Shield logo dot pattern and Alliance logo.

New 22-inch polished forged-aluminum wheels with the Bar & Shield logo on center caps.

Forged aluminum "105th Anniversary Harley-Davidson F-150" Medallions on the fenders and tailgate.

Chrome dual exhaust tips and tie-down hooks.

Rubber bed mat with HARLEY-DAVIDSON Bar & Shield logo.

The Vintage Copper and Black color scheme is carried onto the interior that features Black/Dusted Copper leather-trimmed front captain's chairs and rear bench seat with die-cast Bar & Shield logos embedded in the leather. Other interior features are:

Two-tone leather shifter, console lid and steering wheel.

High-gloss piano black floor console and center stack with the Bar & Shield logos, as well as chrome vent rings and unique instrument cluster.

Serialized nickel plate displaying the production VIN and number.

Brushed stainless steel pedals.

The center stack, matching door-trim panels and lower part of the windshield feature numerous miniature Bar & Shield logos. In fact, the center stack panel was inspired by similar panels found on certain Harley-Davidson motorcycles.

We'll stop quoting the press release here and tell you that the week-long test of this truck was one long giggle. More fun than I usually have with cars and that's saying something. This one was a loaded 2-wheel drive model...$13,000 worth of options (pretty much everything available) running the final total up to a whopping $50,035.

Now remember, this is an '08. The all-new '09 F-150s are arriving at dealerships as you read this. The limited run of '08 Harley-Davidson editions should have been in happy owners' garages months ago. But you know what happened to truck sales. A quick search online as this is written shows a few examples languishing on dealer lots with price tags as much as $10,000 cheaper than MSRP. Now's your chance.

Nissan Frontier 4X4 CC SE Review

Having pushed the physical dimensions and sticker prices of the once-lowly pickup truck about as far as possible (Lincoln? Cadillac?), a return to sanity is a welcome thing...and just in time, Nissan refreshes its mid-size Frontier pickup.

Now that Nissan has announced it will be outsourcing its big truck, the Titan, to Chrysler (2011 Titans will be re-badged Dodge Rams), the Frontier is the standard-bearer for Nissan's truck business...and the impression it makes is a good one.

Not too big, not too small...there's a "just-right" quality to the size, capabilites and handling of the new Frontier. Nope, it won't cut the mustard as a heavy-duty construction truck, but for the average truck owner, the Frontier is more than up to the job.

More good news: It's affordable. The base price on the four-door crew cab I tested was only $25,960...bringing with it a 4-liter 261 horsepower V6, a 5-speed automatic transmission, shift-on-the-fly four wheel drive, 4-wheel anti-lock disc brakes and most of the features that you could wish for on a truck option list 15 years ago.

So what's to add? Well, Nissan specified the SE Value Truck Package for this tester, adding remote keyless entry, power windows, power door locks, power outside mirrors, cruise control, 16 inch alloy wheels, a sliding bed extender and a security system for a package price of $1,380. That plus another $700 for a moonroof, along with destination charges brought the bottom line to $28,785. Not bad at all for a roomy, capable all-wheel drive truck.

The EPA estimate is 15 city, 19 highway miles per gallon...again, not bad for the size and capability (thank the 5-speed auto and the V6 for getting the mileage that high).

This is a great time to seriously evaluate how much truck you need. If it's not a monster workhorse, then the Nissan Frontier is a solid choice.

Toyota Tundra 4x4 Double Cab Review

Size matters. Especially for pickups used for work. You know, things like construction, trailer and boat towing. For years, Toyota kept erring on the side of small with its fullsize pickup, the Tundra (and before that, the T-100).

Well, Toyota finally got over its shyness and went all-out with the latest Tundra, unveiled in 2007. So much so that some people think it's too big. That was my take after a week in the CrewMax model last year. But there's a happy medium between the CrewMax and the standard two-door...and that's the Double Cab.

The measurable difference is only a few inches, but it changes the feel and driving dynamics. No question it's still a big truck, but in Double Cab trim, the Tundra is much more manageable.

As equipped, the test vehicle was easier to handle price-wise, too. An SR5 instead of a Limited, the base price was $31,260...and options were applied with an eyedropper rather than a firehose...a navigation system, with 440 watt JBL audio system, sliding rear window, deck rail system, bedliner and security system pushing the bottom line up to $35,794...reasonable for a well-equipped truck that seats five...especially compared to the $40,000 plus examples I've tested before.

Even with the 5.7 liter 381 horsepower V8, the EPA says the Tundra is capable of 13 city miles per gallon and 17 highway. I saw about 15 in a mix of the two, so they may be close. A V6 is available for even better (by big truck standards) fuel economy.

There will always be a place for big trucks. Toyota now has a legitimate claim to part of that business.