Danny Wilson, immediate past president of the Toyota National Dealer Advisory Council and a current member of the council’s product committee, said the Tacoma remains a foundation stone for the brand.
“On the West Coast, especially, it’s iconic. There are very few Toyota people who don’t have either a Tacoma or a Camry story to tell,” said Wilson, dealer principal at Wilson Toyota of Ames in Iowa. The Tacoma, he says, “has become a staple for all of us, too. When you own that much of a market, it becomes a drawing point for the brand across the board.”
As the third of four body-on-frame U.S. vehicles to move onto the Japanese automaker’s new F1 platform, the retooled Tacoma represents an opportunity for Toyota to scale both the advancements and the lessons learned from the launches of the redesigned Tundra full-size pickup and Sequoia large SUV. The redesigned 4Runner midsize SUV will complete the circuit for what Toyota calls its Four Brothers next year.
As with the Tundra and Sequoia, the biggest change in the redesign is a downsizing of the Tacoma’s powertrain and improvements to the suspension.
