Taco vs Frontier: Your Thoughts, Please

[Martinjmpr]

I have an '05 Taco (TRD Off-road). It's been just fine, reliable, good off-road, pulled many trailers many miles without complaint, mediocre gas mileage (~17).

I love my Taco ('12 access cab). I hate my gas mileage - 16-18.... Also, its a tad loud inside.

16 -18 is what you can realistically expect from anything in this class. From my experience of owning trucks and SUVs, it's difficult to break the 18 - 19 barrier with a modern gas engine. The good news is that while MPG has stayed the same, power has gone up considerably. My 1990 Mitsubishi Montero had a 3.0 V6 that barely put out 150hp and still got the same 17 MPG on the highway.

I was able to consistently get in the low 20's in my 1985 Toyota 4x4 pickup. Of course, that thing had tiny 15" wheels and 29" tires, the 22R engine was good for about 100hp on a good day and the doors were as thin as beer cans. It was gutless on the highway and it had no AC, no airbags, and manual steering. When you look at what trucks have today compared to what they had 20 or 30 years ago in terms of power, towing capacity, comfortable seats, safety, electronics, etc, the 7 -9 MPG hit isn't that bad.

EDITED TO ADD: One of the reasons I just made the jump from mid-sized (4runner) to full size (Suburban) was that I was willing to take the MPG hit in return for a bigger, more capable vehicle. So far I'm happy with my decision but then again gas is only $1.44 today. When it hits $3.50 I might be singing a different tune.