Carmaker1

A subject which I have been commenting on since 2016 in a responsible and authoritative capacity, from both a personal and professional curiosity, Toyota will be redesigning the segment leading (sales) Tacoma for the 2024 Model Year. The model year which I have stated with utmost confidence for the past 37 months, from deep internal knowledge not publicly available. Any other narrative has just been inaccurate, per ignorant news media, yet unfortunately trusted as (falsely) accurate.

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Developed under 920B Internal Program and in planning over the last 5 years at TMNA HQ (Plano), Toyota CALTY, and Toyota Technical Centers in both Ann Arbor and Saline, Michigan, this vehicle will utilize modular body on frame TNGA-F, with a fully boxed frame, and adoption of 4-wheel disc anti-lock brakes, in being the first fully ground up Tacoma redesign since October 18, 2004.


Second Generation 2005 Tacoma (August 19, 2004)


Second Generation 2005 Tacoma (August 19, 2004)


2005 Tacoma Interior (June 27, 2004)


The very date when the revolutionary 2005 Tacoma was launched and hijacked the midsize pickup truck segment within just one year and has never turned back since, maintaining sales leadership the past 18 years.


​​​​​1995 Toyota Tacoma Xtracab SR5 V6 4x4 Press Photo (1994)

The first generation Tacoma, developed from Autumn 1989 to 1994---completed by CALTY Design in 1992---was introduced to the North American public at the 1995 Chicago Auto Show in February 1995 and launched on March 1, 1995 to dealers.


1997 2WD (1996)

1998 4WD (1997)

2001 DCSB (1999)


After 2 refreshes in October 1996 (4x4/PreR in July 1997) and October 2000, it concluded its run on October 17, 2004, when it handed over its incumbency to the 2nd generation vehicle (developed 2000-2004).

In December 2004, TMMBC began additional production of Tacoma PreRunner units and select configurations (excluding manual transmission builds), with the first units rolling off the line in February 2005. After minor updates in 2006 for the 2007MY, the first MMC was launched in June 2008 for the 2009 MY (photos). The Tacoma changed factories from NUMMI in Fremont, California, after 15 years of building Tacomas since 1994 (Job 1 was January 1995), with the last unit rolling off on March 26. 2010 (photo). First TMMTX units entered production in June 2010 and rolled off August 6, 2010 in San Antonio, Texas for 2011 MY, sporting a new single bar grille and 150-derived frame (photos), less prone to rust. In September 2011 for the 2012 MY, the 2nd MMC occurred with a significant revamp of the front clip and interior components (interned on this vehicle)(photos). The last minor update occurred in September 2013 for the 2014 model, that added a large 6.1 Entune touchscreen w/available GPS.


2009 Tacoma TRD Off-Road (Spring 2008)




Last Tacoma at NUMMI California - March 26, 2010


August 6, 2010 First Tacoma TMMTX Job 1 w/ Mayor Julian Castro and ex-TXG. Rick Perry.


2012 TX Baja Edition (09/20/2011)

The 3rd generation vehicle replaced the 2nd generation vehicle on September 11, 2015, one month short of an 11 year run. A Major Minor Change, developed from early 2012 to 2015 under the 989A Program, the 2016 Tacoma was co-developed by one of the users on this forum, a former TMNA PP out of Torrance, CA (who I consider PNG). The 3rd generation vehicle was first updated in October 2017 with a minor refresh for the 2018 model year, followed by a facelift during its Mid Model Change in September 2019 for the 2020 model year, developed under 625B internal project code.



2016 TRD Off-Road DCSB 4x4 V6 (July 29, 2015)



2018 Tacoma TRD Off-Road Double Cab Short Bed V6 4x4 (2017)


2020 Tacoma TRD Off-Road Double Cab Short Bed V6 4x4 (July 13, 2019)




In December 2019 Toyota began production of TMMTX-specification Tacomas at the newly built Toyota Motor Manufacturing Guanajuato facility, in Apaseo El Grande, Mexico. Having gradually absorbed production from TMMTX, in September 2021 Toyota Motor Manufacturing Texas assembled the last U.S. built Tacoma units, where the Tacoma was replaced by pilot 2023 Sequoia (660B) units in late 2021 on TNGA-F. The 2023 Tacoma will conclude production this November, after an 8-year run since the summer of 2015.


TMMGT Line Off Ceremony (February 10, 2020)

The 2024 Tacoma is allegedly powered by a roster of both carryover and new Dynamic Force engines:

*The 2TR-FE 2.7L Inline-4, first launched in October 2004, said to me by internal sources to carryover and be discontinued after 2025.*



*The 2GR-FKS 3.5L V6, which debuted in the 2016 Tacoma in September 2015 and made its way into other Toyota and Lexus vehicles later in 2015 and beyond. Internal sources mentioned last year it will be carried over as well.*


*The A25A-FXS 2.5L Inline 4, borrowed from the JDM S220 Crown Hybrid Sedan. It has been slightly massaged, to be more suitable to truck duties.*

The range topping T24A-FTS 2.4T I4 Hybrid Max, exclusive to the TRD Pro and speculatively, "Trail Hunter". Mounted longitudinally for the first time since its 2022 introduction as Hybrid Max and since November 2021, when the engine block first appeared in the AZ20 2022MY Lexus NX 350.



I have been passing around since February 2023, an effective date of April 5, 2023, as the press release date for this new vehicle and as I promised elsewhere, Toyota has indeed began their teaser campaign effective Thursday, March 23. A lot of folks were skeptical (off of CL) of my advance information, but told ya so LOL. Anyone who has been hearing that very date, directly heard it from me the last 6 weeks.





This is the vehicle, as you saw per an unauthorized release of the design, via the Brazilian Patent Office on January 24, 2023, due to issues between Toyota attorney Clarke Modet in Rio de Janeiro and likely an ignorant patent office clerk leaking it.

Those very images were originally filed for Japanese patent registration on December 13, 2021 in Tokyo, Japan at the Japan Patent Office as the priority patent and filed elsewhere globally in June of 2022, including the USPTO.




Akio Toyoda himself and USA Design President Kevin Hunter, first teased the final design to you on December 14, 2021, as part of a greater BEV presentation by the namesake family's corporate leader.

The 920B program design was frozen for production exactly 2 years ago, following formal 920B styling approval at CALTY and later in Toyota-shi, Aichi for board of directors approval, in 2020.

So yes, the design you are looking at is new, but goes back to 2020, when "pencils down" for Toyota 920B designers was reached.

The first prototype mule units went into development in Michigan in May of 2021 and made public discovery in October of 2021, per spy shots you saw.


November 1, 2022 marked the first integrated test units being assembled at the Michigan prototype facility outside of Detroit and first began to appear in January of 2023.


Toyota Motor Manufacturing Baja California (TMMBC); Toyota Motor Manufacturing de Guanajuato (TMMGT)


It will go into production at TMMBC and TMMGT in Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico and Apaseo El Grande, Guanajuato, Mexico by this December, launching for the 2024 Model Year in Jan/Feb 2024, launch dates dependent on factory to dealership delivery lead times.

​​​​​​Currently the two Tacoma factories are in pilot production phases.

I have seen two Job#1/SOP dates of November 1st and December 1st. Trust 12/1 more than 11/1, so stay tuned any of you looking to get one.

The range topping Tacoma TRD Pro is powered by Toyota's 2.4L turbocharged hybrid-electric Hybrid Max T24A-FTS, outputting 326 horsepower and 465 lb-ft of torque, which will be mounted longitudinally for the first time since it appeared in the 2023 Crown Platinum and Lexus RX 500h FSP.


And please try to stay on topic, let's avoid trolling and thread derailing BS. Thank you.

This post will be updated regularly in my free time and on press embargo wrap up.

Toys4RJill

Knowing Toyota. The Tacoma will be Tacoma 3.0 with the same frame from 2005 Let’s hope they put a fully boxed frame this time

xjokerz

Man, just having 4 real doors on this thing makes it look awful. It's crazy comparing the looks of a 20 year old truck vs this new one. I'd much prefer the extended cab but never a crew.

Toys4RJill

I actually saw this the other day and thought of you. It was a manual transmission

xjokerz

That is a neat truck! Refreshing to see a regular cab.

bitkahuna

iTrader: (20)

so the new one will be revealed in april, but not sold until the end of the year?
way to kill sales of the current vehicle.

i finally realized that 'baja california' is a mexican state.

Toys4RJill

bahahah Of course. the Taco name is perfectly fitting.

timmy0tool

iTrader: (7)

thank you for sharing such detailed information to us!
very interested to know what kind of suspension changes they will be going with, to complement all the new powertrain options.

Kira X

iTrader: (24)

I always look forward to your posts! I’m excited to see a new Tacoma.

JDR76

Excited to see this. I hope they keep the long bed option.

It surprises me to see they are keeping the 2GR-FKS.

FrankReynoldsCPA

Some of us like crew cabs because we have friends

geko29

If you put someone in the backseat of a crew cab Tacoma, they're not your friend.

FrankReynoldsCPA

To be fair, in a Tacoma the front seat isn't much of an improvement.

GFerg

Same. Im far from a pickup truck person, but do have valid use cases for one every now and then. A very barebones basic model with the hybrid engine would be perfect. A Maverick sized Toyota pickup would be even better for me honestly. Something cheap like that with excellent fuel economy, low running cost, and toyota reliability speaks to me. Living in a city, it would be my perfect get around vehicle. Iwouldnt even care if it got damaged and dinged. Look forward to see what this Tacoma has to offer and hopefully sometime down the road, a Maverick competitor.

Carmaker1

An April reveal is nothing shocking, as this is Toyota modus operandi and typical of marketing in most of the industry. Sales of an 8-year old vehicle matter, but not so much when its buyers are fixated on reliability and not being a guinea pig. Wasn't a problem in January 2015 against September 11, 2015 launch. The 2023 RX comes to mind, if not 2023 Sequoia revealed even longer before availability. Toyota is less worried about that than Honda and ah, gasp...Ford.

That being said, I can see that this forum (of a few), one YouTuber out of many, and laughably no media entities, know when the reveal is. I deliberately wanted to test the credibility of many journalists and see if they can figure out what Toyota is planning to do on their own for once, since they have been spreading around so much misinformation for the better part of 3 years on this truck and making my efforts 10x harder than they should be, no thanks to the confusion they keep creating with dumb rumors.

There will be another teaser most likely tomorrow or Tuesday, leading up to what should be reveal around April 5, 2023.



Of course! Appreciate that. I know this is a Lexus forum, but as an owner of one of these trucks and the fact it's closely related to the GX, thought it might be of interest hopefully. I've been discussing truck in some capacity for 6-7 years now, before media even caught up with me LOL.

I believe it has adopted coil springs. I am seeing some inconsistencies between my sources (Tier 1 suppliers vs TMNA umbrella & dealer GMs/owners) regarding powertrains and new codes of silence. Most say I'm right, while Tier 1 guy and supply chain is contradicting my insight with some misguided focus on 1 engine corporate says will not be the only option. Ughh

Thank you, nice to hear from you. Hope my typos are not making it hard to follow. It's been over 8 years since the last one came out and 19 years since the last major redesign occurred. While I had hoped for a totally different looking truck for once, to go with the all new frame and suspension, they erred on the side of caution and kept it extremely familiar on purpose. Just feels great to both predicted a lot of things on this truck very early (years ago), as well as get some very good insight from many people working on it or with access to not-so-public info. I love beating the media to the punch, as I wish they would go as in-depth as I try to and cover as many bases.

I had been speculating a lineup of NX 350 engine, Hybrid Max, and V35A-FTS privately, which I refused to say publicly without confirming it to be true. Toyota did test the Tundra engine in prototype Tacomas and 4Runners, because trucks executive chief engineer Mike Sweers wanted to offer the V35A-FTS in range topping trim levels, like the TRD Pro. Toyota Global HQ directed TMNA to reject the request and forced them to work with Hybrid Max and look into PHEV instead. I remember that the Sequoia and Tundra were also supposed to include both UR and TTV8 as a TRD Pro exclusive. Same result.

Any new V6 in these midsizers, will be only exclusive to Land Cruiser or Lexus based vehicles allegedly on these ladder frames. Any other V6, will strictly be carryover, even though the 1GR will run through 2027 in some vehicles, but that doesn't include the 4Runner. V6 development is done, in terms of new blocks. GR will die in 2027 and not be replaced. UR V8 probably by then as well.

The 2GR-FKS seems to be staying for the near future in Tacoma, something which never made sense to me when I learned about that last year from a Plano contact. It made me shut up about my expectations of a Dynamic Force engine lineup, similar to the Tundra (TTV6 and turbo 4 are all Dynamic Force, so are Camry and RAV4 engines).

I would've thought Toyota wanted to phase out all non-Dynamic Force engines, such as the GR V6s and UR V8s. All of the current 4 cylinders are post-2015 new designs, while only one Toyota gas 6-cylinder is Dynamic Force and that's the TTV6 only. The other is the 3.3L turbodiesel in the LX 500d and Land Cruiser FJA300. No V8s are, except the upcoming high performance V8TT.

I don't know about the long bed unfortunately, so I don't want to speculate on that. Hopefully they kept it on TNGA-F