You are using an older browser version. Please use a supported version for the best MSN experience.

How the 2020 Toyota Tacoma TRD Off-Road Helped Me Escape the Pandemic

Autoweek 6/8/2020 Andy Stoy

a car parked on the side of a mountain: Sometimes you just gotta get away, and the Toyota Tacoma proved the perfect way to do it.

Our 2020 Toyota Tacoma tester had a decidedly unfair advantage.

Toyota’s midsize pickup reached my driveway during the tail end of 2020's spring lockdown, just as folks were beginning to venture out again under various states of coronavirus restriction. My family was chomping at the bit to go ANYWHERE, and the Tacoma served as our escape pod. Where we went was the “thumb” of Michigan to pick up a COVID puppy, a 5-month-old Chesapeake Bay Retriever since saddled with the aspirational name Winston.

a dog sitting on the seat of a car: Winston doesn’t know where he’s going, but he’s going there in a Tacoma.

Thus the 2020 Tacoma, by virtue of car-scheduling serendipity, is forever burned into my family’s collective consciousness as a symbol of post-quarantine freedom and literal puppy love. Toyota’s PR folks, as good as they are, could never have dreamt up a set of circumstances to frame their truck in a more positive light, hence the “unfair advantage.” We’re also not supposed to have dogs in media cars, so I’m relying on forgiveness in the absence of permission here …

Research

2020 toyota tacoma

See Full Specs

See Pricing

Granted, I’m already partial to the Tacoma. Especially in the cement gray our TRD Off-Road arrived in, it’s a beefy-looking midsize pickup with nearly perfect proportions everywhere. It’s trucky enough to satisfy the brodozer crowd, but it’s also compact enough to be usable on a daily basis without requiring excessive maneuvering in the Lowe’s parking lot. The interior has a slightly vintage Toyota-ness to it, with more warning labels than one might be accustomed to, along with switches and knobs for various systems scattered all over the cab. It gives the Tacoma a big-rig feel, like you need to have some special kind of license or certification to understand what everything does. In the end, the ridiculously fat steering wheel and big, chunky shifter are all you use most of the time; they provide a nice sense of mass, making you feel as though the Tacoma is your partner for whatever you want to get into. And that’s precisely the point of these off-road (that rarely ever venture off-road) machines. You’re probably not gonna, but you could if you felt like it.

a close up of a motorcycle seat: Heated leather seating is available on the 2020 Toyota Tacoma TRD Off-Road, but only as part of an extra-cost option package.

Downsides? The Tacoma is both loud and thirsty, at least with the V6. Even though the pickup gets an updated powertrain (3.5-liter V6/six-speed automatic) versus the similar 4Runner SUV (4.0-liter V6/five-speed automatic), the engine roar and overall refinement feels about the same. It’s a truck, though, and it’s easy to excuse the coarseness, waving it away as a more authentic experience. If that’s the case though, so is the fuel economy. Toyota claims 18/22/20 city/highway/combined mpg, but my driving experience showed a final combined rating closer to 19 mpg with a LOT of highway driving, and more along the lines of 16 mpg around town. Again: Truck. If you want efficient, get a Prius.

a close up of a car: An adjustable crawl mode is one of several off-road features found in the Toyota Tacoma TRD Off-Road.

Then there’s the price. I’m somewhat jaded about pickup pricing these days after seeing $80K-plus diesel heavy-duty luxo-beasts roll through on a regular basis, but the $47,364 sticker on our Tacoma did make me wince a bit. Fortunately, if you don’t need leather and dual-zone climate control, along with a host of other really nice-to-have bits, you can get the same basic Tacoma TRD Off-Road for around $37K, which seems fairly reasonable.

And if you’re still not sold, throw a dog in the back seat. It makes everything better.