2001 Toyota Tacoma: Overview

Vehicle Highlights

Addition of a 4-dr crew cab, plus fresh front-end styling and interior revisions highlight the 2001 Tacoma. Crew cabs are badged Double Cabs and have four conventional side doors and a 3-place rear bench seat. Regular and extended Xtracabs have two doors, and Xtracabs have two forward-facing rear jump seats. A V6 and two 4-cyl engines are offered, all with manual or automatic transmission. Tacoma comes in rear-wheel drive or with 4WD that must be disengaged on dry pavement but has low-range gearing. Options include ABS and a flare-fender Stepside cargo box. Specialty 2WD PreRunners have 4x4 styling cues. The new S-Runner is a manual-transmission V6 PreRunner Xtracab with lower ride height, stiffer suspension, color-keyed exterior, and special interior trim.

COMPETITION

Among compact pickups two vehicles really stand out: The Dodge Dakota and the Ford Ranger (and clone Mazda B-Series). Dakota is the only one to offer a V8 engine and near-full-size cargo and towing capacity. Ranger is the most refined and probably the best daily use vehicle.

This year we are limiting our Recommended choices to the Toyota Tacoma. It's every bit as good as the Ranger in daily use, just a tad more expensive.