2019 Toyota Tacoma TRD Sport is not a great lifestyle enhancer

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earlier this year my boss Tim Stevens

reviewed the 2018 toyota tacoma TRD

sport over the course of his time with

it he did some honest-to-goodness truck

stuff with it he hauled with it and he

took it off the beaten path now Here I

am with a 2019 Toyota Tacoma TRD sport I

however am NOT an ice racer who lives in

the forest I am but the humble semi

suburbanite surrounded by trucks with

perennial empty beds that seem to serve

more as lifestyle enhancers than actual

utility vehicles so that is how I set

out to review this truck after all

little change in perspective doesn't

hurt or does it

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now if you're buying a truck as a

lifestyle vehicle looks matter and the

Tacoma brings a lot to the table in that

regard the fenders are nice and bulky

the front end sits nice and high and the

on-road friendly tires that come with

the TRD sport trim are still suitably

meaty I'm a really big fan of how the

tacoma looks especially in my testers

trim which rocks a crew cab and a 5 foot

bed that said a 6 foot bed is available

if you need to haul just a bit more now

even though I'm role-playing as a life

style truck owner here numbers are still

important to that end this spec of

Tacoma will haul eleven hundred and

seventy-five pounds in the bed and it

will tell another sixty four hundred

behind those are pretty good numbers

even though they're towards the bottom

of the midsize truck spectrum it is

still plenty capable now the exterior

might be intriguing by truck standards

but I can't really say the same for the

interior which is basically just an

endless void of durable but unmemorable

black plastic now these leather trimmed

seats part of a two thousand eight

hundred and ninety dollar Premium

Package are plenty supportive and you do

get a lot of cargo space for both humans

and real cargo in the second row but

there is a problem with the Tacoma that

nice seats can't solve

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that problem is the driving position and

I am not the only member of the roadshow

staff who has this opinion the steering

wheel telescopes like a whole quarter of

an inch so I can never get my arms and

legs comfortable simultaneously I'm

either too closer too far away and even

though the steering wheel tilts it

really doesn't tilt all that much either

so I just kind of end up feeling like a

bus driver every time I get into this

the rest of the driving experience and

it's not much better while I do enjoy

the note that comes from the Tacoma is

three and a half liter v6 as it pushes

out all of its 278 horsepower and 265

pound feet of torque that note is about

all I like the six-speed Automatic

transmission feels like a relic from the

1990s clunking its way between gears and

taking entirely too long to call up

lower gears when I need to accelerate

while the TRD sport is the most on-road

friendly TRD trim the Tacoma offers it's

still not all that welcoming when it

comes to noise vibration and harshness

Toyota did us a favor and they included

all three the tires talk like agitated

middle schoolers the drive line does

this weird little shimmy thing every

time I try to come to a stop and Metro

Detroit's iffy at best suburban roads do

their best to translate every single

feeling directly into the cabin in terms

of fuel economy the situation isn't a

whole lot better while I had no problem

meeting the EPA's estimated 18 mpg city

and 22 highway for the Tacoma it is

towards the bottom end of its segment I

mean heck I was able to get the exact

same numbers if not better out of a

full-size 2019 GMC Sierra with a 6.2

liter v8

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for as old as the underlying bits are in

the Tacoma the tech is surprisingly next

to none in the segment for starters

Toyota safety cents comes standard on

every Tacoma and that suite includes

things like Auto break adaptive cruise

control automatic high beams and lane

departure warning for an extra $800 you

can also get blind spot monitoring and

rear parking sensors both of which are

very nice but I do kind of wish the

parking sensors also extended to the

front on the infotainment front light

tester packs a seven inch entune

touchscreen infotainment system that is

sadly devoid of both apple carplay and

android auto embedded navigation as part

of a two thousand eight hundred and

ninety dollar premium package as is a

JBL branded audio system now to top it

off there is also a cheese style

wireless charger down here in the front

tray and I am a huge fan of it because

it comes with a switch that lets me turn

it off so I can store a bunch of other

stuff there if I'm not charging my phone

that's the kind of flexibility I like

now if you were buying the Tacoma TRD

sport as a lifestyle vehicle I am going

to go ahead and assume that lifestyle is

BDSM I did not find it particularly good

to drive on the street and while I truly

appreciated the tech the packages the

hole just didn't really feel like

something I would enjoy driving day in

and day out with an as tested price of

forty one thousand two hundred dollars

you can easily swap this thing out for

the loaded rav4 of your dreams if you

don't have to put gravel in the bed or

tow a boat the rav4 is capability will

suit you just fine and it won't drive

like it has a vendetta against your

family but if you really want to live

the truck life to the fullest the Tacoma

has got rock-solid reliability and the

capability to do anything you need

you