The 2024 Toyota Tacoma is gaining quite a lot of choices over the present truck, but it surely’s additionally shedding one thing: the reverse-opening again doorways on prolonged cab fashions. The truth is, the prolonged cab—or Entry Cab in Toyota parlance—has been replaced by a two-door that’s form of in between a standard prolonged cab configuration and a basic single cab. Round a campfire at Overland Expo, Toyota’s folks talked a bit about why.
Tacoma Chief Engineer Sheldon Brown recounted the event days of the brand new Taco we’re now all acquainted with. “In 2019 is after we’re actually getting after it, and we’re pulling it collectively, considering ‘What is that this truck going to be, what are the scale, how does that match, what’s the package deal, the enterprise case, the technical, high-level requirements’ … simply to border the timeframe. …and listed below are … rivals again within the section [return of the Ford Ranger], we’re seeing new entries into the section [enter Rivian R1T] … the [midsize truck] section isn’t shrinking, it’s rising. However all that development is occurring in what we name the Double Cab; the four-door model.”
Brown added just a little extra informal context I’ll paraphrase. Between 2017 and 2022, extended-cab mid-sized vans have been promoting at about 100,000 models a yr, of which Toyota had about 34 p.c market share. Once more, that is serviette math, however in all probability shut coming from the Tacoma’s chief engineer. Extra considerably, he adopted up by saying:
“We appeared just a little deeper and we noticed that fifty% of that 34,000 models, individuals are ordering rear-seat deletes. Individuals aren’t carrying folks, they’re carrying issues. Stuff. Gear. So we stated ‘Hmm, is there a greater method to do that?’ As a result of to be completely candid, as we proceed to take a look at side-impact and crashworthiness, it requires rather a lot to place the suicide doorways in. Now we have to place in quite a lot of funding and we noticed that market shrinking.
“So we thought ‘How can we rethink this? We nonetheless wish to have another’ (to a full four-door).”
Brown mainly confirmed what most trade observers would guess—the automaker didn’t wish to construct variants of the truck it couldn’t make some huge cash on. And 4-door, short-bed vans are what transfer shortly off vendor tons. In revisiting my notes from the presentation, I’m realizing there was no point out in any respect of a real, brief single cab being on the desk in any respect, which is form of humorous albeit unsurprising.
Designer Ben Jimenez was additionally at this discuss and he added his perspective:
“I keep in mind quite a lot of troublesome choices, quite a lot of pushback! Seems to be straightforward now, however there was a ton of pushback about that as a result of it’s completely different. It adjustments issues. I keep in mind one explicit assembly, the place we’re all a aspect view package deal of this … additional cab building, and the gross sales workforce turned to us and stated ‘OK, however we have now to present it a brand new worth. It might probably’t simply be taking one thing away. It needs to be one thing extra.’ And the design workforce went forwards and backwards with the engineering workforce.”
In different phrases, it took quite a lot of thought and cross-department collaboration to give you a short-cab Tacoma configuration that will be cool sufficient to promote and have a reliable worth proposition. That’s how the brand new two-door Taco ended up with trick options like a passenger seat that folds down right into a desk, devoted tie-downs, laptop computer storage, room for a cooler behind the entrance seats, and so forth.
“It’s attention-grabbing to take a look at it now and see the results of it, however actually it comes from quite a lot of arduous work, and quite a lot of inspiration, and quite a lot of considering by means of issues—designers, engineers, and gross sales [people] actually speaking by means of how individuals are going to make use of it,” Jimenez stated.
Adam Rabinowitz, a Toyota designer who labored on the Tacoma’s exterior, added critically, “We didn’t need it to seem like the client was lacking one thing.” Certainly, it might have been a fairly attention-grabbing problem to attract this new cab thought, not fairly a single-cab however not fairly an prolonged cab, in a manufacturing-friendly method that appears good.
From a consumer’s perspective I feel a rear-opening door to permit for simpler cargo entry could be nice, however as Toyota’s workforce stated, eliminating that was an vital a part of crashworthiness compliance and value discount. That stated, I feel the brand new two-door design does look fairly candy and I’m excited to see how folks mod these after they hit the streets. And now you’ve bought some context for the way it got here to be, and why it seems the way in which it does.
