One tough taco with Toyota Tacoma TRD Pro 4x4
Order tacos, and it’s inevitable that you’ll be asked whether you’d like a soft- or hard-shell tortilla. The same is true for tacos of the four-wheeled variety. Want a soft-shell Toyota Tacoma? Stick with the city-slickin’ Limited and TRD Sport models. But if you want a hard-shell truck formed with chunks of broken glass for added crunch? Look no further than the Tacoma’s burly TRD Pro, which returns to the lineup for 2017 after a one-year hiatus, ready to climb up, jump over, and slog through the worst that this world’s unpaved lands can throw its way.
PRO, DO YOU EVEN TACO?
The TRD Pro is an extension of the Tacoma TRD Off-Road model, a four-wheel-drive, stick-shift version of which we tested last year and deemed exceedingly manly. That assessment had less to do with the truck’s goodness when judged as an everyday vehicle and more irrationally to do with its general brawniness. The TRD Pro takes that fourwheeled, chest-thumping persona to the next level with a comprehensive basket of toughened components: New front springs lift the ride height by 1.0 inch and are abetted by Fox internal-bypass shocks at all four corners, a sport exhaust, TRDbranded wheels, and a front skid plate. Specific design touches, such as a black hood scoop and a chunky grille with bold TOYOTA lettering, make the TRD Pro hard to miss.
The result is one purposeful looking truck, although the Kevlar-lined Goodyear Wrangler All-Terrain Adventure tires carried over from the lesser TRD OffRoad represent a missed opportunity for even more attitude. Leather upholstery, heated seats, automatic climate control, navigation, a Qi wireless charging pad, blind-spot monitoring, a backup camera, and a proximity key are standard; the TRD Pro comes only in crew-cab form with the shorter of the Tacoma’s two available bed lengths.
Four-wheel drive with a twospeed transfer case, a locking rear differential, the Tacoma’s optional 278-hp V-6, and a sixspeed manual transmission also are built-in TRD Pro fare, although our test truck came with the available six-speed automatic for $2000. Performance is on par with other similarly equipped Tacomas we’ve tested, with a