Toyota Tacoma 2022: All You Need To Know About It Plus a Guide To Choose Your Truck.

Taco­ma is more than just a pick-up truck. It is a Toyota …. The say is always:  when in doubt, get a Toyota! The arti­cle can stop here … but of course, we can help out with more details and guidance. Taco­ma is con­sid­ered by some as a more prim­i­tive medi­um-sized truck com­pared to oth­er com­peti­tors. Yet, we see it as a sim­ple, well reli­able, high­ly durable mid-size truck at a rea­son­able price. The basics in a work­horse truck are well con­fig­ured in Toy­ota, sim­ply because of its decades of excel­lent engine and trans­mis­sion reputation.

Why Tacoma ?

First : it is a Toyota…. You get a good rep­u­ta­tion, sol­id engine, sol­id trans­mis­sion, less loss of val­ue as the car gets old­er, cheap­er repair and much more. Sec­ond: Not every­one needs a full-size truck, and that’s where the mid-sized ones come in handy.  Depend­ing on what you need a truck for, a mid-sized one can be more afford­able and more fuel-effi­cient while doing the job.

- Engine

2022 Taco­ma comes with one engine option for all cab size options. It has an engine with Direct Injec­tion 3.5 Litre DOHC V6 w/VVT‑i. It has the same horse­pow­er for all cab options: 278 @ 6,000 RPM So noth­ing to choose from in this regard as the engine has the same sol­id fea­tures known for Taco­ma in all 2022 cab options.  

- Fuel Consumption

No much dif­fer­ence between the 6 types of body styles. The table below shows the num­bers, yet our advice is not to think much about fuel con­sump­tion when decid­ing which package/ body style you would buy.

Cab Type / Fuel Consumption	City/Highway/Combined L/100km	City/Highway/Combined mpg
4x4 Access Cab 6M	13.8/11.4/12.7	20/25/22
4x4 Access Cab 6A	13.0/10.5/11.8	22/27/24
4x4 Dou­ble Cab 6A	13.0/10.5/11.8	22/24/22
4x4 Dou­ble Cab 6M SB	13.8/11.4/12.7	20/25/22
4x4 Dou­ble Cab 6A SB	13.0/10.5/11.8	22/27/24
4X4 Dou­ble Cab 6A SB LTD Nightshade	13.0/10.5/11.8	22/27/24

- Horse Power & Towing

Same as with fuel con­sump­tion, you should not wor­ry much about the dif­fer­ences between each of the body styles in this regard. Taco­ma is a mid-size pick-up truck with a rea­son­able and com­pet­i­tive pow­er train among oth­er sim­i­lar trucks. Horse­pow­er is stan­dard in all options which are 278. Tow­ing capac­i­ty is slight­ly more in the Access Cab style than in the Dou­ble Cab. If you require high­er tow­ing capac­i­ty and horse­pow­er, you should con­sid­er a full-size pick-up truck.

Horse­Pow­er

Tow­ing Capacity

4x4 Access Cab 6M	278	2948
4x4 Access Cab 6A	278	2948
4x4 Dou­ble Cab 6A	278	2903
4x4 Dou­ble Cab 6M SB	278	2903
4x4 Dou­ble Cab 6A SB	278	2903
4X4 Dou­ble Cab 6A SB LTD Nightshade	278	2903

So, what should I look for? con­fused !!! 

Don’t be….. we will try to help out by answer­ing a few questions. Hope­ful­ly, the fol­low­ing para­graphs and the designed graph will help you decide which truck is good for you.

Which Truck Should I Get? What’s The Difference Between Access Cab & Double Cab?

Cab Options:

2 options to choose from: Access cab ( 2 doors ) or Dou­ble cab ( 4 doors )

• Two Options For The Access Cab:

1- Access Cab 6A 2- Access cab 6M The 6A has an auto­mat­ic trans­mis­sion and more options, there­fore a bit more expen­sive ( around 2500.00 more ).

• Four Options For The Dou­ble Cab:

A) Dou­ble cab 6AFour options for the Dou­ble cab B) Dou­ble cab short box 6A C) Dou­ble cab Short box 6M D) Dou­ble cab short box 6A nightshade We will dis­cuss each of this in details.

First Thing To Consider Before You Choose

Let’s Take It Step By Step From The Most Important Feature To The Least To Help You Decide.

Lots of first truck buy­ers get con­fused regard­ing the ter­mi­nol­o­gy and also the dif­fer­ences between each style. Let’s sim­pli­fy things and help you choose what best suits you. The truck width, as well as the car­go bed width, are the same in all Taco­ma styles. The engine and horse­pow­er are the same with only minor dif­fer­ences in the tow­ing capacity. Your deci­sion will be basi­cal­ly based on two main things : 1- Seat­ing capacity. 2- Car­go bed length. These are the two main dif­fer­ences between the Access Cab and Dou­ble Cab. The two Access Cabs styles come with 4 seat­ing capac­i­ties, yet the four Dou­ble Cab options come with 5 seat­ing capacities. So, your deci­sion to choose between Access or Dou­ble Cab styles could be made at this point. More to know here though… Since we have 6 body styles ( 2 Access and 4 Dou­ble Cab ), let’s make it even clearer. If you want the biggest Taco­ma ( seats 5 with longest car­go bed ), then you had made your deci­sion!  You should go with the Dou­ble Cab 6A.

- Double Cab 6A

What’s Unique About The Double Cab 6A?

Well, its total length is the longest in all styles ( 225.4 inch­es as opposed to 212.3 in all oth­er 5 styles ). There­fore, it has a long bed as the Access Cab ( 70.3 inch­es ), yet still has 5 seater Cab style. So, it is con­sid­ered the biggest body style in all. It comes only in Auto­mat­ic transmission. If that’s what you need (The longest bed and big­ger Cab ), then it is the truck for you. But, you should know some fea­tures this style might be lacking. Some fea­tures are includ­ed in the oth­er body styles, yet they are only an add on in the Dou­ble Cab 6A with extra $ in cer­tain pack­ages, as :

• The 400 Watt (120V) Car­go Bed Pow­er Out­let is an add-on with an extra $ in cer­tain packages.
• Sport Tuned Shock Absorbers
• 2‑way Pow­er Adjustable Dri­ver Lum­bar Support
• TRD Grade Fab­ric Seats
• 8‑way Pow­er Adjustable Dri­ver Seat, 4‑way Man­u­al­ly Adjustable Pas­sen­ger Seat
• Leather Seats
• Leather Wrapped Steer­ing Wheel
• Pow­er Win­dows with Dri­ver Side Auto Up / Down
• Pow­er Slid­ing Rear Window
• Slid­ing Sun Visors w/Illuminated Mirror
• Leather Wrapped Shift Knob.

These fea­tures are not an option in the Dou­ble Cab 6A ( but they are in the others ):

• The Bil­stein Shock Absorbers is not an option even in upgrad­ed packages.
• Trail Grade Fab­ric Seats
• Unique Inte­ri­or Accents

If you are not mere­ly look­ing for the biggest Taco­ma, then you have 5 body styles left to choose from. These  5 styles left are 2 Access and 3 Dou­ble Cab, you can decide which to go to based on the fol­low­ing information. Access cab has only 4 seats but a longer Car­go bed 70.3 inch­es (6 feet) while the Dou­ble cab has 5 seats with a short­er Car­go bed 60.5 inch­es ( 5 feet) ( except the Dou­ble Cab 6A as we mentioned ). Remem­ber, the total truck length in all of these 5 styles is the same which is 212.3 inch­es ( 17.6 feet) hence the longer Car­go bed is tak­ing some room from the Cab size and seat­ing capacity.

- Access Cab

If you are aim­ing for a longer car­go bed and hap­py with 4 seaters capac­i­ty, then the Access cab is your go-to. So, let’s dif­fer­en­ti­ate between the two Access cab styles

What Are The Differences Between Each Style Then?

The most impor­tant dif­fer­ence is the Access Cab 6M has man­u­al trans­mis­sion while the Access Cab 6A has auto­mat­ic trans­mis­sion, Hence the 6A price is slight­ly more than the 6M ( The Access Cab 6A aver­age price is 44,060 while the 6M is 42,550 Cana­di­an dollars ). The out­side dimen­sions are exact­ly the same. There are triv­ial dif­fer­ences that we will enu­mer­ate. Basi­cal­ly, the Access Cab 6A has slight­ly more options than the Access Cab 6M.

The 6A Style Has These Extra Features :

• Smart Key w/Push But­ton Start
• Short Range Key Fob Remote Start (requires active DCM)
• Tire Pres­sure Mon­i­tor­ing Sys­tem with Auto Location
• Pre­mi­um Audio with Remote – includes Embed­ded Nav­i­ga­tion, Des­ti­na­tion Assist (1‑year tri­al), Remote Con­nect (1‑year tri­al), Safe­ty Con­nect (1‑year tri­al), Ser­vice Con­nect (up to 8‑year trial) 

 (  The 6M does not have an audio remote with only: Pre­mi­um Audio – includes Embed­ded    Nav­i­ga­tion, Des­ti­na­tion Assist (1‑year tri­al), Safe­ty Con­nect (1‑year trial) )

• Auto­mat­ic Lim­it­ed-Slip Dif­fer­en­tial (Auto LSD)
• Colour-Keyed Fend­er Flares
• Crawl Con­trol + Mul­ti-Ter­rain Select.

- Double cab

The Dou­ble Cab options with stan­dard Car­go bed length ( 60.5 inch­es / 5 foot ) 4x4 Dou­ble Cab 6M SB 4x4 Dou­ble Cab 6A SB 4X4 Dou­ble Cab 6A SB LTD Nightshade ( The above 3 styles have SB as you can see, this stands for Stan­dard Bed or Short Bed, which is dif­fer­ent from the Dou­ble Cab 6A that we already discussed. ). One of these will be your choice if you pre­fer the 5 seater cab with a stan­dard car­go bed length ( 5 feet). In return for choos­ing a short­er bed ( as opposed to the Dou­ble Cab 6A ), you have a few fea­tures not includ­ed in the 6A. So, it is time to decide which of these 3 Dou­ble Cab you will choose. The 4X4 Dou­ble Cab 6A SB LTD Night­shade is the top of these 3 and the most expen­sive one. It has no pack­ages as opposed to the oth­er two. Yet, it almost has all the options you might need. It also has all the extra options which you might/might not be able to add to the oth­er 2 ( the Dou­ble Cab 6M SB and 6A SB ), yet at no extra charge like the 7 speak­ers, 8‑inch screen, 18” Black Alloy Wheels ( only in this mod­el ), Led fog lambs etc It only comes with Auto­mat­ic trans­mis­sion. Basi­cal­ly, if you are look­ing for the top of a dou­ble cab ( except with a reg­u­lar car­go bed ) while pay­ing a bit more, that’s your go-to model. If you are hap­py with the 5 seater and stan­dard bed while look­ing to spend less mon­ey or con­trol the added fea­tures, then you should choose between 4x4 Dou­ble Cab 6M SB  or 4x4 Dou­ble Cab 6A SB. 4x4 Dou­ble Cab 6M SB  comes with a man­u­al trans­mis­sion while 4x4 Dou­ble Cab 6A SB comes with auto­mat­ic transmission. You can basi­cal­ly decide at this point with­out look­ing further.

- Packages

After you decide which body style you like, then you have to think about the pack­ages ( except for the Dou­ble Cab 6A SB LTD Night­shade which does not have pack­ages options ). I find this step a bit con­fus­ing as there are lots of extras to be added ( if you like to get to the top ). Every­one is dif­fer­ent regard­ing the added fea­tures in the truck. My advice is to dis­cuss this with the deal­er and even bet­ter if you check the fea­ture in-per­son to decide if you like it or not. The Access cab does not come with pack­ages options.

Double Cab Packages

Under each of them, there are dif­fer­ent pack­ages with extra $ for what­ev­er you added.

For example:

The Dou­ble Cab 6M SB comes with two pack­ages to choose from : TRD Sport Pre­mi­um or TRD Pro, (the lat­er is almost 10,000 Cana­di­an dol­lars more.) The Dou­ble Cab 6A SB comes with four dif­fer­ent packages: 1- With TRD Off-Road 2- With Trail 3- With TRD Off-Road Premium 4- With TRD Pro The price increas­es as you move up from 1 to 4 with an approx­i­mate total increase of 15,000 from the basic to the top package The Dou­ble Cab 6A has four packages: 1- With the stan­dard package 2- With SR5 3- With TRD Sport 4- With TRD Sport Premium The lat­est is around 7,000 Cana­di­an dol­lars more than the stan­dard pack­age, while the oth­er 2 lies in between. The Dou­ble Cab 6A SB LTD Night­shade has no pack­ages options as we men­tioned since it has all the extra fea­tures already includ­ed which is also reflect­ed in its high­er price.

Pros:

Taco­ma 2022 main­tained the dura­bil­i­ty it had for years. It is one of the best mid-size trucks with an excel­lent reputation. Taco­ma can eas­i­ly do over 200,000 miles with no has­sles and main­tain its resale val­ue after 10 years.

Cons:

Taco­ma 2022 ( and in gen­er­al Taco­ma ver­sions ) is a bit small inte­ri­or­ly. There is a huge con­tro­ver­sy regard­ing the reviews/ feed­back for its inte­ri­or fea­tures, espe­cial­ly the size. For sure, the sec­ond row is not as spa­cious as a full-size truck regard­less of the cab style. It can be quite com­fort­able for kids or teenagers, but not for aver­age-size adults. The access cab is designed to have 2 pas­sen­gers while the dou­ble cab could seat 3 passengers. Regard­less of the num­bers men­tioned, the back seat is still small to have adults sit com­fort­ably. If the back pas­sen­gers are kids, there are no issues.

In Summary

Toy­ota Taco­ma 2022 main­tained the sol­id fea­tures, var­i­ous options to choose from and the high­ly com­pet­i­tive price in the market.