How The Toyota Tacoma Grew From Japanese Oddity To All American

It’s likely that in every country on Earth there’s a Toyota truck working brutally hard at this very moment.

While its known for cars, Toyota started building trucks just three months after it launched into carbuilding. And most Toyota trucks have been beasts of burden; wheelbarrows with four wheels and four-cylinder engines. They’ve had to endure abusive lives working in agriculture, commerce and every grimy service industry there is. Atop that, there are the Toyota trucks that have been swept up by militias, had .50 caliber machine guns bolted in their beds, and sent off to war. 

Around the world, Toyota trucks have earned a mighty reputation for ruggedness. Beyond those beastly burdens, Toyota’s compact trucks – the Tacoma and all its ancestors – have become a rite of passage here in America. They’re the trucks of youth and play and off-road style. A Toyota small truck is what Marty McFly came Back to the Future to find in his garage. Toyota compact pickups are often the first taste of truck ownership Americans get. And then they never, ever buy a car.

Here’s how those trucks grew from necessities to mainstays.

1935 G1

There was nothing glamorous about Toyota’s first truck, the 1935 G1 – even if it wasn’t ugly. It used the same 62-horsepower, 3.4-liter six-cylinder engine as the A1 But more importantly, the 379 that Toyoda produced were enough to get the company certified as a vehicle manufacturer under Japan’s Automotive Manufacturing Industries law. By the time it was replaced by the GA truck in 1936, Toyoda had changed the name of the company to Toyota.

1947 Toyopet Model SB

No country was in worse shape after World War II than Japan. And what Japan then needed was tools. So Toyota produced the 1947 Toyopet Model SB, a small pickup that started the line of trucks that leads directly to today’s Tacoma compact pickup. Powered by a 27-horsepower, 1.0-liter four, it was what Japan needed at the time. But not something that would have made much sense in the rest of the world.

1967 Toyota Stout

The first pickup Toyota sent to America was the relatively large 1964 Stout. That’s large by 1964 standards, but still smaller – much smaller – than the size of a 2015 Tacoma.

Styled with a meat cleaver and powered by an overwhelmed 85-horsepower, 1.9-liter four-cylinder engine, the Stout was an otherwise conventional rear-wheel drive pickup with the stark decoration of an agricultural implement. Sales were never huge for the Stout, but it was instantly recognized as carrying some of the Land Cruiser’s rugged construction.

For America, the Stout was just too primitive. And Toyota’s arch rival Nissan was more successful selling its more car-like, and smaller, pickup against it. Toyota would respond.

1969 Hilux

Toyota’s new 1969 HiLux wasn’t exotic in any way, but it was smaller than the Stout, significantly more refined and much more comfortable. Available only in standard cab form with a short cargo box, the HiLux was compact enough that the Stout’s 1.9-liter four was adequate for it to keep up in traffic.

Another conventional design, the first HiLux used an independent, coil sprung A-arm front suspension and a solid rear axle hung on leaf springs. The HiLux’s advantage, however, lay with its refinement. The four-speed manual transmission shifted easily, the steering was light, and the interior was comfortable and logically arranged. It was a truck for people who weren’t truck drivers.

1974 Toyota pickup

It only got better over its four-year run. For 1970 it got a new 97-horsepower, 1.8-liter overhead cam engine. The HiLux was restyled for ’72 and the engine grew to 2.0-liters and 108-horsepower. And then in ’73 a new “Long Bed” was added to the line featuring a 7½-foot cargo bed. 

1975 Toyota HiLux

Alongside the competitive pressures of the increasingly crowded small truck market, new emissions regulations were shrinking the output of all new truck and car engines in the mid 1970s. So when the second HiLux appeared for 1975 it was larger, more car-like, much more comfortable and powered by Toyota’s 2.2-liter, 90-horsepower “20R” engine. Throw in the easygoing manners that came with the new five-speed manual transmission and suddenly the HiLux wasn’t just a good work truck, but a decent machine for commuting too.

The other big change for 1976 was that the HiLux name disappeared from the truck in America. Now it was just, well, Toyota’s truck.

1979 Toyota

Once again the Toyota truck was new for 1979. And there was a new sport truck version called the SR5. And, even better, for the first time the truck was now available with four-wheel drive.

Tape stripes and bucket seats made the SR5 seem sportier, but the true substance lay with the suspension revisions that made the Toyota truck nearly handle well. The SR5 was such an immediate hit, that many buyers began referring to their trucks as SR5s. But with the 20R engine still the only powerplant, the SR5 sure wasn’t fast.

1982 Toyota SR5 4x4 (Photo: Jim Grey via Flickr)

Yet it’s the 4x4 that was the real star. With a solid front axle, tall ride height, and oversize tires, it was a sensation. It was the 4x4 young America had always wanted. The gas engine grew to 2.4-liters for 1981 and for the first time a diesel was optional. Displacing 2.2-liters the diesel was available only as an SR5 Long Bed and with just 62-horsepower on tap it was slow, slow, slow.

Boosted by the SR5 and 4x4, this generation of Toyota trucks sold exceedingly well in America.

1984 Toyota SR5 Longbed

With the introduction of the 1984 Toyota truck came an extended cab option called, cleverly, XtraCab. But except for that slight space behind the seats, and the (again) more car-like interior, the mechanical substance of the truck carried over from before.

Some extra power came in 1985 with fuel injection added to the 2.4-liter four, and turbocharged versions of the gasoline and diesel engines were added to the options list. Available only with a four-speed automatic transmission in an XtraCab Long Bed 4z2, the 135-horsepower turbocharged gas engine was a rocket ship for its time. Zero to 60 in just over 10 seconds sounds modest now, but it was mind-boggling in 1985.

The Eighties diesel craze was winking out, so 1986 was the last year for Toyota’s diesel truck. And that same year an independent front suspension replaced the 4x4s solid front axle. Then the turbocharged engine was cut in favor of an optional 150-horsepower, 3.0-liter V6 for 1988.

1989 Toyota SR5

With the Toyota truck formula well set, the new truck introduced for 1989 was more rounded in appearance with a significantly more refined interior. But not much really changed mechanically.

In fact the biggest change actually occurred during the 1991 model year when production of the truck for North America was moved from Japan to the GM-Toyota joint venture NUMMI assembly plant in Fremont, California. Production of trucks sold in North America has stayed in North America ever since.

1995 Toyota Tacoma

Now that Toyota trucks sold in North America were built here, they could evolve to better meet the demands of the market. And that started with the 1995½ truck which now wore the name Tacoma — a big leap forward over previous Toyota compact trucks.

About the only significant chassis change with the arrival of the Tacoma was the replacement of the torsion bar front suspension with a new coil sprung system. That not only improved the ride on two-wheel drive models, it increased suspension travel on the 4x4s from 5.9 to 7.7 inches.

Mechanically however, the nearly indestructible 22R series four-cylinder engine was replaced by a new DOHC four that displaced 2.4-liters and made 142-horsepower in 4x2s and 2.7-liters and 150-horsepower in the 4x4s. Meanwhile the optional V6 was a new 3.4-liter, 24-valve engine that produced 190-horsepower.

The two big developments came later in this model’s run. The first was the introduction of the PreRunner XtraCab about halfway through the 1998 model year. Basically a 4x2 with the 4x4’s suspension and decoration, the PreRunner was a workaround for young buyers who wanted 4x4 looks but couldn’t handle 4x4 insurance rates. It was an instant hit.

2001 Toyota Tacoma

The second, however, was vastly more important. During 2001 Toyota added a Double Cab four-door model to that year’s restyled line-up. Crew cab trucks weren’t anything new for Toyota – it had long built them for the rest of the world – but this was a first for North America. Suddenly the Taco could be as accommodating as a small sedan or SUV. Families could use it for taking the kids to school, you didn’t have to leave several buddies behind when heading to the lake, and double dating was now permissible. Nissan and Dodge both beat Toyota to the four-door compact truck punch by a few months, but the Tacoma Double Cab was a massive hit anyhow.

By the time the first Tacoma generation left production after the 2004 model year there S-Runner built to handle on the street selling alongside the PreRunner, regular, XtraCab and Double Cab passenger cells, short beds and long beds and step side beds, and 4x2s and 4x4s with fours or V6s. The Tacoma was now a suite of trucks and dominating the compact truck market.

2005 Toyota Tacoma

By the time the second Tacoma was ready to enter production for 2005, Toyota’s truck strategy had changed. The “almost full-size” Tundra that had been introduced as a 2000 model was on its way out. And it was to be replaced by a much larger 2007 Tundra. So that left room for the Tacoma to grow larger and grow it did.

Wheelbases on the new 2005 Tacoma ranged from 109.4-inches up to a huge 140.9-inches for Double Cab Long Bed. And it was wider too, with the front and rear tracks swelling up four-inches greater than before. And this bigger Tacoma needed more power too. So the base four was now the 2.7-liter engine while the optional V6 grew to a full 4.0-liters and pumped out a full 245-horsepower. To call this beast a small truck is pushing the meaning of the word “small” to absurd extremes.

Once again three cabs were offered with the XtraCab now morphing into an Access Cab with rear-hinged doors that opened for rear seat entry. A six-speed manual transmission was available on some models, including the new X-Runner that replaced the S-Runner, while the automatic transmission now had five forward gears instead of four.

2010 Toyota Tacoma Crew Cab

Throughout its long 11-year production run, the mechanical essence of the second Tacoma wouldn’t change much. Sure, things like LED headlamps would be added to the menu and there were minor styling changes. And there would be special editions like TRD off-road packages and in 2008 and Ironman edition named after off-road racer Ivan “Ironman” Stewart. That’s almost as good as Marvel’s Ironman.

During the run of the second Tacoma many of its competitors dropped out of the market. Dodge stopped building the Dakota in 2011 and Ford killed its Ranger in 2012. And GM euthanized its lackluster Chevrolet Colorado and GMC Canyon trucks in 2012 too. Mazda, Isuzu, Suzuki and other pretenders had fallen away years earlier. However, Nissan’s Frontier has hung in there and Honda’s Ridgeline is sort of a truck.

2016 Toyota Tacoma

But times change. The reincarnated Colorado and Canyon GM introduced for 2015 have proven immensely popular because, well, they’re really good trucks. And they’ll get better with diesel power next year too.

So the new 2016 Tacoma that’s about to hit showrooms has some real competition. Given how much history it carries, it has to be a much better truck than before.