Yahoo Autos The New Toyota Tacoma TRD Pro’s Interior Is for the Adrenaline Junkie
After eight years of the third-generation Tacoma, Toyota's finally delivered a new, fresh-feeling truck that promises to satisfy everything its buyers ask of it and more. For the top-of-the-line TRD Pro model, “and more” is the name of the game. That stretches through the whole truck—from its off-road capabilities to its decked-out and slightly over-the-top interior.
The TRD Pro's cabin is packed with reminders—by way of flashy, gritty design quirks—of the truck's desire to play in the dirt and mud. This makes sense, considering its explicit focus on peak off-road performance. But, it's a lot.
Tactile switches and knobs allow for elegant and easy control of essential functions, while the massive infotainment and instrument displays include specialized off-road tools and visualizations. There’s occasional conflict between on- and off-road features—if you’re planning to navigate through a tight trail, make sure you take the time before you set out to dig through the infotainment menus to turn off the buzzer noise on the intuitive parking assist sensors, which create an irritating beeping soundtrack that can undermine whatever flow state you’re trying to get into on the trails. Once that's done, you can use the portable JBL speaker set into the dash to augment that flow state or provide the soundtrack for the post-drive hangout by popping it out of the dash and taking it on the go. That all works well.
When you start paying attention to the smaller design details, things get a little over-the-top. There's the bold red accents that highlight the updated gearshift and steering wheel, and if you want to go all out, you can opt for the Cockpit Red interior option which brings that bright red accent to the seats, door panel, and glove box. Then, the cabin’s smooth leather and plastic base is accentuated with textures, from the silver HVAC buttons’ pebbled surface to the gear-like grips on the knobs to the angular tire-tread pattern on the rubber padding on the console and door handles to the perforated leather on seats and steering wheel—you get the point. It's a bit of a sensory overload. According to the famed German industrial designer Dieter Rams, "Good design is as little design as possible." The TRD Pro has instead added design to every available square inch of leather, plastic, and rubber. The care that’s been taken on the interior is transparent, but far from elegant.
However, Rams also conceded that good design is aesthetic and innovative. This is where the seats come in. Equipped with exposed shock absorbers visible at the back of the seats, the TRD Pro's IsoDynamic Sport Seats look like something you might find in a luxury monster truck and are intended to absorb the turbulence of off-road exploring. They include a Schrader valve to pressurize the shocks for off-road use, but the uninflated seats are still perfectly comfortable for on-road use. They’re nicely padded with supportive cushioning that helps to limit jostling off-road if you’ve forgotten to pressurize the system, as we may have done for several runs in our comparison test.
Of course, one key drawback to these seats is their encroachment into the already-limited backseat space. This is perhaps the only consumer complaint from the last generation that Toyota seemingly hasn’t attempted to address in the new generation. There’s no way you’re (comfortably) fitting friends and family behind the oversized, fancy seats; you’ll maybe be able to squeeze a toolbox or duffel. On the bright side, the lack of rear passenger space means there’s less of a chance of passengers kicking mud, sand, and god knows what else over the carbon-appearing material and black plastic of the IsoDynamic system.
Though they’re designed for support and comfort, they retain the adrenaline-junkie full-body feedback when you’re crawling over rocks or rocking over the dunes. After all, no one wants to feel like they’re on their couch while their truck is rattling over rough terrain; you want to feel the connection with the rig. These seats give you that perfect balance between luxe comfort upgrades and the grit and capability of the Tacoma bloodline. They make a strong statement when you're looking into the cabin, but once you're on (or off) the road, you're not thinking about those bright red shocks and the countless development and marketing meetings that were required to get them into the car. You're just enjoying the drive, pleasantly comfortable and pleasantly unaware of the effort going into that result.
The interior upgrades to the new model are an improvement in ease of use and performance over not just the last Tacoma, but over the rest of the market, for the most part. In our comparison test, we were able to get more comfort and utility out of the Toyota's interior over the Ford Ranger Raptor and the Chevrolet Colorado ZR2 Bison, aside from the lackluster rear seat space. That said, its cabin is far from the most mature of the bunch. The ZR2 takes that win.
Nothing in the new TRD Pro is poorly designed—contrasted with the cheap and dated feel and cluttered layout of the last-gen Tacoma—but some elements are a bit over-designed, adding extra unnecessary noise to a great interior cabin that's heads above anything else on the market.
To drag Rams' design principles back: good design is unobtrusive. Good design can be flashy and glitzy, but in a truck as impressive as the TRD Pro, the only time you should be giving serious attention to anything inside the cab besides the controls is when you're fiddling with the off-road gizmos. Otherwise, the trail ahead will always be more exciting.
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