Now I know that there will be some out there who will say "But I can buy a full size pickup for that kind of money". True, you can, but do you really need a full size pickup, and perhaps even more relevant today, do you want to burn the extra fuel that a full size pickup goes through?

As you no doubt now realize, my tester was a pretty basic model, no Power Windows, no Power Seats, and no Power Door Locks. In fact Power Steering, A/C and the stereo system were about all that you could term luxurious. However, Toyota always gives you what you need, and so there are a host of safety features included, a modern up-to-date braking system featuring ABS, EBD, and BA, and the cloth seats are very comfortable even over a long journey.

The Toyota Tacoma range comes in a lot of configurations, including a 4x4 version. My tester was the 4x2 Access Cab model, which allows for a certain amount of space behind the front seats, with access to this space through a half door on each side of the vehicle. You will notice that I refrained from describing this as rear passenger seating, although there are actually seats situated there. There is a good reason for this. You see, these rear seat pads, as I call them, should probably be deemed more temporary seating. If you needed to ferry four burly builders to the jobsite in one, I think that you might end up with a few disgruntled employees on your hands, for certain, the ones sitting in the back anyway. However, if we were talking of transporting a couple of young children short distances in them, then I think that it would be fair to say that the seats would suffice.

That's really the key point when purchasing a truck. You need to weigh up exactly what your requirements are beforehand, although shouldn't that be true of any purchase?

I look at it this way...If I wanted a reliable workhorse that was going to get myself and my tools to the jobsite, the Tacoma Access Cab would do me just fine. If I had to squeeze in a few workmates for a short trip down to the local Tim Horton's, I could do that. It could even manage a small trailer load on the odd occasion that I needed it, which to be honest, wouldn't be that often seeing as most materials are now delivered directly to the jobsite, and the gas I saved could be put to better use in the Mustang convertible, or whatever, that I chose to drive on the weekends.

You see, we have a problem here in North America with people believing that a 4 cylinder vehicle has to be gutless. I can tell you, the 2.7L engine in the Tacoma is far from that. In fact, it performs very well indeed. Now obviously it's not going to break any land speed records, but how many of you try to do that on the way to work (though I have noticed that some try it on the way home!).


Conclusion

Seriously, the Tacoma 4x2 is capable of doing just about any job required of it. Now I'm not going to say that it will ever completely replace the full sized pickup truck, but if you've been noticing that a larger and larger chunk of your pay check is now being spent at the local gas bar instead of the other type of bar, then I'd suggest you go to a Toyota dealer and check one of these out.

Toyota reliability, acceptable fuel economy; your customers will view you as being smart with the money they're giving you. Hence, you'll look the better man for the job, and perhaps best of all, in the next year or two when all your mates can't give their V8 pickups away because of the high running costs, you'll have a lineup of guys wanting to buy your used Tacoma.