See the truck in the image above? Its rear doors aren’t actually doors. That’s right, the Access Cab Toyota Tacoma, which followed the same formula of extended cabs that have existed for decades — that formula being that the front doors open normally, and the shortened rear doors hinge from the rear like suicide doors — is dead. And replacing it is a lookalike with not only no rear doors, but also no rear seats. It’s bizarre, but I spoke with the Tacoma’s Chief Engineer Sheldon Brown, and he explained his company’s rationale.
In the automotive world, there are two types of engineers who show up to media days: Those who have strict “messaging” guidelines from which they refuse to deviate, and those far too nerdy to stick to those guidelines. I recall being at the Ford Mustang Mach-E’s launch event, and when I asked basic questions like the battery cell geometry, Ford engineers literally told me “sorry, that’s not part of our messaging.” Weird stuff. Meanwhile, at the Porsche Taycan’s technical showcase in Atlanta, and the VW MEB electric platform’s in Germany, engineers were willing to tell me the real story, or at least what felt like the real story.
And the real story means compromise. That’s what engineering is. Anytime an engineer tells you that every decision improved the product, you know they’re bullshitting you. The true development story behind a vehicle involves sacrificing some things to make improvements to other things. So yes, that means you have to admit you sacrificed some things, which can be a challenge for some automakers. But again, that’s literally how engineering works.
That’s what I like about VW and Porsche engineers; they’re often nerds who will just tell you “Yeah, we had to sacrifice X in order to improve Y.” That’s also why I’m a fan of Sheldon Brown from Toyota (and his predecessor, Mike Sweers); while, like all engineers at media events, I’m sure he had some messaging guidelines, and of course he had to slant most things in a positive way (I’m not convinced that bolts are the right fastener for an air dam that’s meant to be easily removed), he comes off as a nerd who’s just gonna tell you how the truck was engineered, compromises and all.
That hideous air dam at the front of the truck? Did he pretend that it looked good? Hell no, he admitted that he wasn’t a fan. I know some automakers who would have a fit if one of its team members said that on the record. I respect it. When I asked about why the new truck’s leaf springs are so low to the ground, he readily admitted that the chassis had been built with coil springs in mind, and that they had to adapt it to make the leaf springs work — leaf springs that were primarily offered as a low-cost option for consumers. There was no pretending that it was perfect: It was a compromise to make two different suspensions work with he same frame. When I asked about why the manual transmission’s redline was so low, he told me there were some noise and vibration issues, and lowering the redline was basically the easiest way to fix them.
It was the same thing with this new XtraCab truck. It’s there to be cheap, and the rear doors don’t open in order to save Toyota (and the customer, theoretically) money, as it takes quite a few resources to develop rear-hinged doors that meet American safety requirements.
“We noticed that as the market continued to grow, all the expansion was happening in the double cab…we took a specific look at our customers who were still buying the access cab, and most of them were buying them with rear seat delete — more than 50 percent,” Brown told me. “So we recognized that, hmm, our customers aren’t necessarily hauling people, they’re hauling goods and tools and things they need in their everyday life.”
So, in order to still offer a cheap Tacoma, the team brought back leaf springs, and began looking at building a regular cab long-bed (well, 6-foot bed) truck, but decided to add a bit more storage.
“Candidly as we see regulations increase … side impact becomes increasingly difficult to meet … so we did look at the rear hinge door. Of course we lose all the structure of the B-Pillar … which means we need to really truly reinforce the upper structure of the roof and the rocker panel, which meant that we were going to have to carry the structure across all of our frames in terms of not just the access cab but our double-cabs as well,” he told me, saying there are some common structural bits across all Tacomas, and forcing that added weight into the higher-volume Double-Cab didn’t make a ton of sense to his team. (Note: I think he probably meant “body” and not “frames,” there).
He said getting an Access cab to pass side-impact safety tests meant beefing up doors, hinges, and latches. “As a result of that we were adding a lot of cost and a lot of mass to the overall cabin,” he told me. “So we thought OK, let’s go back to a [regular] cab and maybe we can offer that as a value proposition.” Toyota refers to a regular cab as a “B-Cab.”
Instead, they came up with what you see here — a vehicle that looks a lot like the old Access Cab.
“Our development theme was B-Max. Basically think of it like a B-cab [regular cab] … but basically extend this area and utilize it for … functional storage.” So that’s what Toyota has built; if you think of it as an access cab, you will be sorely disappointed. The rear “doors” don’t open, and there are no seats. But if you think of it as a regular cab, you’ll either A. Be delighted by the additional storage or B. Hate the fact that you lose the regular cab look and you still don’t get rear seats.
In any case, that’s what Toyota has done, here — basically offered an extended regular cab. And Brown readily admits that there are compromises. “As you can see … that rear area … becomes increasingly less efficient in terms of getting people in and out,” hence why the team didn’t bother with rear seats. Even in terms of getting stuff into and out of the rear area, not having doors is a bummer, and Brown told me straight up: “We’re giving up some functionality when you don’t have the door.”
Still, he showed me how one would get larger things in the back — basically, you just fold the front seats forward like you would on a coupe:
In the rear, there are actually some clever storage areas. In fact, that’s the one thing about this “B-Max” or “XtraCab” that I quite like: cubbies. Lots of them. There’s a big one at the very rear of the cab — one that I call the “shotgun storage bin.” Check it out:
See the silver handle at the top? It stretches all the way across the truck, and is similar to a mechanic’s tool-box drawer handle, even featuring a lock:
Check out the room inside, including a pegboard so you can create your own custom rack:
Also back there on the floor are two bins:
The one on the driver’s side is a rather large and could easily fit a small backpack or laptop:
The passenger’s side bin has a car jack in it, but still has a bit of room for some stuff:
Off to the left of that bin is a little storage cubby at the base of the gigantic B-pillar-that-looks-like-a-door:
There’s a similar bin on the other side:
Up front, the passenger’s seat folds completely flat, and features rather strong tie-downs. I was surprised by how little slop there is once the seatback is folded down — it is a firm place to tie things down:
In addition, there are all the other storage bins found in every new Taco. There’s the one below the passenger’s side airbag, just above the glovebox:
There are the cubbies on the center tunnel, including the deep slot to the right of the shifter, the phone-holder ahead of the shifter, and the cupholder behind the shifter:
There’s another cupholder behind the center console, whose cubby under the armrest isn’t particularly large or deep:
There’s this little cube-shaped hole to the right of the steering column for your … caramels, I guess:
And there are the door pockets:
I also noted this storage … thing on the driver’s side, though I can’t remember what it’s for:
“Most of our competitors have gotten rid of this altogether,” Brown told me in reference to a cab configuration that isn’t a crew cab. And he’s right. The new Chevrolet Colorado is only offered with a Crew Cab, short box. The new Ford Ranger? Only offered with a Crew cab. Same thing with the Jeep Gladiator.
Of course, there is still the Nissan Frontier holding it down for extended-cab (or “King Cab”) lovers. There’s no doubt Toyota could have just plunked down the cash and figured the rear door thing out, and on some level, this does seem lazy. But like Sheldon Brown admits, it was a cost thing. With so few folks buying extended cabs, and even fewer using the rear for seating, his team decided it made sense to cheapen the truck as much as possible. It still ain’t cheap at $31,500 plus destination, but that’s about what trucks are going for these days, and the Taco is the one with the best reputation. People will buy it regardless.
Most extended cab utes in Oz are pretty much just like this. And they’ve never had seats back there. I think the current Nissan has a second door and I know one other make (that isn’t Toyota) does theirs like that too. But everyone else….nope.
I bet you can get more of them with a manual in Oz though
And diesels… one of my favourite spec utes is a single cab 4wd manual 3.2l 5 cylinder Ranger
Actually…no. Not even one.
That’s horribly depressing.
I’ve ridden in the rear seats of a lot of ‘space cab’ or ‘freestyle cab’ utes, most with an opening rear door… but they were all older than 2015… genuine ‘utes’ ie. Falcons, Commodores, Valiants etc haven’t had seats there in my memory
If I didn’t have kids I’d be the target market for this truck. The lack of a rear door means I couldn’t easily (or safely for that matter) get my heavy toolbox in and out, and my aging lab would likely have trouble getting back there. Seems like the lack of a third door really kills the practicality of an otherwise very practical truck, although I do agree it’s a reasonable compromise vs a true regular cab. That back panel storage is pretty nice.
I think the leaf springs were kept on the base models purely to push anyone who wants 4×4 up to a TRD, simply because the low hanging packs could easily get snagged. That’s a bold move when ford offers the good stuff on XL models and gladiators are advertised in the low $30s.
I like the modern xtra-cab and I think it’d be fun to retrofit some junkyard s10 or ranger jump seats in there for your unfortunate friends. if I wasn’t a college kid paying for that, I’d love to buy a base model manual one of these to play with. a sliding rear window, or opening side window of some sort would have been nice though.
Modern xtra-cab? Are you implying a lack of newer model extended cab pickups? Chevy and Dodge sell extended cab, and Ford has them on 3 different models of pickup. You don’t need to make it yourself.
Back in the day, The “Xtra-Cab” was Toyota marketing speak for their extended cab, no rear seat Pickup.
Think Marty McFly’s truck.
https://images.app.goo.gl/wV6dkD5nB7rUB39R7
Yeah but that’s also already a thing, and it was referenced in the article. Over 50% of customers got the Access Cab with the rear seat delete apparently.
If they’re smart they’ll sell TRD-branded fitted dog beds and 12v chest fridges. If the packaging space wasn’t reserved for hybrid componentry, a variation on Rivian’s gear tunnel seems like it would be more useful than the cab-width vertical bin.
It’s an updated version of the 1984 Toyota Xtra-Cab I bought back then. It helped to have some dry, locked storage and a little more room to put the seat back. It was a basic 2WD, manual trans truck that even went in New England winters (with snow tires and 80 pounds of oak logs over the axle.)
It’s a shame you can’t get the 2 door with a Manual anymore.
I like those steelies on the base Tacoma! 😀 It doesn’t even look half bad in white.
Still, $32K seems steep for a stripper 4-cylinder manual work trucklet, even in this day and age, and even w/Toyota’s rep for reliability. I suppose that rather steep price leaves room for the rumored Stout that Toyota is supposed to bring here to slot in under the Tacoma.
Though I appreciate the bins/tie-downs/etc… in the back, having to tilt the seats to access that storage seems considerably less than ideal.
Goes w/o saying that a single cab/long bed would have been my preference, but apparently almost no truck mfgrs offer that combo anymore due to lack of consumer interest. 🙁
You can’t get the 2 door with a manual… At least that’s what the pricing sheet says.
That’d be something for me to be sad about if I were actually in the market for a $32K trucklet. I’m sure Toyota will sell zillions of new Tacomas, with the vast majority being four-door models. Just guessing, the average transaction price will probably be well into the mid-$40K range, or maybe even a bit higher. Even if that’s maybe $20K less than full-size trucks go for, it’s still a LOT of car payments.
IMHO the new Tacoma and even the previous gen Tacoma isn’t small enough to be a trucklet but to each their own.
No, you’re right of course in that ‘small’ trucks today (Frontier, Tacoma, Maverick) are really kind of huge. I just used the diminutive ‘trucklet’ to differentiate this group from full-size TRUCKS I see everywhere cosplaying as supertankers. 😉
Fair enough. I’ve just upsized everything one size. Unibody pickups like the Maverick and Santa Cruz are Midsized Unibody Pickups, Pickup Trucks like the Ranger, Tacoma, etc. are Full Size, and Pickup Trucks like the F-150, Silverado, Tundra, etc. are Plus Size.
Hmm. I guess Toyota’s reasoning makes sense but is there enough of a market for standard/extended cab to actually justify this?
I was briefly looking at buying a midsize truck lately and concluded that an extended cab with the longer bed is more useful for me than a full 4-door crew cab, but only when the rear seat area was accessible via a door. I’d likely never put a human back there, but loading tools, pets, etc. is still much easier with a door. Back when I owned an extended cab 2000 F-150 I loaded the back seat up with tools and parts several times to support my Lemons car, and that would be a PITA without doors. So this would absolutely be a dealbreaker for me.
As you said, I think the only people who would like this are those who were planning to buy a standard cab, but you lose the longer bed and the take rate for those has got to be in single digits.
The Nissan Frontier is a better looking truck IMO anyways, so that’s the truck for you. They’re the only game in town now for a proper extended cab midsize.
I imagine the buyer for this is a fleet manager
I agree on the no door setup, dealbreaker for me as well. Even with that fold down seat, I can’t imagine how much of a pain it would be loading / unloading anything of a decent size. Lots of neat storage back there, though.
I had to order the extended cab / long bed for my Colorado as it was pretty much impossible to find one on the lot. Removed the seat backs and replaced with blanking plates, still need to take the seats out and build a platform. But it’s the perfect size to stuff fishing / camping / other gear that I want to keep more secure while traveling.
So those tiedowns will hold the zipties I use to secure my passengers ? err cargo ?
I’m a fan of the 3’ Panduit Duct straps: 75lb tensile strength, so you can use them as emergency tire ‘chains’. But they are about 1/2” wide, so you might need to use several regular zip ties to secure them to those little cleat-like things 🙂
I would like the extended cab jus to recline the seats more. Upright seats kill my back. Terrible access for the cargo area, though, without at least a bed pass through or (large) opening rear window. On my ’86, the rear seat folds down, so I can slide stuff in from the trunk, making that car far more practical than I imagined it would be. Having to load awkward things through the front can be far more of a PITA, especially if it were something that needed to be readily accessed and sorted through, like a tool box (this assumes the tool box stays inside, though it would still be a PITA to get in there the first time).
I easily see the savings from deleting the doors, but are leaf springs really that much cheaper when they’re also making them with coils, particularly if—as it seems to me—the truck is designed with a single setup to accommodate either spring? Why not make them all coils and raise the price a few hundred if necessary? It seems people have already had no issue overpaying for these for years now (though resale mitigates that). Or maybe I’m way off and it would be a 4-figure upgrade or it’s not so much the extra cost as having to pass some marketing-driven base price threshold they want to meet (that nobody will ever find one for).
I never understood what those small vertically open cubby holes are supposed to hold. I’ve had some other cars with them and they were too small for anything common to fit tightly into and anything loose would readily fly out.
Same here, when I bought my Taco years ago I went with the extended cab simply because I couldn’t stand how upright and unreclinable the bench seat in the regular cab was. I owned that truck 10 years and don’t think I had passengers in the back more than 3 or 4 times, for the most part it was just storage behind the “reclined” seats.
If I bought another Taco today it’d be this extended cab too.
I’m glad the weed cubbies of late 80s Japanese cars have made a comeback.
I was actually stoked to see this. Even if you never put passengers in the back, once you’ve had an extended cab it’s very hard to go back to an old-fashioned single cab. My dad (general contractor) tried this about 20 years ago when he got a 2003 F250 regular cab to replace his ’90 F250 extended cab… Lasted about half a year before he went back to the extended cab, he had just gotten used to being able to fill the bed with stuff and keep high-value things and paperwork in the cab. I think this will be popular with tradespeople, good compromise for a work truck.
Cant wait for some drunk guy yanking on it after bar close thinking it will open like his last truck.
I see this as a pretty lazy compromise. I prefer it to not offering an extended cab at all, but we’ve swung all the way back to 1995 here.
I had a 1995 T100 and envied all the extended cab trucks with the doorlets. Getting stuff out of the back was a pain in the ass.
Yep. My dad had a ’95 Chevy K-1500 extended cab that I learned to drive in. In ’96 Chevy came out with the 3rd door. I very much envied those trucks.
The full-length door for the vertical storage seems awkward to open. I think splitting it in two would make it easier to handle.
Looks like a decent sized dog could lay back there. . .
If only the rear windows opened…
If Toyota made a damn 2 door with a manual I’d probably pull the passenger seat so I could put dog beds there for my dogs and so I’d have easier access to the rear storage.
Toyota:
We have fake doors like you wouldn’t believe!
What are you worried about?
Come get fake doors!
Call us up and order some fake doors today!
Don’t even hesitate, don’t even worry and don’t even give it a second thought!
Real Fake Doors!
Still here, Still selling fake doors.
Anytime an engineer tells you that every decision improved the product, you know they’re bullshitting you.
Christian Von Koenigsegg would like a word.
p.s.
Still confused if I’m just stupid or you can’t quote on mobile.
Pretty sure the comment text editor is stripped down for mobile. It’s not just you.
Yeah, on mobile you can’t do much besides write simple comments.
If you can’t see the compromises in the product, look at the price.
A lot of problems go away if you throw more money at them. Costing more is a compromise.
I’m just glad the option still exists. Kudos to Toyota for that at least.
I have 3 questions:
Why is Toyota only offering the manual for 4 door models?
Why are the rear windows fixed in place?
Why not at least offer a “panel van” version with steel “rear windows” you’re going to have fixed rear windows in the first place? I’d rather have something that’s harder to break into if the rear windows don’t even open.
If there’s still other windows, what’s the point (in regards to your break in comment)?
it’s harder to reach into the space behind the rear seats from the door windows, rear window (without getting in the bed) or the windshield.
Once they break the window, they unlock the truck and get in.
There’s a possibility that there is no broken glass detection for the little windows, on some Toyota models it’s still an optional upgrade.
As said below in my reply to BolonaBurrito a simple quick smash and grab with no car alarm going off would be better for a thief than the same smash and grab with a car alarm going off.
You think criminals don’t understand how doors work? Bust the door window, open the door.
When was the last time something was stolen from a pick-up truck and they only busted the window on the little suicide door, didn’t open any actual doors, or bust any other window?
If a thief can bust a little window to “smash and grab” without setting off a car alarm Why not do that? There’s a possibility that there is no broken glass detection for the little windows, on some Toyota models it’s still an optional upgrade.
Couldn’t they have installed a flip up window in the back of the cab for additional access without compromising integrity or adding much cost? Or even a sliding window?
Probably helps a ton with NVH as well. My first car was a xtra cab Ranger with the suicide doors and I remember them being pretty rattily and loud on the highway.
Don’t know what was wrong with your ranger, I am used to those suicide doors closing very tightly and getting extra clamped down by the front door.
I’ve owned a Tacoma Access cab before. It had the rear swinging doors, and the pretend rear seats. Thanks, I hated it. It was the most useless at all of those things. No one could actually sit back there in any kind of comfort, but it was too “nice” of an area to just absolutely turn into cargo rough-and-tumble. I’m okay with Toyota basically owning up to the useless seating, but I’m not sure this completely lands as a cargo area that can be easily accessed. I’d rather see the cab get shorter, and add another foot on the bed.
I’m also fairly sure those jump seats are getting harder and harder to get through crash standards.
I think this could have been better with a third door. Maybe hatch access from the bed? Some sort of additional access would be nice. Or, like you said, give me a longer bed or shorter overall length.
Any chance someone figures out a way to make some junkyard Ranger sideways jump seats work in there? Not company endorsed, of course
If there’s a will there’s a way. By will of course I mean lag screws, and the way is not giving a fuck about your expensive truck.
My same thought, and I would do it too if I could afford one of these.
I did a 3 1/2 hour drive in one of those jump seats including a bunch of canyon driving…never again
It seems like that back area was super well thought out, that pegboard is a really cool addition.
That morse code on the round cubby cover says “ACCESSORY READY”. Anyone have any idea what accessories could go in there?
Skoal tins.
I’m wondering if its on both sides? If it were a Jeep I’d say either mounts for mirrors when the door is off, or a gopro. Maybe Toyota thinks someone is gonna pull the doors off their Tacoma.
Not a lot of people know this, but you can keep your weed in there.
Be careful, though. It’s not sealed and in a location that practically guarantees a dog is going to find it immediately.
Not that anyone here would have weed in an area where it is not legal.
Solid reference
Accessories?
Shoot, you’re right. It’s definitely for jewelry. It’s the accessories that would fit. We were wrong to try to shoehorn “truck” ahead of the phrase “accessory ready.”
Propane and propane accessoriz.
It’s for your electronic morse translator.
And there is a QR code on the back of the lid. David could have read that and told us, but he seems like the kind of guy still rocking a flip phone. ????