2024 Toyota Tacoma TRD Pro First Test: Toyota’s Top Tier Off-Road Ripper—Now With Added Malice

A few weeks back, we were given our first opportunity to drive the new hybrid-powered Tacomas. Being all-new, the overland-ready Trailhunter grade caught most of the headlines, but what of the big-daddy TRD Pro? The previous-generation Tacoma had grown longer in the tooth than your average African elephant, so we’re happy to report that the new TRD Pro is a significant—and significantly good— update.

Here’s what you need to know about the new Tacoma. It’s a Toyota, meaning it’ll almost certainly be dead reliable. It’s a Tacoma, so you know it’s a perfectly brilliant midsized truck, one capable of stowing, loading, and hauling just about anything you can throw at it. And finally, it’s a TRD Pro, so it’s also going to be spectacularly capable off-road. Here’s the only thing we really need to know: At $65,395, is the TRD Pro worth the cash?

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Looks Like a Truck….

It must be said that from the outside the TRD Pro looks excellent, despite the online comparisons to a certain peroxide-blonde mustachioed wrestler.

The TRD Pro picks up where lower-grade Tacomas leave off, handsomely finishing the job with the addition of Toyota’s Heritage-inspired grille and more aggressive sheetmetal, including a partially functional hood bulge and cutaway fenders, TRD-specific wheel designs shod with more aggressive tires, and appropriately visible underbody armor. This Tacoma (and pretty much all truck-based Toyotas at this point) sits on the automaker’s new TNGA-F truck platform. As far as the TRD Pro goes, there’s no customization in terms of layout or doors, and a short bed is your only option. That said, it’s a fantastic blend of practicality and off-road-ready performance, so on that front we wouldn’t change a thing.

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…. Drives Like a Sports Car

When it comes to performance, Toyota’s equipped the TRD Pro with its new iForce Max hybrid powertrain, which pairs Toyota’s 2.4-liter turbo four-cylinder engine with a 48-hp electric motor attached to the bellhousing of the truck’s eight-speed automatic transmission. Combined power output is 326 hp and 465 lb-ft torque. In addition, the TRD Pro features a two-speed transfer case and an electronically locking rear differential.

On the surface, the iForce Max–equipped TRD Pro sounds healthy for a pickup truck, and during our testing, the well-balanced and agile Toyota performed remarkably well.

Through the quarter mile, the TRD Pro shot across the line in 15.4 seconds at 87.7 mph, one-tenth faster than its baby brother, the Tacoma TRD Off Road, and two-tenths faster than its baby brother’s baby brother, the TRD Sport 4x4—though both siblings were travelling faster than TRD Pro when they crossed the line (91.2 mph and 91.1 mph, respectively, compared to the TRD Pro’s 87.7 mph).

Of course, the telling difference is that the TRD Pro is the only one with the added hybrid power, and it showed in the 0–60 run, which the TRD Pro dispatched in 7.1 seconds (for reference, the TRD Off-Road did it in 7.2 seconds, and the TRD Sport 4x4 took 7.4).

The TRD Pro’s added power also manifested itself nicely across our figure eight, a rapid acceleration, braking, and fixed-radius cornering test at the vehicle’s limit that the TRD Pro surprisingly completed with minimal fuss. Despite riding on off-road-rated 33-inch Goodyear Wrangler Rugged Terrain tires, the Tacoma scythed around the figure eight in 28.7 seconds at an average of 0.57 g. For context, the similarly off-road-focused Chevrolet Colorado ZR2 Bison took 28.9 seconds at a 0.56 g average.

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Twist and (Don’t) Shout

All that impressive on-road performance shouldn’t distract from the TRD Pro’s raison d’être, namely smashing around fire roads, super rugged trails, and just about any off-road surface you can find.

We’ve already mentioned the Rugged Terrain tires and underbody protection, including skidplates and rock rails. This being the TRD Pro, there's a lot of other special hardware in the running gear department, including 2.5-inch Fox Racing QS3 internal bypass shocks, which at the rear have remote reservoirs to help cool that hard-working pneumatic fluid. All four corners are adjustable, offering three levels of firmness depending on your type of adventure, though they’re only adjustable manually and require some level of underbody shuffling to find. Also manually adjustable is the TRD Pro’s electronically disconnecting front anti-roll bar, which allows for increased reach of the front axle when disconnected. It worked miracles during testing, helping to wrench us out of rocky enclaves when the suspension had seemingly been at its limit.

The rear axle shouldn’t feel left out; it features Fox internal floating piston hydraulic bump stops that significantly soften the impact when the suspension bottoms out, which it will do when you realize how capable the TRD Pro is off-road and decide to push it just that little bit further.

However, the care and attention Toyota has paid to your lower back doesn’t stop there. The centerpiece of an otherwise familiar, albeit handsome and functional interior are Toyota’s new IsoDynamic performance seats—a bucket seat with integrated shock absorbers that come standard for the front occupants. They offer a significant amount of lateral movement, reducing negative seat movement when you’re pushing the TRD Pro hard off-road. Was it as groundbreaking as we were expecting? No, but after two days of grueling off-road punishment, we felt as fresh as a daisy, and that speaks volumes.

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A Lot of Truck, For a Lot of Cash

We had a good time testing the Tacoma TRD Pro, though it wasn’t without its faults. Visibility was lacking, especially when running off–road—its giant hood bulge and seemingly short side windows made it hard to see what was coming at the front corners. We also noted that under heavy braking, the truck not only hopped forward but also shifted side to side—not ideal on the trails.

The hybrid engine is undoubtedly a good thing in this truck, especially the added torque, which provides the instant boost you need when trying to get up to speed on the highway and over loose surfaces. Having said that, its fuel economy rating doesn’t leave much to be desired, at 22/24/23 mpg city/highway/combined. For context, the outgoing V-6-powered Tacoma TRD Pro registered 17/20/18 mpg.

Then we come to the matter of price, which is an inescapable element of the rhetoric surrounding this truck. The TRD Pro is the most expensive of its competitors by far, handsomely besting the similarly specced Chevy Colorado ZR2 ($48,395) and the $57,065 Ford wants for the Ranger Raptor. At $65,395, buyers are going to need a healthy dose of rationalization to justify its price premium. But with seven easier-to-justify trim levels, perhaps that was the point. But then again, with eight different grades of the all-new Tacoma, perhaps that was the point.

Save the Trailhunter, which is more overland focused, the TRD Pro is the most extreme Tacoma Toyota will sell you, and with a truck they’ll sell hundreds of thousands of, perhaps Toyota wanted to keep the TRD Pro reserved for only the most hardcore of off-road truck fanboys.

You want one, right? Yeah, us too.