2022 Toyota Tacoma is Ready for Canadian Wilderness
The 2022 Toyota Tacoma has launched in Canada with no fewer than 13 trim levels, the majority of which are tailor-made to tackle the wilderness. In fact, if you’re in the market for a new, midsize pickup truck specifically to go off road, you’ll probably find what you seek in the new Tacoma.
In recent years, Toyota has been rapidly expanding its lineup of TRD (Toyota Racing Development) models. Unlike what the “racing” part of the acronym might imply, these models usually have anything but the race track in mind, at least as far as the Tacoma is concerned (for actual racing-inspired Toyota models, look for the GR logo).
Related: 2022 Tacoma TRD Pro gets a performance boost
For the 2022 model year, it comes in a staggering number of TRD variants, including the TRD Sport, TRD Off-Road, and TRD Pro, as well as “Premium” variants of all of these and, in some cases, the option for a manual transmission.
If that wasn’t enough, the 2022 Toyota Tacoma is also offered with a limited-production Trail model and a simple Off Road model without TRD being involved.
The nomenclature is a little misleading, though. The Sport models are mainly all about enhancing style. They add, for example, a hood scoop, sportier wheels, and color-keyed exterior details. They do have sport-tuned suspension, however, but it’s unclear how it shapes up in the wild. Surely nobody is buying a Tacoma for street performance.
Even more perplexing are the Off Road models, which like the Sport models, mainly enhance appearance with a unique body kit and nice interior appointments. The main off-road goodies are all-terrain tires and better shock absorbers, as well as access to the multi-terrain crawl mode that acts like a low-speed cruise control. These are nice, but it can still get better.
At the top of the line, you’ve got the TRD Pro. It has Fox suspensions and shock absorbers, a suspension lift kit, machine-forged upper control arms, a wider track, and enhanced all-terrain tires. Sure, the other models can handle their own in the dirt. But why settle for those when you can get a model that effortlessly tames the wilderness?
Kurt Verlin was born in France and lives in the United States. Throughout his life he was always told French was the language of romance, but it was English he fell in love with. He likes cats, music, cars, 30 Rock, Formula 1, and pretending to be a race car driver in simulators; but most of all, he just likes to write about it all. See more articles by Kurt.