On 4/1/2016 3:00 PM, Ryan P. wrote:
On 4/1/2016 1:45 PM, Mr. Luddite wrote:
On 4/1/2016 2:04 PM, Ryan P. wrote:
On 4/1/2016 12:18 PM, True North wrote:
"Keyser Söze

...while waiting for routine service to be completed on my wife's
car, I
test drove a 2016 Toyota Tacoma truck. What a sweet ride...made even
sweeter by the presence of its six speed manual transmission. The last
time I drove a pickup truck with a stick shift, it was back in the late
1950's, at my dad's boat store. I think it was a four speed, but you
started in second because first was there only to get the truck rolling
if you were pulling something really heavy."

I've looked at the Tacoma while waiting for my semi annual servicing
for my Highlander. Found that the roof and windshield seemed
low....cut off just above my sight line. Just seemed to bother me.


My other half test drove a Ford Edge and loved everything about it...
except how the vertical supports in back created a huge blind spot. I
tried to tell her that if she used her mirrors properly, she'd never
have to turn her head, but she couldn't get past it.

She ended up getting a Kia Sorento instead.


The Altima has a nice feature .... maybe all cars have them now ... I
don't know. It has sensors in the outside rear view mirrors that
detect if another car is pulling up along side you on the right or left.
There are small lights inside the car near the mirrors that light up if
a car is detected. If you put your blinker on while a car is detected
on the side that you intend to make a lane change, a chime goes off as
well as the light to warn you. The rear facing camera is pretty cool
also. When backing and turning the steering wheel, an outline of where
you are backing moves with the steering wheel movements. There's also
an alternate view that gives you a wider screen shot.

So far I like it a lot. Drives smooth and quiet, is quick and gets
great mileage.

Yeah, the Edge had much of that, too. She just didn't think she could
break herself from turning her head to check her blind spot.

I have no problem with it... Having a CDL and driving large vehicles
that don't have rear window view breaks you of the habit pretty quick.

I actually preferred the new Explorer to the Edge as far as the drive
goes, but its a little bigger. The only thing I don't like about the
new Ford SUV's (and Crossover SUVs) is that for some reason they feel
nobody ever needs to store anything under the floor in the cargo area.
Things like hitches and basic "oops" things for emergencies... Nowhere
to put them! In my old '03 Explorer, I could store things under the all
the seats in addition to under the floor in the cargo area.

How's the Altima for storage?


No "special" storage areas that I know of other than the trunk which is
good sized. The rear seats also fold down to give more space for long
objects.

Actually, I haven't really inspected the truck area yet. Must be a
spare tire in there somewhere but I haven't seen it yet.