I have to issue a retraction. Last year, when I reviewed the outgoing Toyota Tacoma, I said: “A big chunk of the Tacoma’s charm is that it’s a living fossil, and it will be interesting to see how Toyota balances that against the march of progress. It’ll inevitably be larger, likely with a much more aggressive schnoz in line with the Tundra, it’ll probably drop the V6 in favor of a turbocharged four-cylinder like everyone else, and the six-speed manual will probably fade away with it.” I was mostly correct, but the DIY gearbox that I was sure would go by the wayside persists in the new 2024 Toyota Tacoma TRD Sport. I’m not sure if that’s a good thing.

Every mid-sized truck has been redesigned in the last couple years, and perhaps the biggest deal of these fun-sized pickups is the Toyota Tacoma — a little truck with a big following. Not to take away from Ford and GM’s impressive efforts, but I don’t think it’s a stretch to say the entire truck world was waiting with bated breath to see what Toyota was going to do with a new Tacoma. It hasn’t been all new in almost twenty years.

Toyota kind of painted themselves in a corner by holding off for so long. The Tacoma went so far around the circle of being old and dated that it ended up back at charming again, by virtue of the fact that it was a brand new old truck. In an era where Ford and GM moved to turbocharged four-poppers and given up on manual gearboxes, the Tacoma stood alone as an honest, if a little flawed work truck. How do you make new that which is so adored because it isn’t new?

First off, they got the styling down. I was right; the new Tacoma is essentially a less-very-huge Tundra, bringing it into the modern era without looking too far removed from what a Taco is supposed to be. Our relatively base TRD Sport tester features body-coloured accents, a front spoiler, a bespoke louvered hood scoop, and 18-inch TRD wheels that all lean into the athletic motif. I prefer the more purposeful look of the TRD Off-Road, which loses some of the showiness and gains chunky all-terrain tires, as well as Bilstein shocks and a locking rear differential. But either way, it’s a handsome truck.

The same design ethos applies to the interior. This new Tacoma’s interior is familiar while also generally much nicer, without getting away from its working-class roots. The old Taco was pretty tight, with a high floor and low ceiling. This the new truck fixes that, leading to a much greater sense of spaciousness by virtue of just having more space. The centre console has been designed with lots of storage space and fairly clever integration of a wireless charger, the climate controls are all physical with chunky knobs and switches, and everything feels like it’ll wear well.

There’s a plethora of new tech on board, too. Very little of it is new to Toyota, but it’s pretty much all new on the Tacoma. Our tester has Toyota’s new infotainment, which generally works quite well, but I’m not terribly keen on its small-screen guise. Our relatively lightly trimmed tester makes do with a seven-inch touchscreen, rather than the footlong display on top-shelf trims like the Trailhunter. Audio comes from a six-speaker JBL system, with a removable Bluetooth speaker that’s housed and charged in the dashboard.

Even the most basic Tacoma is pretty well equipped. Toyota’s Safety Sense 3.0 suite of driver assists is standard on every Tacoma, including lane-departure prevention, oncoming vehicle detection, pedestrian detection, adaptive cruise control, lane tracing, automatic high beams, and road sign recognition. Also standard is wireless Apple CapPlay and Android Auto, USB-C charging ports, and one-touch windows all around, which is convenient.

The old V6 is gone, replaced with — as predicted — a turbocharged four-cylinder. Specifically, the same 2.4-litre unit Toyota has been deploying in a lot of new vehicles lately. In this application, it makes 270 horsepower and 310 pound-feet of torque, which is roughly the same as the old V6, albeit with a little more mid-range shove and slightly better fuel economy — to the tune of 12.5 L/100 km combined in my week with it. Curiously, the same engine is rated for marginally more power when mated to the eight-speed automatic.

In a surprise turn of events, Toyota bucked the industry trend — and my own cynical expectations — by keeping the six-speed manual transmission alive. The Tacoma making it the only pickup manual truck on the market. [That depends on how ‘trucky’ you deem the Jeep Gladiator to be. —Ed.] While I was initially happy to have been wrong about this, after spending a week with the Tacoma, I almost preferred to have been right. It’s a carryover of the old gearbox, with the same shift knob and long, agricultural action. I’m personally fine with all that on a pickup truck, but the ratios feel poorly chosen for this engine.

First is short, as is typical of a truck. But after that, the manual Tacoma feels like it’s geared for the autobahn — and the little turbo-four has neither the torque to overcome that, nor does the turbo spin up quick enough to comfortably handle low-rpm acceleration. Worse still, the rev hang baked into this new powertrain is by far the worst I’ve ever encountered on a new vehicle, so you’re either going to be clunky like a perpetual amateur, or brutally slow if you’re trying to be smooth, especially with the first-to-second shift. You can’t comfortably start in second gear, either, unlike with the old V6. You’re forced to either hurry up and be herky-jerky, or wait three steamboats for the revs to fall and hope you don’t get rear-ended.

I went back and forth on whether or not the whole driving experience was “endearing in a working class rough and tumble sort of way” as Nick put it [Wait, I said that? —Ed.] or just work, and I think I’ve landed on the latter. It’s a software calibration away from being decent, and for the life of me I cannot understand why so many OEMs insist on neutering the few manual experiences available in the market with this nanny state hand-holding garbage. Most curious of all, Toyota has developed a new rev-matching system for the Tacoma and it works ridiculously well, so they clearly know how to do this, yet they chose not to. It drives me insane knowing they were so close to greatness in the pickup segment with this.

Otherwise, the Tacoma drives pretty well. I’m not terribly keen on this engine’s underwhelming power delivery, and I have mixed feelings about it’s surprisingly raucous and Subaru Boxer-esque soundtrack [OK, that I remember pointing out. —Ed.] but it is quite efficient, and putting the Taco in Sport mode fixes its slow spool time — at the cost of fuel use. Otherwise, the Tacoma handles pretty well, the steering feels decently dialed in, and rides well enough, if on the taut side. I’m sure some of that could be chalked up to this trim’s “sport tuned” suspension.

Unlike some of its larger siblings, chassis shudders are mostly absent, too, and the chassis itself is communicative. The Tacoma is also well-insulated and fairly quiet on the highway, the seats are comfortable enough especially with the optional two-way lumbar adjustment, and the rear seats are tied for overall roominess with the best-in-class Ranger — which isn’t saying a lot, frankly, but a win’s a win. The Tacoma’s lane-tracing and adaptive cruise control functions work very well, although they stop working at low speeds.

I can see this being a very easy truck to live with. It’s practical, comfortable, well thought-out, efficient, and reasonably roomy for a midsize pickup truck. I also appreciate that a six-foot bed is an option, but I sadly don’t appreciate that the 2024 Toyota Tacoma TRD Sport keeps the manual alive in this zombified state. Just get the eight-speed automatic, especially since that opens the door to the hybrid powertrain, which really wakes up the Taco and turns this little engine’s shortcomings into advantages. Either way, despite my misgivings with this very particular trim level, the Tacoma is otherwise a terrific truck that I have no doubt will not only satisfy its loyal fan base, but also appeal to new truck buyers on its own raw merit.