Transmission needs to replaced at 230 miles.

[oxi]

Hey everyone. Disappointing post here but bought a brand new 2025 Tacoma TRD OF with 45 miles. Drove it all day Saturday. Sunday went to run some errands and noticed something was off on the trans. Brought it back to the dealership and after their diagnostics they said nothing was wrong and may just need to be driven more so that the engine can learn driving habits. After leaving the lot, not 2 miles down the road check engine light came with a "Drive Start Control Malfunction" message. Right back to the dealership we go. Next day they call me and say the check engine light is indicating problems with the transmission. Advised repair is to replace Torque converter and trans. 232 miles. Service advisor says there's one new transmission in the country and will know more information about a completion date Sat. They will be providing a loaner until its done. Should I go back to the dealership and ask for a different truck? Same make, model? Or do I trust that everything will be good moving forward? It failed so quick it makes me think it may have been a manufacturing issue. Kinda feeling hopeless and not sure route to go.

I lost my 6-speed manual transmission at around 14,500 miles. I had the printed TSB with and had the issue, no 2, 4 or 6th gear. The rest worked and I drove it like that for a month.

Dealer found a manual trans and set me up with a Camry LE awd loaner for 2 weeks and installed my new 6-speed manual no charge at all. Now it shifts like it should, no issues from low speed all the way to 107 mph I recently got up to (squawked the rear tires into 2nd and 3rd).

5,000 miles and counting with new one.

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[tacorancher]

Yeah - I agree. They know these transmissions, particularly those in the TSB VIN range, are at risk of failure. Their cost analysis says that most will last through the basic warranty and after that they don't care. If they did they would replace them like they are doing with the Tundra engines. I assume they are doing that because they predict it is cheaper than years of replacing those engines as they fail.

When Toyota was a smaller company trying to get established they over engineered and stood behind their products. Now they are the biggest automaker in the world and they can afford to lose some customers when they let them down. You only have to look at the number of major failures their products have today to know that they are not the same company they were 30 years ago.

I agree. I’d like to offer an unpopular opinion though. The older trucks were not as fun. Not as punchy. Not as whimsical. Not as comfortable. I love my Trailhunter. Makes me smile every damn day. Toyota is shifting priorities to compete with other manufacturers and offer more of a robust driving experience — market adaptation. And there’s a trade off. If my truck only goes to 150K miles, which it will easily, that will be fine for me. I am putting my money on it reaching 200K before turbo, hybrid system failures etc. Engine should keep going for the next owner if they fix the major issues at that point. But I’ll be ready for a new truck then. I sold our 4th gen 4Runner with 206K on the odometer and I was done with it. I don’t drive vehicles much longer than a decade. I’d rather have fun doing it.


Before this gen, all we heard was why isn’t there torque, why can’t I fit larger tires etc. Now we have those things, and folks want to go back to the old days. But they forget that those trucks had no punch. They were dogs to drive.

All that said these transmissions are bullshit.

 

[lauren01]

I agree. I’d like to offer an unpopular opinion though. The older trucks were not as fun. Not as punchy. Not as whimsical. Not as comfortable. I love my Trailhunter. Makes me smile every damn day. Toyota is shifting priorities to compete with other manufacturers and offer more of a robust driving experience — market adaptation. And there’s a trade off. If my truck only goes to 150K miles, which it will easily, that will be fine for me. I am putting my money on it reaching 200K before turbo, hybrid system failures etc. Engine should keep going for the next owner if they fix the major issues at that point. But I’ll be ready for a new truck then. I sold our 4th gen 4Runner with 206K on the odometer and I was done with it. I don’t drive vehicles much longer than a decade. I’d rather have fun doing it.


Before this gen, all we heard was why isn’t there torque, why can’t I fit larger tires etc. Now we have those things, and folks want to go back to the old days. But they forget that those trucks had no punch. They were dogs to drive.

All that said these transmissions are bullshit.

All makes a ton of sense to me. Having test driven 3G Tacomas two years ago, manual and automatic, as well as 4Runners, they were horrible.
it is likely I will be quite happy once they have my Trailhunter running as it was before this breakage happened. I love the truck.
I wish they would start making them in Japan again.

 

[Taco Ji]

Considering modern cars are built on an assembly line by robots I don’t think it’s a manufacturing issue but more of a parts issue. Once the part is replaced the truck should be running as intended again.

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