I know we have several members who are either professional or enthusiast mechanics and several with experience on the parts side of things also, so I'm going to pose a couple questions.

Firstly, I'm looking at 3rd Gen tacomas to replace my daily. Am I alone in thinking the accelerator pedal is both too close to the brake and too high up the firewall to be comfortable? My daily is an 01 Chevy, has much better pedal placement in my mind, with the gas much closer to the floor.
Is there a fix for the tacoma or just a me issue that I'll have to adjust to?

Second, does anyone still do auto on headlights like my old chevy? Not auto high beams, but when I turn the key on, I have headlights (low beams) on. Turn key off, lights off. I assume this was the early attempt at runing lights, but its been 20 years since i worried about if my lights were off when I parked my car. I feel like I will likely miss this.

I owned a 3rd gen Taco for a year. I hated the automatic transmission “tune”. The transmission did nothing but lug the snot out of the engine. Terrible. Always in the wrong gear. Test drive any taco you’re interested in for long drive on a gently rolling or curvy road and see what you have.
My current Chevy work truck has auto headlights and auto high beam. The auto high beam works but is a bit sensitive.
In my opinion the current Chevy 1500 is a far better truck than the Tacoma.

The headlights on my 2020 Tacoma go on and off with the key.
I have no issue with the location of the gas/brake pedal. Like any vehicle you get used to it pretty quickly.
Transmission works fine for me. If it starts to lug I shift it down a gear. Just like I did with my other model vehicles.

3rd Gen Tacomas (like my 5th Gen 4Runner) benefit greatly from an OTT tune. Makes the drive much more enjoyable. I know it shouldn’t take an aftermarket tune, but it does. I’ll trade that for the reliability factor all day.

As for the position of the gas pedal, it may just take some getting used to. But you can also look at seat risers made by various manufacturers to try to get a slightly better seating position which might help.

What SigM4 said:
1) Raise rear seat 1 inch , definite improvement
2) Aftermarket Tune, corrects the shifting points from the factory
3) Lights go off after 30 seconds for driving or headlights

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Second, does anyone still do auto on headlights like my old chevy?

It depends. Some do, some don't. Some are off but have them come on when you run the windshield wipers. Others have daytime running lights that are the high beams on reduced power, may or may not also light the rear, and you have to turn on the headlights. Still others always light the gauge cluster whether the headlights are on or not. This can trick people into thinking the lights are on. My own 2009 Corolla has high-beam DRLs and headlights that can be turned on manually or, when sufficiently dark, automatically. When running the DRLs neither the gauges nor tail lights are on (they are on the same circuit).

I’ve had a 2016 Tacoma since they came out. I love it, but I did do some modifications. Some 1 inch risers to bring the front of the driver seat up helped a lot. I’m seriously considering an aftermarket tune, even though I don’t think it is hugely noticeable like many other people do.

Appreciate the responses. I have had basically the same vehicle for the last 21 years. More specifically, have bought basically the same truck 3 times. I'm kind of a creature of habit, I guess.
I'm looking at 2.7l tacomas if it matters. I feel like it's a much more proven, reliable engine than the v6.

Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards require control pedals to be positioned in certain dimensional relationships.

Perhaps your position observations are based on how this small truck and seating position require your legs to bend or rotate to fit in the cab.

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Originally posted by jed7s9b:
I owned a 3rd gen Taco for a year. I hated the automatic transmission “tune”. The transmission did nothing but lug the snot out of the engine. Terrible. Always in the wrong gear. Test drive any taco you’re interested in for long drive on a gently rolling or curvy road and see what you have.

My 2021 drove me crazy with that. I also thought I should get better fuel mileage than I did but ultimately I traded it in for a 4Runner to have more room. I was too cramped in the Tacoma. I thought mine had headlights that you could leave on and they would shut off automatraically. Cannot really recall for sure though.

I have a 2017 Tacoma double cab, short bed 4WD. I took delivery 11/2016. Manual trans so not able to comment. but have done an engine chip flash tune that added a scosh of throttle response.

I feel the mileage should be better for the (lack of) power it makes but its dead nuts reliable. I'm just about to get a 80k oil change this week and I've gotten mid to upper teens gas mileage since new. I have been pretty OCD about following the factory oil change and maintenance schedule since new. Seems V6 engines these days should be making well in excess of 300HP+ with little effort. That gen taco is making 278 at 6k RPM. Not a problem for off road trails, sucks on surface streets and modern freeway speeds.

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ply

Dealer chopped of the bottom of my 06 due to recall. Claimed floormats were getting stuck on top of it.

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Originally posted by 4MUL8R:
Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards require control pedals to be positioned in certain dimensional relationships.

Perhaps your position observations are based on how this small truck and seating position require your legs to bend or rotate to fit in the cab.

Along this line, that is quite possible. My current truck has a nice indent in the floor/trans tunnel that I can rest my foot in and still reach the gas for most normal driving applications not involving warp speed... I guess I'm just spoiled by that.

re the auto headlamps, seems to be dependent on model and options,

my 2000 Tundra, has manual lights, as in I have to turn them one, however, if I leave them one and shut the truck down, the lights go off, and then come back on when I start it (as long as I leave the switch on)

high beams are manual,

my 10 and 13 Cooper S's were, IIRC, Auto on and off, but manual high beams,

my 15 Civic was completely manual, but did have the required always on lights on the front


my 21 RAV4 has auto headlamps, and auto high beam,
the high beams can be a bit finicky or twitchy,

I'm on my 5th Tacoma since 2005. The two 3rd Gens (16 & 19), were great reliable trucks with horrible transmission. I dealt with it by having aftermarket tunes and a little bit of driving modification. Still pretty much sucked as far as shifting goes. My current 24 TRD Off Road is a world of difference. Throttle response, shift points, etc.