2024 Toyota Tacoma: 1,000 Miles of Towing Made Easy

• I took our long-term 2024 Toyota Tacoma on a 2,000-mile road trip from Los Angeles to Denver and back.
• I made the trip so I could bring home my new-to-me 2000 BMW M Roadster.
• The Tacoma was a champ, both with and without a trailer.

This desire for a new/used convertible sports car reignited my on-again-off-again search for a BMW Z3, a perennial web browser tab I've had open for about as long as I can remember. I found a great low-mileage specimen out in Boulder, Colorado — a Z3 M Roadster — and decided to just drive out in one of our long-term trucks, visit friends in nearby Denver, and tow the BMW back. Way easier than dealing with the California DMV and securing a temporary plate, anyway.

The first 1,000 miles

You can do Los Angeles to Denver in one shot; it's about 15 hours if traffic cooperates. But I decided to take my time, enjoy the scenery (I'd never been to Terrible's before) and split the drive up. The first leg was an even 666 miles from my house, through Death Valley (wow, what a coincidence) to a Holiday Inn Express in Green River, Utah. On the second day I'd carry on to Denver where I'd hang out for the weekend, thank a friend for inspecting the BMW by buying him dinner and a (few) shot(s) of Malört (IYKYK), and pick up my new M Roadster.

Admittedly, the Taco doesn't seem like it'd be a great road-tripper. The TRD Off-Road's all-terrain tires are loud on the pavement, its ride is, well, trucky, and it's not exactly a vehicle designed for comfort first and foremost. But after my first few hours behind the wheel, I was perfectly happy. The cooled seats worked a treat — something I wouldn't be able to say in our long-term Ranger — the chairs themselves were plenty comfy and the active driving aids made slogging down the highway a cinch. Toyota's adaptive cruise control is one of my favorites; I like that when you activate the turn signal to pass a slower-moving lead car, the system automatically starts to speed up, rather than waiting until you're already in the next lane. It's a more natural course of action.

Other good stuff? The JBL stereo — it kicks, and the bass doesn't rattle the doors like the Bose system in our long-term Colorado. Also, small thing: I love that the LED headlights have manual height adjustment feature, so you can angle them down at night and not blind oncoming traffic. (Don't forget, the Taco might be "midsize," but it's still a tall truck.)

What didn't I like? The fuel economy. The EPA says a Tacoma TRD Off-Road like this one should get 23 mpg highway, but I never saw anything above 20 mpg. Granted, this was in Utah, where the speed limit on I-15 and I-70 is routinely 80 mph (Utah, I love you). But still, even when I was back in California doing 70-75 mph, 20 mpg highway was pretty much as good as it got.

Towing time

Americans tend to buy way too much vehicle for what they actually need. Think about it: How often do you see a Chevy Suburban pulling a small boat or a Jet Ski? I could've taken our long-term Ford F-150 Hybrid to do this tow job, but it would've been overkill. A 2000 BMW Z3 M Roadster full of fluids weighs just under 3,100 pounds, a U-Haul car trailer weighs 2,200 pounds; that's 5,300 total. A Tacoma TRD Off-Road can tow 6,300 pounds. That gives me 1,000 pounds to spare. No problem.

This wasn't an easy towing test either. Remember, there's this little obstacle between Denver and Los Angeles called the Rocky Mountains, so towing the BMW back home meant long stretches of steep grades — both uphill and downhill — putting extra strain on the Taco's engine and brakes. On top of that, it was hot as heck outside the whole time, with ambient temperatures in the high 90s and low 100s.

How'd the Tacoma handle it? With a-freaking-plomb. Yes, there were a couple of times where I had to keep my foot matted on the gas to keep it at 60-65 mph on uphill stretches, but even while doing so, the engine's temperature gauge never budged. Using the Tacoma's Tow/Haul drive mode, I could give the brakes a firm tap while driving downhill to kick the transmission down a gear or two, where engine braking would give some extra restraint, meaning I didn't have to ride the brake the whole time. Tow/Haul mode also reconfigured the blind-spot monitoring system to account for the trailer, which was helpful.

A 5,300-pound ballast didn't seem to bother the Tacoma overall; the truck barely even squatted with the weight attached to its hitch. The only major hit I took was with fuel economy. At one point in Utah, I averaged less than 14 mpg on the highway, and the other tanks were in the 17 mpg range. That's to be expected, though.

Maybe the Colorado and Ranger would've done better with towing — especially with regard to fuel economy. But I don't think they'd have been as enjoyable on the trip overall.

By the way, how's your BMW?

Great, thanks for asking. I got a 2000 M Roadster with 31,500 miles on the odometer. It's Estoril Blue with a blue/black interior, which is, ironically, a nearly identical spec as my '99 Miata. I love the M Coupe — the "clown shoe" — but roadsters are half the price, and, yeah, I wanted a convertible. My car also has the less powerful S52 engine with 240 hp, which is plenty for a car this size. The guy who owned it before me (who's super nice, by the way) took excellent care of it, and I'm lucky to have found one in such great shape. I'm stoked to continue my small roadster era in the German Miata.