Toyota T100 reviews

1998 Toyota T100 Walkaround

What you see when you approach a T100 like our tester is a pretty generic full-size pickup truck, with a conservative face, cab design and minimum of decoration. This truck was being designed before the current Dodge Ram and Ford F-Series made their big market splashes, so Toyota went with a very conservative approach just as the market was changing toward chrome-grilled macho trucks. So the design is a little behind its U.S. competition, but if you want a conservative truck that may last a decade or more, it's still a good bet.

What you will also see is painstaking construction quality, inside and out. Toyota takes pickup door fit and panel match as seriously as the same fitments on Lexus luxury cars, which obviously pays off down the line. Everywhere you look on the T100 there are quality materials, quality workmanship, and excellent, if subdued, design.

Our test truck was the top-of-the-line SR5 XtraCab 4x4 (from $24,778, including destination), which comes with the best level of standard equipment, but Toyota also offers three lesser series as well as standard-cab models and two-wheel drive. The model array is almost as wide as those of the American Big Three, minus V8 or diesel power and big-time work ratings.

But the T100 V6 has almost everything else. It is rated to carry a 2150-pound payload in 2WD V6 editions, and tow up to 5200 pounds. It has all the traditional pickup truck equipment, including an easily removable tailgate, two-tier cargo storage, an array of tie-down hooks in the bed, and a set of stake pockets in the bed as well, where customers can add aftermarket wooden stakes to retain taller loads.

But as you'd expect of a Toyota, it isn't so businesslike as to avoid creature comforts. The option lists include all the popular pickup power-operated accessories like seats, windows, mirrors and locks, as well as several very good sound systems.

The SR5 package adds a ton of equipment to the truck, including chrome wheel arch moldings, chrome grille, chrome front bumper and door handles, a sliding rear window, privacy glass, tilt steering wheel, full instrumentation, an AM/FM/cassette sound system with four speakers, map lights and a passenger-side lighted vanity mirror.

The only things conspicuously absent are a passenger-side airbag, which we'll see on 1998 models, and a third door for extended cab models, something that's been very popular for Ford and General Motors trucks.