Tacoma’s namesake automobile, the Toyota Tacoma pickup, is about to show 30 years previous.
Since its introduction in 1995, the Tacoma has turn out to be the nation’s hottest midsize truck. Its spawned a legion of followers who go off-roading collectively, swap equipment and proudly exhibit their vehicles on social media.
However why did Toyota decide Tacoma because the title for its new truck?
Why Tacoma?
The Tacoma was unveiled by then-Tacoma Mayor Harold Moss and then-Toyota vice chairman Bryan Bergsteinsson at a Portland auto present in 1995.
Till the Tacoma was launched, Toyota had solely given its vehicles alphanumeric names.
On the present, Bergsteinsson tried to reply, “…. a question that has entered the minds of many. Why give the truck a name and why Tacoma?”
It was simply advertising and marketing, he stated.
“Too many numbers confuse potential truck buyers,” he instructed the assembled crowd. The brand new mannequin wanted an actual title.
First, there are conventions to auto naming. The title must be brief sufficient to suit on the autos and catch eyes and ears in promoting. O’s, A’s, T’s, Ok’s and laborious C’s are fashionable. Tacoma fitted the invoice there.
The title was, in fact, examined for its likeability.
“We selected Tacoma because research showed that it suggested the rugged outdoors, adventure and strength,” Bergsteinsson stated.
“Countrywide, most people associated it with outdoors and ruggedness and water and all the good things that we are looking for,” stated Toyota’s then-spokesperson Nancy Hubbell.
However not a lot within the precise Pacific Northwest the place Tacoma (or Tahoma) is the Coast Salish title for Mount Rainier.
“In the Northwest, it did test a little bit negative,” Hubbell stated. It’s unknown if the resistance got here from protecting Tacomans or jealous Seattleites. It must be famous that nobody has ever named a automobile after Seattle.
As a gesture of goodwill to Tacoma, Toyota donated one of many first Tacomas to Level Defiance Zoo & Aquarium.
Veteran salesman
Leroy Hupp is the new-car gross sales supervisor for Titus-Will Toyota in Tacoma. He’s been promoting Toyotas on and off (totally on) since 1983. He was working for a dealership in Auburn when the Tacoma was first rolled out. He referred to as it a “game changer.”
“They made it a little bit more passenger friendly, consumer friendly,” Hupp stated. He estimates that solely half of the individuals who drive a brand new Tacoma off his lot intend to really use it as a truck — to haul tools, grime and different issues that may scrape the paint off a truck mattress.
“I think it appealed to more people,” Hupp stated of the Tacoma. “The look of it. Then it just built on Toyota’s bulletproof reputation that they had back then. It just kind of took off.”
The truck grew over time, dwarfing its earliest variations. The 2024 Tacoma grew wider by three inches in comparison with 2023, in accordance with Toyota. It has gotten so giant that Toyota is speaking about making a smaller, much less pricier truck. Known as the Stout, it can compete with the Ford Maverick.
Promoting to Tacomans
Hupp remembers a Tacoma man shopping for the primary one delivered to the supplier’s lot as a result of he was excited concerning the title. Through the years, Hupp has bought Tacomas to dozens of individuals from Tacoma who had been lured to the truck by its title.
Hupp himself has owned a number of Tacomas by the years.
“I live in Tacoma. I grew up in Tacoma and all my life, I’ve lived here,” he stated. “Selling Tacomas in Tacoma is actually pretty cool, you know?”
He says there’s no likelihood of Toyota discontinuing the mannequin in any foreseeable close to future.
“It’s ingrained,” he stated.
For Hupp and his co-workers, the novelty has largely worn off.
“It’s part of Toyota’s culture,” he stated. “I couldn’t imagine them trying to change the name of the Tacoma. I don’t think that would go over well with the consumer, with the Toyota enthusiast.”
For its half, Toyota is clearly pleased with the affiliation. It just lately filmed a long-form business in Tacoma, that includes the truck. The nostalgic video reveals a younger girl driving throughout the nation and passing by Tacoma the place she visits Bob’s Java Jive and Frisko Freeze earlier than lastly reaching her grandmother’s house for Christmas.
Progress
In 1995, the Toyota Tacoma represented a $1,500 to $2,000 improve from the Toyota vehicles already available on the market. Again then, Toyota vehicles had been promoting between $15,000 and $17,000.
At the moment, new Tacomas value at the very least twice as a lot.
In 1995, the Tacoma got here with an extra-cab choice, rack-and-pinion steering, a base towing ranking of three,500 kilos, new 2.4- and a couple of.7-liter four-cylinder engines and a brand new 3.4-liter V-6. At the moment, there are a selection of variations and trim choices.
A 2025 Tacoma TRD Professional is the highest of the road, and Hupp says he at present has 40 orders for them. The asking value is round $65,000.
In 1995 Toyota supplied each computerized and handbook transmissions. It’s nonetheless potential to get a handbook Tacoma, however it’s troublesome, Hupp stated. The Tacoma does are available in a hybrid model however not full electrical.
Tacoma versus Tacoma
So, which is extra well-known: Tacoma the town or Tacoma the truck?
“I think the truck. I hate to say it,” Hupp stated. “It’s worldwide.” In different elements of the world, Toyota sells an analogous mannequin referred to as the Hilux, he stated.
However ought to Tacomans be happy with their namesake truck even when it’s stolen a number of the metropolis’s model?
Completely, Hupp stated.
“I think anyone that lives in Tacoma that has a Tacoma should be proud that they are able to drive around with their city stamped on their back tailgate,” he stated. “I think everybody should be proud … we got an icon named after our city.”