When the covers were lifted from the new 2024 Toyota Tacoma, it was hard not to let your eyes wander south of the pickup’s bold new schnoz, specifically down to the vast fence of plastic reaching toward the ground from beneath the front bumper. Behold, the new Tacoma’s Hoover Dam-sized air dam.
According to the folks in charge of building the Japanese automaker’s latest midsize pickup, from a design standpoint, nobody was too thrilled with the plastic bib up front. So why is it there?
Compliance with increasingly stringent fuel economy standards is why. And lifted, wide-track, box-nosed pickup trucks can, as you’d expect, present some challenges when it comes to maximizing fuel efficiency. But this isn’t solely an issue for the burlier new Tacoma variants—every 2024 Tacoma save for the new Trailhunter overlanding-spec truck and the TRD Pro off-roader wear the new plastic chin spoiler. That includes the base SR, midlevel SR5, TRD PreRunner, TRD Sport, and TRD Off Road.
It’s the Fuel Economy, Duh
Sure, the clearance-limiting piece seems like an affront on the off-roadier variants below those range-topping Tacomas, namely the TRD PreRunner and TRD Off Road models, which get slightly wider stances and lifted suspensions. These are trucks intended to be taken off-road—where low-hanging bumper bits are likely to be bumped or ripped off the truck entirely. Of course, those pieces are necessary for achieving workable EPA-estimated fuel economy numbers, especially so on those off-road variants whose specific qualities invite large quantities of air to rush beneath the truck at speed and hurt their aerodynamic performance.
Air dams are nothing new, and you can find them on everything from track cars to the Jeep Wrangler. The fixture on the Tacoma is simply rather large and appears to be underexposed in press imagery. Seeing the truck in person, you’ll probably be struck by the spoiler’s size, but also by its design. Although it does hang low, it appears to be flexible enough to handle brushes with small obstacles without catastrophic damage. The pair of access ports also appear to make attaching recovery gear to the truck’s front recovery points a fumble-free affair.
What likely gets the TRD Pro and Trailhunter Tacomas off the hook for the aggressive spoiler is the same reason the rest of the lineup wears it: EPA fuel economy estimates are calculated from volume-selling models in a given lineup. Even if two Tacomas have the same powertrain, Toyota can (and will) run fuel economy testing on the version that’ll make up a bigger chunk of the sales mix. It’s safe to guess that Toyota will sell far fewer TRD Pros and Trailhunters than more affordable versions of the Tacoma—so because those versions help generate those window-sticker mpg figures, they get the air dams.
Can You Remove It?
For those deeply concerned with this air-diverting curtain, it is held in place with exactly nine fasteners that are said to be easily removable. Fuel economy figures for the Tacoma are forthcoming, but you can bet they’re worse without the air dam fitted. We say enjoy the aero benefits on the way to the trail but remove the chin spoiler once there. Or take it off entirely, pay a little more at the pump, and amp up your new Taco’s beefy looks without splurging on the range-topping TRD Pro or Trailhunter models.
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