Popular, midsize Tacoma pickup is just the right size

 Mark Glover’s AutoGlo car reviews also can be seen in the Northern & Central California Cruisin’ News magazine published monthly out of Folsom, California.

Sacramento, California -- I'll confess that I handle full-size pickup trucks with extreme care, determined not to snap off an exterior mirror in a moment of carelessness ... or worse, ride up and over a parking meter.

No such worries with the midsize Toyota Tacoma.  It's just right on multiple levels -- size, steering and comfort among them.

My tester was the 2020 Toyota Tacoma TRD Pro 4X4 Double Cab pickup.  This is not the truck you expect to see at a large-scale work site or on a sprawling ranch.  But it seems perfectly at home as a daily driver and chore doer, in the urban jungle or the busy suburbs.

But what if you want to take it off-road?  Toyota has a plan for that.

Among the off-road-specific features is a selectable, electronically controlled locking rear differential to provide enhanced traction on unpaved surfaces.

And then there's the "Desert Air Intake" feature, essentially a large snorkel that snakes its way up the passenger side A-pillar and tops off just above the roofline. The positioning raises the engine's air intake to a height well above ground-level dust, hopefully sucking up cleaner air.

Very clever that.  But a word of warning: Tacoma owners with this optional feature ($725 on the tested pickup) need to carefully choose a car wash, because a heavy-handed rolling brush can snap off the top of the air intake. Do-it-yourself vehicle washers should be just fine.

My ride had the 3.5-liter V-6 engine under the hood.  With 278 horsepower and  265 foot-pounds of torque, the power plant easily handled all road challenges I threw at it. Fuel mileage was only fair at 18 miles per gallon in the city and 22 mpg on the highway.

The exterior look is pretty much classic midsize pickup, with the expected aggressive-size grille cutting into the wind.

Inside, I found the cabin spacious and thoughtfully laid out, another reason that Tacoma has been the nation's top-selling midsize pickup for more than a dozen years.

For 2020, Toyota added to the Tacoma package with multimedia upgrades (including Apple CarPlay, Android Auto and Amazon Alexa capability), new LED lighting and standard Toyota Safety Sense, which includes a pre-collision system with pedestrian detection, smart cruise control, a lane-departure alert and automatic high beams.

Please note that my loaded Tacoma TRD Pro 4X4 Double Cab came in at a hefty $49,679 on the bottom line.

For that kind of money, I'd be buying the Tacoma as a long-term investment.  Given all the tested pickup had to offer, I'd consider it a wise investment.