Toyota is having a rough year. The brand with a reputation for incredible reliability just announced that it’s replacing roughly 102,000 Tundra and Lexus LX engines that are prone to failure. Unfortunately, it doesn’t end there, as new 2024 Tacoma owners began reporting transmission failures in June, often with fewer than 1,000 miles on their odometers. Fast forward more than a month and the complaints haven’t stopped coming.
Several reports have been officially filed to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, while some come from Redditors and forum members sharing their stories. A smaller number comes from mechanics reporting multiple trucks in their shops with failed transmissions. Making matters even stranger is that both automatic and manual gearboxes are allegedly failing—not just one or the other.
TacomaWorld forum member Fostuhh has a particularly frustrating story. They say they ordered their dream Tacoma TRD Pro shortly after the truck was announced and traveled to a Northern California dealer from Arizona to pick it up. Not too far into the long drive home, they experienced heartbreak when the transmission failed with just 342 miles on the clock. After much back-and-forth communication between dealerships, Toyota agreed to replace the transmission under warranty. Still, this hasn’t inspired confidence in other customers.
Fostuhh isn’t the only one. There are 13 NHTSA complaints about Tacoma transmission failures at the time of publishing, many on trucks with less than 1,000 miles. There are a few commonalities between the complaints, as more than one details the transmissions suddenly locking out of certain gears with the problem temporarily disappearing after restarts. It seems that all of the current NHTSA complaints have to do with automatic transmissions, but manuals are reportedly having similar issues.
In a recent Truck King YouTube video, the Tacoma’s six-speed unit broke suddenly when one of the hosts tried shifting from fifth to third gear. It’s unclear exactly what happened, though the Tacoma’s engineering team sent back an official statement blaming the breakage on user error, claiming the host accidentally shifted from fifth to first. They say this over-revved the truck and damaged the clutch, but you can’t hear anything excessive in the video like you normally would with a money shift.
While several of these reports date back more than a month, and it’s not uncommon for new models to have teething problems right at the start, this story is very much still developing. Pickup Truck Plus SUV Talk uploaded its first video on the customer stories in late June; then, about two weeks ago, the channel posted another explainer walking through a technical service bulletin from Toyota for manual-equipped Tacomas only. That document details problems shifting into second, fourth, or sixth gear with mention of a retainer cracking in the floor shift control shift lever retainer sub-assembly. Of course, that isn’t relevant for automatic Tacoma owners like Fostuhh.
This all comes to a head when you learn there aren’t many replacement transmissions in the United States. Affected customers have been quoting delays of two to four months. Some dealerships are supplying rentals, but that’s still a long time to wait for a brand-new truck to be fixed. The Drive reached out to Toyota to ascertain the scope of these reported failures, and the automaker responded by simply saying, “We advise any customers that might be experiencing issues with their vehicles to contact the Toyota Brand Engagement Center at 1-800-331-4331.”
It’s good that Toyota is honoring warranties and replacing transmissions. It’s the right thing to do, and the automaker has responded properly to most of the issues it’s facing. But this still isn’t a great look for a brand whose entire reputation is based on durability and reliability, especially when the Tundra engine debacle is so fresh.
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