Codenamed N300, the outgoing Tacoma is long in the tooth. Introduced in January 2015 as a 2016 model, the 4Runner’s truck sibling originally launched with a five-speed manual and six-speed automatic.

The Tacoma perfectly encapsulates the “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” mantra. Toyota has been very careful not to stray too much from the mid-size pickup truck’s tried-and-tested recipe, although ...