This Is the Cheapest New Toyota Tacoma—Steel Wheels and All

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The 2024 Toyota Tacoma's rollout has focused on the headliner versions of the newest midsize pickup, the burly off-road TRD Pro and new Trailhunter trim levels, for example. Lost in that shuffle somewhat? The cheap ones! Keep in mind, the current Tacoma is the midsize truck sales leader—and it hasn't achieved that station by virtue of its priciest models alone. Plenty of budget customers and commercial buyers favor more basic Tacomas, specifically the SR trim.

Of course none of Toyota's photos of the new Tacoma include any of the SR, or even the popular, one-level-up SR5 trim. Curious what the 2024 Tacoma SR looks like? So were we, and we were pleasantly surprised to see an image of the bare-bones truck appear on Toyota's website on a graphic showing the entire Tacoma lineup, which also includes the aforementioned SR5, new PreRunner, TRD Off Road, TRD Sport, Limited, TRD Pro, and Trailhunter.

Sadly, we don't yet have an image of the cheapest Tacoma you'll be able to buy: The two-door, long-bed SR XtraCab (though, we included pics of the PreRunner in that configuration below). Toyota is only showing the SR in what's expected to be slightly pricier four-door Double Cab (crew-cab) form, with the short bed. Kudos to whomever on Toyota's marketing crew chose to show display the 2024 Tacoma SR Double Cab in stripper-spec white paint, which complements the SR's steel wheels and black-plastic grille, bumper trim, door mirrors, and door handles nicely.

The overall SR treatment appears to stay much the same as before, though the steel wheels are—for the first time in literal decades—different. Instead of the previous-gen Tacoma SR's five-spoke, star-like steelies, the 2024 model gets even more delightfully commercial-grade 17-inch stamped steel wheels with little holes around their circumferences.

We'll need to wait for Toyota to reveal a bit more about each trim level, along with pricing, to see exactly how basic the SR will be. But a few hints lurk in Toyota's specifications sheet and on its website. The SR will, like other lower-grade Tacomas, ride on a leaf-spring rear suspension instead of the newer coil-spring, multi-link design on nicer trims; it also gets a lower-output version of the new i-Force turbo I-4 gas engine making 270 hp and 310 lb-ft of torque—8 fewer ponies and 7 lb-ft less than the same engine makes in the SR5, PreRunner, TRD Off Road, TRD Sport, and Limited models, but substantially more than the old naturally aspirated, 159-hp 2.7-liter I-4 included on the old SRs. (A 278-hp 3.5-liter V-6 was available.) As you probably could have guessed, the also-new i-Force MAX hybrid version of that same turbo four-cylinder engine is unavailable in the SR, though a limited slip rear differential is included.

On the upside, the SR is one of the few Tacoma trims that offers a six-speed manual transmission—the others being the TRD Sport and TRD Off Road, though only on crew-cab versions of all three. Buyers can opt for rear- or four-wheel drive. Standard safety gear also is substantial, with the 2024 Tacomas upgrading to Toyota Safety Sense 3.0, which includes lane-departure warning, an automated emergency braking system with pedestrian detection, lane-keep assist, automatic high beams, and adaptive cruise control. Other new features include LED exterior lighting, proximity key entry, and a 7.0-inch gauge cluster display along with a new 8.0-inch central touchscreen running Toyota's latest infotainment software.

We can't wait to see more photos of the SR Tacoma, and for final pricing to be revealed. The old Tacoma SR started at an affordable $28,030, provided you selected the odd Utility package, which chops $1,715 off the MSRP and is intended for commercial customers who don't need rear seats and other minor features. Look for the new model to hew close to that pricing, especially given the 2024 XtraCab no longer has rear-hinged rear doors or rear seats in the first place.