2025 Toyota Tacoma Trailhunter Review

A few years ago, Toyota’s then-CEO announced a company-wide ethos: no boring cars.

Not only has this attitude materialized in a healthy offering of sports cars like the GR86 and Supra, but it’s also informed how the company approaches trucks and SUVs. Almost every body-on-frame Toyota now has a TRD Pro model, but the brand has gone one step further with a couple models, including the 2025 Toyota Tacoma Trailhunter.

Absolutely loaded with off-road and overlanding hardware, the Trailhunter isn’t the Tacoma you may have once known. It’s also certifiably not boring. 

Styling 9 / 10

For starters, it gets attention like no other factory Tacoma before it. It’s tall, wide, and looks primed for battle, and the ARB bed utility bar gives it beastly, armoured personnel carrier vibes, especially in this shade of green-ish Bronze Oxide. The little red tow hooks underneath are new for 2025.

It’s pretty cool inside, too. The new Tacoma is all chunky, squared-off shapes and fake bolts and screws, but the Trailhunter’s specific trimmings give it a look that’s probably best described as bougie-tactical. The dash trim looks like stone, the stitching is yellow, and the raised TOYOTA lettering in front of the passenger lets people know this is not a truck one buys by accident.

Safety 7.5 / 10

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) has named the 2025 Tacoma a Top Safety Pick. It scored “Good” or “Acceptable” in crashworthiness, crash avoidance/mitigation, seat belts, and child restraints, except for the updated moderate overlap front crash test, where it was “Marginal.” Toyota Safety Sense 3.0 is standard, encompassing adaptive cruise control, road sign assist, lane tracing, lane departure warning and mitigation, automatic high-beam control, and pre-collision avoidance. 

Features 10 / 10

The Trailhunter is all about off-road toys, and the list of them is long. Rigid LED fog lights can shine in two different colors, a front stabilizer disconnect mechanism allows for more suspension articulation, and an onboard air compressor lets you refill your tires after airing them down.

The beefiest roof rack you ever did see sits up top, there are steel skid plates front, rear, and under the transfer case, and rock sliders protect the sides in the event of a bottom-out. A snorkel-style air intake on the A-pillar is a stylistic and aural flex more than anything (more on that later), and there are four auxiliary switches to add even more gizmos of your own. All that’s on top of the Tacoma’s regular equipment, such as the big 14-inch touchscreen and the removable Bluetooth speaker in the dash that makes sure the Fetty Wap doesn’t stop when you get to the end of the trail. 

User-Friendliness 9 / 10

That screen is pretty easy to use on account of its size; Toyota has made all the icons and buttons huge instead of just cramming more of them in. Below, there are proper physical climate controls with big knobs and very rugged-looking switches. There’s a huge volume knob and a traditional gear selector, while all the off-road, differential, and drive mode selections are done via simple controls as well.

Practicality 7 / 10

Usually, a big footprint means big practicality, but most of the Trailhunter’s real estate seems to be taken up by aura, not pragmatism. The bed measures six feet (it’s the only hybrid-powered Tacoma offered this way), and it can tow up to 2,722 kg (6,000 lb), so if that’s your idea of practicality, then it’s great. 

But as a more urban runabout vehicle, its dimensions make it a bit of an ordeal to live with and park, and its rear seats are kind of small compared to something like the Toyota 4Runner that’s also offered in Trailhunter trim. This double cab configuration is the only one available in Canada, as the smaller two-door model sold in the United States isn’t available here.

Comfort 8 / 10

Once you get going, though, the Tacoma Trailhunter rides quite comfortable, likely thanks to the big cushions that are its 33-inch tires. The seats are pretty comfortable, too, but at speeds faster than about 80 km/h, wind noise gets loud since its exterior adornments are optimized for function and rugged aesthetic, not aerodynamics.

One consistent pain point would be the lack of running boards or driver’s side A-pillar grab handle. This truck’s sheer height meant getting in was done by pulling myself up by the steering wheel, which never failed to feel awkward.

Power 9 / 10

Available exclusively as a hybrid, the Tacoma Trailhunter is powered by a turbocharged 2.4L four-cylinder and an electric motor. It all makes 326 hp and 465 lb-ft of torque, which means a pickup that doesn’t feel slow in normal driving. Toyota has made this four-cylinder sound (and pull) like the old V6. I suspect some electronic trickery in the audio department here, and the jury’s still out in regards to long-term reliability. But if a vegan burger tastes and satisfies like the real thing, does it really matter that it’s vegan? 

The most notable aspect of the Trailhunter’s powertrain, however, may just be the ridiculous intake noise coming out of that passenger-side snorkel. Crack the window open even a little bit, and acceleration is met with an extremely loud, extremely high whistling noise. Let off the gas, and it makes a theatrical blowoff sound like it’s a modified Subaru. It’s unequivocally hilarious if you’re into this sort of thing, but undoubtedly grating if you’re not. 

Driving Feel 8.5 / 10

On the open road, the Tacoma Trailhunter handles easily and precisely enough for a pickup, but good luck with parking or U-turns, because the turning radius is positively atrocious. Per Toyota, it’s 7.71 metres — notably wider than what the rest of the lineup manages. It’s one of the only vehicles I’ve ever had to do a three-point turn with simply trying to get it in and out of my condo’s parking garage. 

But that’s not where this thing naturally excels. On a short off-road trail, it more than lived up to the Trailhunter name, going over steep dirt hills, uneven rocky sections, and muddy patches without breaking a sweat. The forged monotube Old Man Emu shocks that allow for impressive articulation through the forest also meant sending it quickly down a jagged dirt road felt barely less comfortable than a car would on regular pavement. The 33-inch all-terrain tires, four-wheel drive, ground-pointed cameras, and  multi-terrain select traction optimizer do their jobs well, and the trail-specific drive-controller is easy to make sense of, even for novices.

Fuel Economy 7 / 10

Natural Resources Canada (NRCan) has rated the hybrid Tacoma for 10.5 L/100 km in the city, 9.9 on the highway, and 10.3 combined. Those are pretty good numbers for something this heavy, quick, and aggro. Good luck actually hitting them, though, because after 500 km of urban crawling, highway cruising, a bit of off-road work, and purposely goosing it to hear that hilarious intake whistle whenever possible, I averaged 14.7 L/100 km. 

Value 6.5 / 10

The regular 2025 Tacoma Hybrid starts at $64,740, but the Trailhunter goes for an extra $19,999 for a total price of $86,769. That’s about $10,000 more than the Chevrolet Colorado ZR2 Bison, which goes for about $76,000, and roughly $5,000 more than the Ford Ranger Raptor. On purchase price alone, the Tacoma Trailhunter is anything but an affordable truck, and “value” is unlikely to be anyone’s main reason to get one. However, presumably superior Toyota residual value should be kept in mind, and when they are, its price premium over its direct competitors becomes easier to swallow.

The Verdict

Unless you live on a farm at the end of a literal trail, the 2025 Toyota Tacoma Trailhunter is probably not the greatest daily driver — it’s hard to park, hard to climb into, guzzles fuel, and gets hella attention — but to dwell on that would be missing the point. This is a toy, a factory off-road starter pack with pretty much everything one needs to conquer tough terrain. And, arguably, a whole lot you probably don’t.

On the whole, I came away from my week with the Toyota Tacoma Trailhunter thinking, “What a capable, cumbersome, undeniably cool thing this is.” It will indeed hunt down and eat up a trail, and go on to absolutely look the part everywhere else.