Seats play a pretty significant role in how a performance car feels from behind the wheel. That’s why so many modern sports cars have super sporty bucket chairs with aggressive bolsters and grippy materials in an effort to keep you from being tossed back and forth as the car corners.
Toyota wants to solve that problem with off-roading, too. But obviously, bigger bolsters and better materials can only do so much to assist while on the trail. That’s why the 2024 Tacoma has new chairs called IsoDynamic Sport seats meant to make off-roading more comfortable for you and your passenger by employing similar technology to what’s already found underneath the truck.
These chairs basically have built-in shocks; four air-over-oil shock absorbers built directly into the seat back help dampen vertical and lateral movement while the Tacoma bounces over rocks. Toyota says you should have less neck and/or back pain after a day of off-roading.
The dampers are manually adjustable via two knobs on the seat backs, depending on how much give you prefer, and there are even pressure gauges within the carbon fiber housing that show your rear passengers the shocks at work.
I was able to place my butt in these seats for a limited time, but only in static TRD Pro. While I wasn’t actually able to test these chairs with the truck in motion, even the seats themselves felt hugely improved. The red camouflaged leather – carried over from the Tundra TRD Pro – looked and felt awesome, the bolstering was significantly better, and the shape itself was very form-fitting.
Passengers in the second row might feel a little cramped due to all the extra materials on the back of the chairs, and by my measure, the second row of the new Tacoma is pretty cramped as it is. But that’s a relatively small price to pay for what Toyota says will be a huge improvement in off-road comfort for front passengers. Sorry, rear passengers, there are still no fancy shock absorbers for you.
