Pre production vs. production changes

[TacomaFan]

In the videos in Hawaii for the media event where they were checking out the various 2024 Tacoma trims, they would often call out that they are pre production. What changes if any, can we expect to see when they start producing them in mass in December? Any insight? Thoughts?

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[EKG]

I assumption would be around the plastics. My guess is Toyota used soft tools for manufacturing (I'm referring to the tools and molds used to make the plastic parts). Soft tools are usually quicker to manufacture and it's likely they used soft tools for the prototypes. There will be slight differences between soft tools and production tools. My guess is the final textures will differ...for example flat/smooth surfaces will get some texture in production. They may add UV coating to certain parts...things like that. I'd be pretty surprised if the changes are significant.

 

[mramseyisu]

So here's my educated guess. Used to be a cab engineer with Deere so it's not exactly the same as an automotive job but pretty close. The pre-production interior tooling generally isn't textured, they do that to check fits on plastic parts with non hardened mold tools. Assuming the parts all fit together then they'll tool it up again with hardened steel molds so they last for a lot longer. Those hardened molds will have the texture in them.

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