2014 SR5 Premium – initial impressions

[rick.deckard]

I traded in a 5th gen TE the other day and purchased a SR5 Premium. TEs are in short supply around here it seems. Frankly, my off-road opportunities are primarily limited to parking lots during snowstorms, so I took a hard look at what each model had to offer and moved to the SR5. Initial thoughts:

TE features not found on the SR5

1. rear locker. Probably the only thing I will miss on the SR5. But I think I only used it once last year.
2. multi-terrain select. Never used it.
3. crawl control. Never used it.
4. KDSS. I could be wrong but I don't think I'll miss it. I just don't do any serious off-roading. The less complexity the better.

SR5 features

1. I preferred the cloth seats in the TE to the vinyl in the SR5.
2. The head unit finally has been upgraded so the display is reasonably sharp.
3. Surprisingly (to me) I think I prefer the orange instrumentation in the TE to the blue in the SR5.

So, now the slow parking-lot-assault-vehicle build begins. Bilstein 5100s on order. Redoing my homework again on tires. Hope to be ready for a trip out to Colorado in July. Thanks to all in the forums who post. It really makes figuring out what to do next easy.