Beautiful rig!!After 1 full year and significant drama along the way, right up to the end, I've finally taken delivery. Overall it's quite intoxicating and I have not even been wheeling yet. Much has been said about this truck in the media so I'm definitely not going to do any significant review or rehash, but some observations might be useful/interesting, perhaps to both those who already own and those still waiting.
More to come after some real use - crawling and high speed desert time.
- The exhaust note is very good, especially for a turbo. Deep and throaty and the exhaust modes really work and make for significant changes to the overall loudness. Baja mode just rocks.
- One primary function of the various GOAT modes is to alter many transmission software parameters - shift rpm, multi-shifts (up and down, will or won't), speed to trigger downshifts, both coast down and under braking, rev matching, etc. Unfortunately, this is not an independent adjustment like steering, suspension and exhaust - it should be.
- Shifting when cruising mellow in Normal modes gets one into 10th gear remarkably quickly and at a very low speed.
- Brake dive (one of my most significant gripes on my TRD Pro 4Runnner) is much less. I suspect braking affects shock damping in real time in the Raptor.
- Significant lack of interior lighting, contrasted strongly by wonderful, bright and broad exterior lighting from the white lights aimed at the ground in the mirror housings. I'll also add an underhood and glovebox light at some point.
- The base 7 speaker stereo really sucks. Serious lack of good clear treble. Music just sounds flat/muddy/dead. On the flip side I like auto speed dependent (i.e. noise dependent) volume and it works quite well.
- I've been surprised by multiple "collision preparation" warnings when accelerating around curves with cars parked on the side. The sensitivity of this algorithm is way too high. Maybe this can be disabled.
- The steering wheel is really thick, and in a good way. Orange stitching reminds me of BMW M/Porsche and magnesium shift paddles are icing on the cake, despite too much wobble when playing with them (not noticeable when actually using them).
- The black fenders have a beautiful glitter like material embedded in them. Very subtle, except when clean, in bright sun and at the right angle. I suppose I should call this something more fitting like "metal flake", but it isn't, it really is like glitter. Love it or hate it, your Raptor is a big booty, glitter wearing rig.
- MGV seats are definitely warm and we are obviously in our cool season. Low 70s and sunny today
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- Minor annoyances beat to death elsewhere (I can't resist...). Double honk when existing running vehicle, required seat belt "OK" button presses and auto stop start all suck and will be going away by Forscan or otherwise. My temporary A.S.S. fix is if you set a Raptor button mode, it can include disabling A.S.S. .
I would love to hear some of your different exhaust modes?
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