How much weight do you need to tow? Or haul in-bed? That will skew my recommendations.
I like Toyota's in general, but my father-in-law has a 2012 Tacoma (2.7L 4 cylinder, AT, 4x4, regular cab). It does feel very small inside, we have an '06 Rav4 that feels much more spacious in the front passenger compartment. Your legs are forced out in front of you, as others have said, and I'm not a fan of the seats.
I'm not a huge fan of the way it drives in any aspect (steering, brakes, engine, transmission), but some of that could be the shorter wheelbase and the 4cyl. I typically like every car I drive, so I was very surprised that I didn't like it. I mean, I rented a base model Sentra, drove 500 miles on it in a day, and generally liked it.
The most impressive feature in my book is the payload capacity. It's basically like a full-size truck from a payload capacity perspective. I would definitely drive one before putting down some money, but as others have said, if you buy new and made a mistake, they have stellar resale value, so you really can't go wrong.
