Best truck buying experience ever

Here's props to you fine folks at TW and the little truck known as the Taco. After buying a used '06 SR5 4cyl last year, I discovered not only some parts for sale here but all kinds of good advice and idea's for mods. So yesterday, after more positive advice over the last week here at TW, I pulled the trigger on a trade to a newer Taco and could not be more pleased.

First of all the transaction. I found a car lot in Knoxville Tenessee that calls itself more a vehicle locator service than a dealership or a garage. I saw an ad they had on Craigslist trying to sell a Tacoma they found for a customer that never picked it up. It's an '09 Access Cab Sport 4x4 6sp manual 4.0L in silver, exactly what I wanted. The price was a little high but later I discovered their search for that truck led them to a Toyota dealership in Ohio that had it for sale as a CPO (certified pre owned) and of course they added to that figure. But they did come down on their price after negotiating on the phone and much better than that agreed to my requests from their garage.

They have a full service shop at their lot with 2 or 3 ASE certified mechanics. I got lucky and their head guy was an ex-Toyota tech, who helped carry out my requests.

When I agreed to their price I said here's what I want from you, my wheel-set and suspension is only a few months old and I don't want to buy all that again for my new truck. So they agreed to swap out my Bilstien 5100's, the entire rear leafs with the AAL's and the wheels/ tires of course. All this was agreed to after we settled on a price so they didn't build it in, they did it as a courtesy. It took two mech 4hrs to do the swap and they even let me assist.

Secondly the truck. I was disappointed with my 4cyl as soon as I loaded it with my tools, I am a cabinet maker and carry a bunch of shit to the jobsite. It was a manual also but a complete dog on the highway, no guts at all with a load. Add to that, my milage was no better than you 6cyl guys were getting. It was pretty early on in Tacoma ownership I started to regret my first purchase. Everything else about the truck was awesome, I just needed more ponies. And now I got it, this 4.0L rocks, holy crap what a combination of power and gearbox. Plus now I have the comforts of the Sport model with the suspension for off-road. I am beyond satisfied, what a great experience and awesome truck.

 

Sounds like you did good all the way around.

 

Cool deal. Do you mind to post the name of the place you bought it from? I'm in east tn and it's always nice to have some options that you know are good when looking for a vehicle.

 

Nice!

 

PALS Personal Auto Locator Service in Knoxville. Talk to Joseph, great guy!

 

Nice work OP. Slick lookin ride

 

Oooh, nice color bud!