Anything to look forward to?

If DC , then in Canada you have only 2 options , AT with the 6' bed or MT with the 5' bed

Also only TRD Sport , SR5 or base models , no DC TRD Offroad in Canada

Those points may help narrow your decision

 

Something like this would just about fit the bill.

http://www.kijiji.ca/v-cars-trucks/...r5/1030724302?enableSearchNavigationFlag=true

 

Shortbed but that's just me

Best of luck OP , and welcome to the site

 

At least it's not the Sport Trac bed! Always looked at those and wondered what you could possibly use it for.

 

Same thing

 

Looks sharp, go for it!

 

Well, I couldn't imagine not having the 6 ft bed either, but at least the Tacoma short bed is 5 ft. That Sport Trac had a 4 ft bed.

 

Don't get me wrong, My sport trac fit my lifestyle perfectly, and fit in my garage with room to spare. I used it for hunting, it could fit 2 deer easily. Worked great to pick up pigs to butcher from a local farm. It was great in the city. Throw the bed extender in and go to home depot and get anything I needed. The independant suspension is great, rides better than any other truck I have drove. With the blizzaks on its unstoppable in the snow.
Problem is, if its spending time in the garage getting fixed, even by me, its costing me money. Reliability is number 1, and with a family to look after I cant afford to have some pile of garbage leaving me on the side of the road, especially with winter coming up. That and the continuous barage of repairs.
I need to finish changing out the cam chain tensioner in the front of that garbage V6 so its worth something on a trade. Still owe more on it than I will get I'm sure. Probably next week if it didn't take anything else out when it went, and all the parts come in. Good compression still so the heads are still good. Dam interference valves.
Here's hoping. The toyota is 2 inches shorter, also minus 8 inches for the bull bar on my sport trac it should leave me lots of room in the garage.

On a side note, does the toyota 4.0 use a timing belt that needs to be replaced, or are the cams chain driven?

 

Welcome to TW!
I owned my for a year now, best decision I ever made
I used to be a Chevy guy, aftern owing a Tacoma I would never go back to a Chevy
2008 DC auto 128,000 km and no issues at all

 

Chain. No replacement interval.

 

Sold,
The rigline uses the belt so that's enough to turn me off.

 

Ridgeline is an interference engine, so if the belt goes you're in trouble. That said, it's a belt with a replacement interval so if you stick to that you should be fine.

I'm not sure if the Tacoma 4.0 is or not...can't find a good indication either way.

Subaru H6 engines use timing chains and it was very unusual for the chain to give out, even with well over 200k on them.

 

I've had my '09 DC SB Sport 4.0 Auto since new. I've got 65k miles on it now and love it more than ever. I had one issue, the factory cabin fan resistor wiring. The original wiring was too thin. Since I was out of warranty when it started acting up I paid for the technical service bulletin repair. No problem since.

The ABS on Tacomas is downright frightening on icy roads.

I drove one of those Sport Trac's once and HATED it. Cornering at high speeds made me feel the whole thing would tip over.

 

20,000 miles on the clock and no issues for me so far with the 6 speed. I'm not easy on it and neither is the climate in NH. She takes a beating and loves it! I owned a '13 tacoma with an auto before this truck and I hated it. If there was a way to shut off the annoying automatic downshifting it did whenever I tapped the brakes I wouldn't have minded it so much. One thing I will say in favor of the auto is the center console layout is nicer, and I got 1 mpg better.

 

That does annoy me in my 2011. If I want engine braking, I'm capable of downshifting. Not to mention, the truck doesn't exactly pick up speed at a rapid pace on most hills anyway.

It's tailored to the less conscientious driver who will ride their brakes all the way down a hill without it.

 

Back to you original question. Make sure you look underneath at the frame for significant rust. Steering wheel vibes. Test drive anything your gonna but at highway speeds if you can, check for any kind of vibes. Bought mine used with 46000 miles on it had quite a steering wheel shake, dealer aired up the tires and shake was gone. Sounds like your looking at used, as long as routine maintenance was done these things run forever.

 

I've put 91000 miles on my Tacoma and the only issues were a bad UJoint at 70k and a bad wheel bearing right now.

From lurking on these forums it seems the most common points of failure are wheel bearings and people who complain of excessive vibration at highway speeds. Some claim a RoadForce balance fixes the issue, others claim nothing fixes it if affected. Just make sure you pay close attention at 60 mph when test driving.

 

The throw out bearing was an issue on the 6-speed.The ones that used the LUK bearing. The TSB was issued and mine was replaced with an AISIN bearing.

 

I have a friend who bought a new 6 speed in 07 and the T/O bearing has made noise since about 65k miles. It's got about 140k on it now and it's still making noise but still going strong. My brother in law bought a six speed new in 05 also. No noises from his. But after driving his multiple times I bought an auto. First one I had EVER bought too in 25 years. I'm up around 150k on mine now and it's perfectly fine. I'm actually on my 3rd second gen tacoma now and I've logged around 200k miles between the three. They've been pretty predictable. Front wheel bearings around 75k miles on all 3, serpentine belt drive pulleys/tensioner on both V6's around 120k miles, and shocks around 80k miles. Other than that the only surprises I've had were a broken spring (toyota is now recalling these) and a bad head gasket on my current truck right after I bought it. But the dealer covered that under their 30 day warranty thankfully.