Can you sell me on a 3rd gen? Update: You did!

Here is a real gem of an opinion piece. I recommend all truck enthusiasts, “pro-taco”, or “no-Taco” watch this. Not joking.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=wyCqvFoS57M

 

Hey, sometimes ya gotta move to Canada. No big deal.

 

Yeah, numbnuts (I mean that in the most positive way). OP posted a thread called "Sell me on a 3rd Gen". You are supposed to be selling him on a 3rd Gen, ya douche-cannon (also, the good kind). You're not supposed to be browsing the dealership with your thumb up your butt. Now get off your corpulent ass and move some units, you slack jawed, lazy boned, malodorous pervert!

Sorry, kinda went Monty Python there at the end...

 

I'm halfway to 90 myself, but I'm cool enough not to conflate JT and Beiber. Heysuess. Justin Timberlake is a hell of a talented dude. I'm not super into his music, but I know an artist when I see one.

Also..uh...I...uh...think the 3rd Gen sliding rear window is pretty sweet.

No I don't. No...just trying to get back on the rail here.
It's dumb actually, but I love opening and closing it immediately again (just because I can--and with a weird shaped little switch)

 

Lol. You right.

 

You don't want a horse.

My ex wife has horses and I tell her all the time all they do is "eat money and crap work".

 

That's what you want you can get it at Walmart. It takes a while to apply especially on big tread 285. But it looks better than anything out there in the shine last forever.

 

I would agree with this. Heck, when I worked at a Kia dealership as a technician I saw Kia's with 300k-600k miles on them (and Kia while improved lately is not historically known for its reliability). Common thing with those cars in that range, the owners took care of them, serviced them and made the preventative/minor repairs needed to keep them going. I would imagine most* vehicles could do this.

*I bet there are some duds out there.

To the OP though my thoughts on the 3rd Gen. In the last two years I have had a 2005 Ram 2500 Quad Cab Long bed 5.7L V8 (Traded) on 35's and a 2000 Chevrolet Silverado 1500 Ex. Cab Short Bed 5.3L V8 on 33's (Totaled) before that I had a 1993 F-150 Ex. Cab Short Bed 5.0L V8 on 37's (Sold) so these are the only vehicles I can base my judgement against. Reasons I love my 3rd Gen and why you might* also:

• Size. When I moved to Houston for work I quickly found out that my Ram would absolutely NOT work. My work has a single parking garage and no outdoor parking. The Ram was too tall to park and so it needed to go. A reason I didn't go to a full size half ton is the reality is my work requires me to park in parking garages commonly (downtowns) and while most modern parking garages can accommodate full size trucks. Not all can. I have co-workers that stress any time they park or have to find a different place to park because of their tucks. I don't. Plus I can park in my home garage; I could not with my old trucks and would not with a full size.
• MPG. While I was not expecting superb gas mileage, I want and need a truck, the Ram was averaging 8-10MPG in Houston and 12 MPG on the interstate. This was unacceptable to me. My older Chevy got 13-15 mpg before it was totaled. At the time I purchased my Tacoma my Fiancé had a 2013 GMC 1500 Ex Cab Short Bed 5.3L V8 and has a similar commute to me in the same part of Houston. She was getting 12-15 mpg. With all that being said my Tacoma gets 16-18 mpg on average doing this same commute. Days like today when I leave early I got 21 mpg. This is vastly improved for me. The F-150s at work say they are getting 14-16. 2MPG might not sound like much but even if I only got that much above a full size truck that would still add up to hundreds of dollars based on my average annual commute. (20,000 miles avg. annual fuel cost at 14mpg $3,571, 16mpg $3,125, 18mpg $2,778, and 20mpg $2,500. assuming avg fuel at $2.50).
  
• Function. One thing I considered is what am I going to do with it? I do sometimes take my dirt bike out, I sometimes do projects at home and need plywood or other large items, and I like to go off-road. My Tacoma can do all of those things and have the benefit of the above. In fact I can go off-road because of the first one. Sure my full size trucks could play in the sand or open fields but going down trails (At least the ones I have been on lately) forget it. Plus, for me off-road capacity was a must. My Tacoma boast as much ground clearance as my buddies brand new FX4 with smaller tires and a shorter truck (lower center of gravity) to me that’s impressive.
• Price. Everyone seems to complain about how expensive these trucks are. The only truck that was cheaper and comparable was the Frontier, and not by much. When I was doing my shopping a Ram Express (second from bottom) 4x4 was going to run me 45k, a FX4 F150 was going to run me 47k, a diesel Colorado 4x4 Z71 was going to run me 48k, a gas 4x4 Z71 Colorado was going to run me 42K, the Frontier Pro 4x4 was going to run me 31k. And my Tacoma TRD Off Road ended up costing me 33K. These are numbers I was given by dealerships for what I considered comparable vehicles. As you can see the Tacoma was only beat by the Frontier. I opted for the Tacoma because to me it looked better and Toyota has a stronger reputation.
• Power. I just wanted to make a comment about this since it seems so many trash the truck. I live in Houston, if you want to merge or get over, sometimes you need to move. This truck has no problem in my opinion downshifting and getting up to speed. It moves faster than my Ram or Chevy or Ford did. Sure with the V8 when you punched it the engine screamed and you got pushed into you seat a bit but then nothing really happened afterwards. I am sure the newer trucks would be better (the Ram and F150 I test drove, both 2017s, could move). But, I wasn’t looking for something that would go super-fast. I was looking for a truck after all. I don’t have any gear searching issues or constant shifting complaints. The truck shifts more sure, I am coming from 4 speed trucks to a six speed, but not excessively I would say. That and off-road this truck seems to have more than enough low end torque. This might change with mods but you can mod to fix that.

Just some thoughts, maybe they help maybe they don’t. I love the truck and I am happy I got it.

 

Good thoughts @Wesintex I thought of moving to another truck. Full-size or an SUV. But the Taco does a lot of things well. Good power, decent MPG, excellent reliability, company that stands behind their product, top 3 most off-road capable truck right of out the box, and fantastic aftermarket support (and OEM support—who else gets a factory snorkel in the US?? ). I tried driving a large SUV the other day. And was reminded why I moved away from full size trucks. Yes, there are little qualms about it—it’s not perfect. But checks a lot of the boxes for me.

 

@phsycle Great summary. I agree with it fully.

 

Ha ha!

Isn't that the truth! Our friends back in PA owned a couple farms, when we were teens we would clean stalls and bale hay for a couple extra nickels, can't say I ever want to do that again. My wife keeps on pushing for a micro farm (she grew up on a farm back in SC)...and I keep on saying no, I want to do less work as I get older...not more. Let's sell everything and buy a RV.

What I get from that is, we should buy a Tacoma SR with the 2.7, so we can change out our own alternators. Modern, yet the Average Joe can still work on it.

Yeah, I don't care about being cool. I generally don't like pop music...they tend to play it all the time at work (and well have to since we work with the public) like Adele...can't effin' stand her, sounds like a depressed dying cow. Parents were into cuntry music when I was a kid, then I discovered rock & roll, punk, metal, and what not. I try to listen to other genres, but always fall back to 70-80's punk. When I first moved to Tucson from PA, these girls my buddy and I were dating called me the farmer from hell, since I am from the country but hate cuntry music and listen to punk and metal.

Kinda getting into stoner rock now...




Tell ya, and electric sliding rear window would be nice...while I can reach the one in my extra cab, my back is trashed from working construction and doing stupid shit on the bikes over the years. Half way to 90, but walk like I am 80 in the morning....man if I hurt this much now, what is going to be like by the time I am 60...

 

Thought you were hawt for an 80?

You never use tire shine on a truck! Gaaaaad! Guessing you never take it in the dirt.

I used to do the tire shine thing when I was younger, when I used to rub on vehicles...now I barely wash it. It was all over when you ran it up a dusty road...ended up with 4 large brown donuts.

 

I was. I still am--as a 3rd vehicle (which I am not looking for right now). I remember driving one 10+ years ago. Triple locked. That thing was a tank. Then I drove one again. It's funny how your memory is so selective--tends to forget all the bad stuff. Slow, noisy, clunky, etc. Oh, and 12mpg. And plus the fact they're over 20 years old now, I don't want to spend my weekends and evenings under the rig. I even thought of a 100. They're getting old, too. I like the rear room, though. But I keep thinking I will not like having to go without a truck bed. Too useful.

I had a friend of mine who still has a 2.7L Tacoma, 5-speed. He says he tows a 3-4k lb trailer all over the west. No problems. Sometimes has to go slow over steep grades, but not semi-truck slow. I think you'll be fine with that set up. Start looking

https://www.cargurus.com/Cars/inven...=false&filtersModified=true#listing=193217605

 

Ha ha! I was going to say something on Expo, but stayed out, since I didn't want to piss off the LC guys. No way in Hell I would buy an old LC as a daily, hobby vehicle..maybe. I have a nearly 20 year old truck, which I have owned it since it was almost new. I know exactly what has been repaired over the years...and I tell ya...I am tired of wrenching on it. Getting ready to toss its' second steering rack on it here real soon. Every couple months I have to fix something. Spend $1500-2000 a year to keep it going.

If we were all honest with ourselves the 2.7 is more than enough. Majority of us just need something to get and forth to work...and some recreation on the weekends. It will be the truck I most likely end up with. But we are waiting to see if she gets tenure or not, before we spend anything. 2 more years...ugh! Until then I'll drive myself nuts "looking"...

 

The only thing is, you can get a very low mileage 2.7L 5-sp right now. In 2 years, it'll be much harder. AND with its discontinuation, even if you put on 40k miles in that time, the resale value will stay about the same on those things. Which is to say, you will pay the same for a truck with many more miles buying in 2 years.

Whether it's now or 2 years, you will need a new truck. Might as well get it over with sooner than later.

 

This is so true, especially in my case as I look at replacing the spark plugs on this 3.5l V-6 of mine I shudder at the thought of having to remove all those components. My previous 4.0l was so simple, a ten minute job by comparison.

I criticized the Nissan Frontier for making one remove the intake at 50k to replace them, and now here I am looking at almost the same thing at the 60k recommended interval, even though I'm still a good year or two away depending on how much I decide to drive it.

But this is my fault, I could have chosen the 2.7l with much less complicated tech & components, slight better mpg and slightly less time off the line. But I guess a couple of seconds is an eternity now a days lol!

 

Yeah I know, I just want to play it safe until we know what is going to happen with her job. Pretty sure she'll get it...she busts her ass and goes above and beyond what she needs to do. But as they say there are no guarantees in life.

If she gets it...I can "retire" from my job I have had for the past 22 years...I will have to still make money, but I can work from the house instead. Then of course I really won't need a new truck since the 60 mile commute goes away, where we live we can ride a bicycle to everywhere we need to go. For an example have 3 grocery stores all within 1.5 miles of the house. Which is odd since there are a bunch of a small pastures mixed in, why the neighbor has horses...it is like country living yet being in a town.

In the end they are just dumb trucks, no need to drop $30K on new one right now.

 

Seriously, Nancy, just make up your mind! In that case, just wait a couple years and get a 3/4 ton with an Alaskan.

 

Holy shit, you are only 45 years old? GTFO and come back when you get my age. Geez, the way you post you would think you were 70 yo. You are ten years younger than me! Wanting all the "good ol days" crap. Hell, you have no clue how bad the "old days" were. Get something new and move on with life.
Since I turned 50 five years ago I have broken a collarbone, six ribs (two separate wrecks - 3 and 2) two fingers (again two different wrecks) and my right foot. All from mountain bike wrecks. Don't give me a sad song when you haven't even reached 50 yet. Life is short man. Live hard and full cause you have no idea if you will be here tomorrow.

 

Yeah, I have been told I have a very old soul...part of it is I had to grow up fast. My dad has MS, has been in a wheelchair since I was 4-5??? I honestly don't remember him walking. One of the reasons I started driving at 9-10??? Learned to drive in a '76 F250. Had to help out around the house/property at a very young age and started working when I was 12-13, paper route, mowing grass, chopping firewood sort of things. We used to own a construction business, "officially" started collecting a paycheck with taxes removed there when I was 15. Most of our equipment/trucks were from the 60's and 70's.

Trust me...I know all too well about living life hard. All of my old injuries are catching up to me... Screwed my back up when I was 15 moving rail road ties around. in 2014-15 my L5 herniated, I couldn't stand for more than 20 minutes at a time, and couldn't walk more than a 1/2 mile...that went on for a year and half. I won't get into the broken bones and sprains, and trips to the hospitals over the years.....I am tired, in pain constantly, and grumpy.

Given my dad's disease and my screwed up back...oh yeah...you never know what tomorrow might bring. That said, you know like me that we can't live life like there is no tomorrow. Be nice but that isn't reality.

She had a lot harder life than me, long story short...she grew up dirt poor, has been homeless twice (literally)...even though we both do ok now financially, we both are super thrifty...because, well...you never know what tomorrow may bring.

Yeah that is the other reason I am kinda waiting.

If she doesn't get tenure, she basically looses her job...if that happens, she has decided not to seek employment in the academia field. The BS internal politics that she has to put up with is staggering, however... we both have of a lot invested into her degrees and moving here, going to see if it pans out . We like it here, and don't want to move...we have a couple back up plans to fall back on to, but I won't get to "retire" from my current career.