Thinking of trading in a 16 ram 1500 for a 2nd gen tacoma... Thoughts?

You're gonna have a rough time demanding 4WD, under 130k, wanting a double cab, and having a $13k budget. Like... so rough it probably ain't gonna happen. Maybe you can get a real early one like an 05-07 that's right around 130k?

I have 2 kids, and I got an access cab because I just couldn't justify the jump in price for a crew cab. That and I love manuals and wouldn't want a tiny 5' bed, and DCLBs are both auto only and uncommon. I came from a 1st gen Tacoma (pretty much an 80s pickup with a few updates...) so I think the AC is nice and roomy, and I don't mind the suicide doors... especially when I remember the $100 a month they save me.

I personally would reconsider the opposition to doing the swap in AZ. I don't think that the prices out there are worse than the NE... they both have crazy demand (I probably see an average of a Tacoma per mile driving around here...) but the supply of decent ones around here is limited by the whole rust thing. There's the frame replacement, but not everything qualified, not everyone got it done in time, and there's more to the truck than just the frame made of steel.

 

There's no upside to downsizing.

fb40dash5 is right -- for what you want, it's gonna cost you closer to $20K. At $400 per month, that's 4 more years of payments. If you can sell your Ram for what you owe, then it makes sense to buy a Tacoma. However, even with a best case scenario, you can forget about saving any money.

 

Might want to check with Empire Southwest in Mesa and Road Machinery in Phoenix if you haven't already. Not really up on my Heavy Companies....
Good luck with the move and the truck hunt!

 

The one I'm thinking of looking at is an 07 4x4 v6 dcsb with 120k new frame and priced at $12,5.. I owe right at kbb trade in value.. I'd only do it under the conditions my truck gets payed off. And then that $12,5 truck (before trying to negotiate) would make sense.. and after some searching 07 seems pretty durable

 

Thanks I'll give them a look for sure!

 

OK, so you're considering trading in a 3 year old truck for a 12 year old truck with 120K miles? In three years, you'll be making payments on a 15 year old truck. Even for a Tacoma, that may not be a wise investment. I would suggest increasing your budget so you can get into something like a 2012 Tacoma and plan to pay it off before the truck is 10 years old. At $500/month, it's possible.

 

The idea is to get a "cheap" reliable truck.. 2012's are $

 

There's an old saying: "You can't have your cake and eat it, too."

You have to take into the consideration the additional cost and inconvenience of repairs as your truck ages. A 15 year old truck that you're still making payments on and may require extensive repair work perhaps isn't the best option.

 

Agreed it is more of a gamble for sure.. however I plan on paying it off fairly quickly.. theoretically in less than half the time of my current truck. It's an added bonus that if I have a slow month I'll have a much smaller payment to make.. searching through different threads here leads me to believe that even with its age and higher mileage itll more than likely outlast my newer Ram

 

So it seems as tho more are for this than against.. so the question still is - what problem areas should I look at on an 07 with new frame?

 

Yikes! What is wrong with 2012 models?

 

Tacomaworld has a boner for smog pump failures. If you lurk here its an epidemic, but in reality it isnt. 2012 is as good year as any.

 

Oh, that’s a relief. Thought maybe the frame was going to break in two, or termites would eat it down to the wheels or some such

 

Yeah, kinda like the '05-'06 head gasket issues.

 

Air injection system was added in 2012 but only the 2012 models only cycle once during startups and not on shut down like 13-15. There are some issues with the valves ($700) building gunk and deteriorating as well as the air pump ($400) filter falling apart and breaking the fins inside. People who have never experience the issue will eventually will because it will eventually break down.

Good news is that Toyota finally recognized the issue and put out a warranty enhancement. Bad news is that again, it will eventually break down.

Best news as of this year is that there is now a tuning program that can by-pass this issue.

 

BTW, if you haven't explored financing options yet, I'd encourage you to do that before you get in too deep. When you start talking about taking out a >$10k loan on a 12ish year old truck with 100k on it, it limits your options and what options there are usually are pretty high interest, and limited term.

When I bought my '11 in January, I think there were only 3 or 4 banks the dealer found (I tried Cap 1 and USAA, Cap 1 wasn't interested and USAA wanted like 11%) and I think 1 was 4 years at like 8%, the other 1 or 2 were only 3 years, and I ended up with SunTrust, with 54 months at like 7%. That was with the wife and I with 750ish scores, and income about 5.5x the financed amount. I don't plan to keep the loan that long, but I've got about 2 years before I can pay off the wife's car and I wanted to keep the payments around $300.

 

My past truck was a Ram 1500 and before that, a F150. I bought myself a used 2015 DCSB V6 Tacoma just this past Feburary with a little over 30k miles.

I absolutely love this truck and do not regret it one bit. I live near downtown Houston so everything is pretty tight and going from a half ton truck to a Tacoma made it a lot easier.

I love the zippiness of the Tacoma and how little to no body roll it has compared to a 1500.

I think you should wait until you get to Arizona. Plus, you'll be relatively close to Texas where you can find trucks for a great price. I got my Tacoma for $25k with 30k miles.

 

Thanks for for the info. Hope you didn’t learn all of that from experience. Guess I’ll have to scrounge up $1100 plus towing

 

Happened on my 2015 Prerunner with 7K miles. Toyota covered it under warranty. Like I said, Toyota did a warranty enhancement on it. I just forget the details of it.
$250 for HP tuner tune and the system gets turned off.

 

Magical