Generational Discrepancies

I was looking at the 3rd gen tailgate letter inserts the other day. I can take them or leave them, I don't own a 3rd gen, so I don't have much of an opinion on a product I currently have no use for. I have a 2nd gen, and thought what do 2nd genners do to mod their tailgates? They normally debadge their tailgates. I thought what a generational discrepancy that is, one generation removes the letters off their tailgate, while the other generation adds letters to their tailgate. Has anyone noticed any other mod trends, that have changed between the generations of Tacomas?

 

Yea, people with 2nd gens have gotten past all the early-years bitching and complaining about everything and are now just enjoying their trucks. 3rd Gen discussions are still largely dominated by gripes. And I don't post this as a swipe at 3rd genners -- Lord knows a lot of second gen stuff was complained about early on.

And on a personal note, I admit that when the 3rd gens came out I was not impressed. But the more of them I see, I'm really kind of liking them. (except for the stock grille)*

*Shit, even I'm doing what I posted about -- bitching about new stuff! ha!

 

I notice 3rd genners getting a lot of ladies/guys at the mall (depending on what you're into) while the 2nd genners are pretty much hanging out at home by themselves giving there old rusty rides some much needed maintenance.

 

I don’t see it. Plenty of people debadge their trucks. My friend debadged and then added the letters.

The only difference I see is that I find more 2nd gens offroad but there are a lot more of them built and they are old.

 

We’re still waiting for our warranties to expire to do some major mods. Or the suspension to get bad to lift it the right way

 

I don’t see the point of debadging. I might even buy more TRD OR stickers to put in various places.

I do like black accents, which my truck came with from the dealer—no chrome except a strip around the grill. I might take care of that at some point.

The older I get the more I like contrasts between light color and black. Hate chrome, which I think I share with Gen Xers. However, I don’t like blacking out taillights. That’s a fad whose time should have come and gone IMO.

 

2nd and 3rd gen owners are at different stages of ownership.

Third gen owners are more likely to be the first owners of their trucks, most are still under warranty, many are still making payments, interact with Toyota dealers regularly. The fact that Tacoma, like most pickups, is adopting more car-like features and technologies is going to attract more prior car owners, etc.

Fewer 2nd gen owners are likely to be the original owners, most are out of warranty by now and many are making repairs instead, fewer are making payments, many bought their trucks already modified, etc.

All of these things are going to impact how one group views and uses their trucks relative to the other.

 

Third gen owners are more refined and sophisticated than second gen owners.

 

I removed my badges, and you would never find me adding inserts into the thousands of nooks, crannies, crevasses, depressions etc

 

I thought his thread was gonna be about old people fighting young people...

 

People have been modding their vehicles since vehicles became a thing. Whatever comes standard on a car, someone will invariably change it. It has very little to do with style and much to do with personalization. Everybody wants to be different, just like everyone else...

 

It is about old people fighting young people.... 2nd gen is old, 3rd gen is young!

 

I remember when we used to have chrome on our trucks. And we liked it!
Not like all you young whipper-snappers with all your fancy schmancy mods!
Now get off my lawn!

 

If the second gen had stamped letters that could not be removed, the mod would have been the stick-on letters to fill it in. If the third gen was a proper badge, people would remove it.

 

That was before the days of concentrated salt solutions used on the roads known as magnesium chloride.

Chrome is great until it’s brown.

 

Hope this never becomes a trend.



Just imagine the women(or men) he pulls in this thing!!

 

Is that a Ford?

 

The "tacoma" stamp in the tail gate is the only thing I really dislike. I did not add letter inserts to make it stand out. Would love to cut it out and weld in a new piece of metal.

 

A good swing out should cover it right up

 

I need my tailgate and I don't need a swing out on a 2wd. dd pool truck.