First-Gen Absolute Gem. Period.

A few of you guys here know I own this 2001 Tacoma prince of all pickups, and also a 2016 Lexus RX350.
Well the Tacoma has been sitting since the beginning of October in my gal's garage on its trickle charger as it's semi-retired and basically the RX is my daily.
Yesterday when I picked up Rose in the RX for a day of shopping, I noticed upon first startup the cranking sounded a bit lighter than usual. Our first stop was the bank. When I went to start it-nothing but rapid clicking-I immediately knew, bad battery. This battery is only 3 1/2 years old and the RX only has 23,000 miles on it. Called AAA-at least a 2 hour wait. So I left Rose with the RX at the bank and walked 2 miles back to her house, unhooked the Tacoma and went back to the bank and jumped the RX with my truck...with its almost 10 year old battery.
I go "which one do you wanna drive back to my place?" Rose goes "the truck" with no second thought (she loves that old truck as much as I do). So we get the RX back into my garage at my place, I wrench the bad battery out, put it in the truck and we continue albeit LATE now, with our day, starting now with bringing the battery to my Lexus dealer.
My service advisor tells me I am the ONLY customer ever that has "walked" a bad battery in, without the vehicle. He tells me he had to somehow set up in the system that I brought the whole vehicle in and that he needed at least 40 minutes to "put time" on the job.
Turns out that battery had a bad cell so I got a new battery from Lexus free and I'm about to go down to the garage and install it after this post.
The bottom line to this is-sometimes SIMPLICITY reigns supreme over COMPLEXITY. My RX has already had three recalls in its short life since I bought it new, and the Tacoma? ONE in almost 19 years.
And that old Tacoma's still my fucking hero. Its first trip out of an over two month sleep was to rescue a pig in a tuxedo.

 

And people call me crazy for holding onto a 10-year old truck with over 108K miles instead of buying something new!

 

My 03 with 165 k and nothing hurts on her shes the best just don't tell the wife haha loves this trucks ..

Great post BTW

 

what brand/type of battery is in your Tacoma, my truck is on its 3rd at maybe 5yrs of age or so on the current, it will probably need another new one of these years!

you should hear what some say to me with a near 23 year old dinosaur!
it does have a couple of quirks in the vents that have popped up lately that i must get fixed somehow that isn't going to break the pocket of close to $1000 or so estimated repair

 

I'm heading out shortly to treat my '95 to a new battery. The PO put a severely undersized one (C8?) in there, and I have been getting by with the weak cranking.

Picking up an X2Power AGM battery in the proper size.

Batteries Plus, $200 after rebate. 60 month replacement warranty. This will be 3rd one I have installed in my trucks.

 

Luxury car batteries have a big middle finger from me. Having to train BMW's onboard computer when a battery gets replaced is nonsense.

 

I had a 2001 DC from 2009-2018, selling it with 136 kmiles when I moved to a 2003 DC with 166 kmiles. But the 2003 was a Colorado truck with perfect frame and body, and the first one was starting to rust from its life in the Midwest. I hate rust like few other things in life. And the 2003 is white, the color I always wanted anyway.

The 2003 now has the better condition/better color FULL interior from the now-sold 2001 and at the rate I'm taking care of it will likely last me the rest of my life. Yes, a nice Gen 1 Tacoma is something to be kept. I'm not sure a better vehicle has ever been made, frankly.

I'm sure I'll have my 2003 when my Gen 2 2015 has been retired from the fleet.

That said, my 2008 RX350 has been superb from new. Not quite as perfect as a Tacoma, but awfully close, and I can look respectable in any company or situation with it. It's gotten me through some weather conditions that have shown it to be really quite capable. It's no pig. Dunno about the latest generations, though...

 

Agreed. Having the peace of mind knowing your vehicle will always reliably get you where you need to go is something you really can't a price on. How many bells and whistles does a person really need anyway? As long as the heat and radio work, and the windows go up and down, I'm happy.

 

You can't beat these old trucks

 

A "Toyota True Start". Great battery!

 

Yeah I was a little bit mad at the RX for putting me in a lurch yesterday something my Tacoma NEVER did yet.

 

I guess I'm lucky with that-after putting in the new battery that complex nav system loaded right back up within a minute and she ran fine today.

 

Thanks a lot! Yeah with our trucks you just know in your gut that you'll never have to worry and that you paid damn smart money for it.

 

dealer battery?

 

Oh, yeah.

 

Yup-hard to believe but yeah. I think Interstate makes them, not certain.

 

It's Johnson Controls, or at least it used to be.

 

Yeah and I read JC makes Interstate and others. BTW the original battery in my RX that is the subject of this thread is also made by them. I think it's a matter of too many things in this SUV that are a constant parasitic draw on one battery, even when the vehicle sits.

 

I find myself liking my 04 more and more every day. I was pretty disappointed in the 3rd gens. I had a 17 and loved everything about the truck except the erratic transmission and it was enough for me to get rid of it after 2 years.

Ended up finding a heck of a deal on my 1st Gen with 39k miles and after 4 months of ownership I wish I would have bought it first instead of going through all the headaches with my 17'. No better feeling than owning a reliable paid off vehicle. I plan on having this one for the long haul.

 

i've already had my tired old taco for the long haul
what comes after that?