Why did you buy your Tacoma?

Funny how a color can sort of embrace you. My 2002 off Road blew a head gasket at 213,000 miles in December. I was at a cross between fixing it or replacing. My wife and one of my sons kept on telling me I was due for a “new “truck. So I start shopping and I had my list of features that I was looking for. Had to be white that was my truck I wanted it to be white as I’ve already had a black, a red and a silver one. White with the black out option, that’s what I wanted.

But then I saw this black TRD and it was like in a cartoon where a beam of sunlight comes down and lights up the area and the vehicle was just glowing. I was like holy crap this is a nice looking truck. And the rest is history ...

 

I bought my 3-GEN to get my wife off my back.
Every time I would take my '96 (with 414,000 miles) on a long trip I'd get an ear-full of her warning me it was going to brake down and leave me stranded in the middle of no-where. Of course it never has in 24 years.
So I bought a new TRD Sport, but still drive the '96 quite a bit.

 

I had always driven BMWs and I wanted to try something different. A few buddies had 4x4s and I wanted to join them because I had a blast as a passenger and wanted to be the driver, so I got a Tacoma. Unfortunately, I don't 4x4 often so I regularly have regret but it immediately goes away when I hit the trails. I need to do it more.

And yeah, she's a bit slow but what can ya do.

 

Because the Frontier is outdated and too small.

 

I wanted to drive it, not fix it so I got a Tacoma.

 

It was 15-20,000 less than the Gladiator. Always loved Tacoma's. When my dad passed he had a 2nd Gen. White DCLB that i I was thinking of getting but i missed him so much everytime i went out and looked at it it ripped my heart apart. So i sold it and split the $$$$ with my sister. I used my half, a trad in of a 2013 JK and an 04 Mini to cover cover 60% of the cost and I covered the rest. Got a good deal on a 2019 with 16000 km on it that was the Finance Managers and $18000 worth of add-ons and the Color I was hunting for.

I really like Tacoma's. They are not perfect but seam to have decent reliability.

 

Getting ready to retire in a few months and was looking at what I wanted as a daily driver once I do. I had a 2004 Gen 1 TRD OR/SR5 that only had 41K miles on it but it was an Extracab - need rear seats for the grandkids, etc. I had planned on waiting until May/June and then I saw the AG TRD Pros and fell in love with the color. Still decided to wait and told my dealer I would check back in March and see if I could get an AG - or I would order something else. My wife and I were going over our finances for retirement in January and she said "why don't you just go ahead and order your truck?" When I talked with my dealer he told me had had ordered an AG Pro when he had an allocation in early December - h figured if I didn't want it when it came in he'd easily sell it. Karma worked out and I took delivery about a month later. Really enjoying the new truck.

 

Trying to load 5 bags of concrete, tools, and other stuff to get new house up to par into a Ford Escape with all my usual stuff for work was not working.

Decided I wanted/needed a truck that not only I can have fun during my off time with, but also can get some normal home improvement work done.

 

That’s just the reason why I have had 4 of em over the years!

 

Resale value,and the fact I can park my double cab truck in my garage !

 

Small enough to go through tight trails, useful bed, easy to modify, cheap to fix, reliable compared to other trucks in the market, sleek design and got mine loaded with every feature I could buy.

it’s off road luxury.

 

I bought mine partly because of good past experiences with Toyota vs other brands. I was also already very familiar with servicing Toyota vehicles. I wanted a truck that would last more than ten years without little things going wrong all the time. I really enjoyed the drivetrain of every V6 Toyota I’ve tried over the years, And their trucks seem to hold up well. They won’t have the get-up of any V8 pickup, but I don’t find any lack of power. Driving around my dads 2012 V6 Tacoma for a week helped to pretty convince me to get a Taco to replace my worn out 4runner. A Full size truck would be a little too big for some places I go anyway. I like the smaller, more simple design of my 2018 Access cab Taco. I take everything I read on this forum very lightly, since it makes up probably less than 5% of 3rd gen Tacoma owners. Lots of people join forums with problems, not just for fun. And all vehicles can have problems. Tons of people have these trucks without any complaints. Look around on the roads, they are everywhere and keep up with all the other vehicles just fine. Just be sure to take a real test drive (try and go all the routes you normally drive, try a steep hill at different speeds if possible, make sure you actually take it out on the highway, try ECT) These trucks do not mind RPMs. Hope my ramble helps

 

I got a Tacoma for various reasons.
1.A couple of my friends had the previous generation of Tacoma and had zero issues with theirs - important given the remote locations i intended to visit
2. I was gearing up for a long road trip, and my 3 series’ leather couldn’t handle the dog and my Silverado was too worn down to trust cross-continental
3. Versatility - the Tacoma can off-road, pull trailers, haul cargo, & transport the dog while still having reasonable mpg and road civility. Figured if i was going down to one vehicle, it better be able to do it all
4. Damn good looking truck - whether covered in mud or shined up for date night
5. Compared to a jeep, plenty of bang for the buck
6. Good safety tech & crash rating - something you hope to never use, but good to have
7. The only truck available with a manual transmission made it a done deal

 

-Manual
-Basic
-light boat towing
-Who cares about color or looks
-I never see framed toyotas in my shop other than maintenance or high mileage repairs

The 3.5L in this truck will spin its balls off. I just can't get over the people who complain about torque, especially manual trans. Spin them revs. Drive it hard.

 

I forgot to mention. A big thing for me was the safety. Active cruise, blind spot monitoring , lane departure warning etc. I haven’t found another mid sized truck that has all of these. And not even the 4R has all of the above

 

Back in 2009 I had just purchased my first home and my 2001 Rav4 that I'd had since college was getting a little long in the tooth. I put 172k miles on the Rav4 and it was damn near indestructible but it was time for a change and I wanted something with a little more cargo room for dump runs and trips to Home Depot. Thanks to my experience with my Rav4 I was already sold on a new Toyota and narrowed it down to a 4Runner or Tacoma.

The deciding factors were:
1. Toyota had just redesigned the 4Runner for 2010 and dropped the V8 option. Plus I thought it was ugly.
2. I could get the Tacoma with a manual transmission

I spent the second half of 2009 test driving Tacomas and figuring out exactly what I wanted. Over Christmas vacation I said f*ck it and decided to pull the trigger. 10 years, 120k miles, four sets of tires and a new frame later, I think I made the right decision. Sure it has a few quirks and I wish it was a little more comfortable, but the truck has never let me down. I'm torn between keeping it for a few more years or upgrading to something new.

 

The GMC Canyon does and I assume the Chev Colorado does, as well.

 

The main reason I bought my Tacoma was it has more cab room than the Nissan Frontier,or at least it felt roomier to me. If it wasn't I probably would have wen with the Frontier.