1st Gen Tacoma Equivalent?

Over the last year I turned my little 2003 Tacoma into a project, replacing the cylinder head, went through and refreshed every ball joint, tie rod, control arm bushings etc. I didn't expect to have as much fun as I did. I love how much info there is on this forum and timmy the toolmans videos.

Is there an equivalent that any one has an opinion on for a daily driver/commuter car? Good online support (youtube), reliable, easy/fun to work on!

$10,000-$15,000
Decent mileage 20-30mpg
4 door (kids)
easy to work on


Bonus points for being a manual transmission!

 

Take your pick of import sedans / 5 door hatchbacks?

 

Honda Civic would be pretty close: low frills, common, seemingly easy to work on, and reliable. Available manual transmission for most (if not all) generations.

 

Early 2000's Lexus IS300 with a manual transmission and a 2JZ

 

LS400. But no bonus points.

 

A 3rd gen Avalon should do the trick. Plenty of power, mid 20s mpg, lots of room (reclining rear seats!), and the 3.5 V6 was thrown in everything for many years.

 

Till I got to 4 kids …
Miata.

Scion xBs are really good vehicles, but people don’t like to get rid of them. Toyota still supports them.
I’m fond of 2nd gens, but 1st gens are really good too. 2nd gens are actually Corolla related & are essentially a box body on a Matrix S. It’s an AZE-150 body code.

Any Corolla or Camry are good. Driving is more meh, but can be made good.
Others have raving loyalty to other sedans. I hate sedans.

 

Hands down the 92-95 Honda Civic. Cheap, easy to work on, OBD1, will run forever.

 

Except the prices are up there with 1st gen Tacoma's, and there aren't many available. At least last time I looked.

 

My thought would be a Civic.
To get a lot of good informational Youtube and other online posts you need a big enthusiast community. Camrys and Corollas don't really have that in the same way Civics do from what I've seen.

I have never really understood why theres such a big Civic community, to me its just another basic commuter like a Corolla, but I bet they think the same thing about us and our Tacomas.

IS300 might fit the bill too, but they're getting expensive. Real cool cars though.

If you lose the 4 door requirement theres the BRZ/FRS/GT86 triplets. The 1st gens (15-22) are starting to drop under 15k. Miatas as well of course.

 

Interesting, but Tacoma's have the community and support largely spurred on by the offroad community, while Civic's have the on road equivalent with the tuner community. They are both good base vehicles to modify and make your own. Those aftermarkets don't exist the same way for many other vehicles.

 

I would guess that some of the Subaru's have good communities, but I also remember how I drove as teenager, and even though some of that driving was in a WRX STI, I'd be reluctant to give my kid that much HP and traction.

 

The FRS/BRZ/86 first gen’s backseat is not really useful for anything but tiny kids.
I got one for my son (was best car for the money I could find) after his 09 xB was totalled (someone pulled in front of him from a Dollar General on a 4-lane highway).
We are both just over 6’ tall.
The back of the front seats are against the front of the back seats.
There is no way we could carry anyone with legs ….

It is only useable as a 4-seater with very smalll kids & with smaller adults.


That said …. car is fun to drive.

 

A Subaru would be a good one, lot of information to make working on them pretty easy.
Tons of videos to help you replace all the head gaskets you'll blow through

 

Sell the kids.

Just kidding.

You could go semi Daddywagon. Or jump to post 831 in the same thread for another option....

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/my-daddywagon.296656/page-42

 

my 2015 mazda 3 2.0L 6MT was cheap, is easy to work on and gets 30+ mpg when i drive like an idiot (cause its like a go cart) and 40mpg when i dont. the hatch back will take a surprising amount of gear too.

 

Because they're cheap to work on and make fast. You can install a cheap ebay turbo kit on the stock D15 and beat like 80% of vehicles on the road. Nowadays people are doing AWD swaps on them. They're basically like Legos.

 

... Sounds fun

 

Even at those prices I've seen some that I feel are great value. You can find them with a manual transmission and < 150k miles for around 15-18k all day.

Saw one on cars and bids with a tasteful body kit, aftermarket turbo (with all the supporting mods - fuel pump, intercooler, injectors, tune), 118k miles, clean interior for $17k. It had dyno sheets showing 650 rwhp

To me that is a great car for that price point in today's market.

 

It's something I definitely plan on doing. They're pretty capable as a FWD, can't imagine them in AWD on the mountain passes.