Wyoming B.S. Thread

Well the connection is usually an easy fix. Get some 90% rubbing alcohol and a cue tip. Dip it in the alcohol and scrub the contacts on the camera and the lens.

 

I am taking it to work tomorrow, i have the best cleaners there to see if i can fix the connection issue at least.

 

Sent an inquiry off to ADS, see what they come back with. Gave a detailed message about the trucks current setup and what my desire is, hopefully they can do the math and get me what I need. Not sure if they will custom tune or just send me off the shelf product. I'm still concerned their rear shocks don't mount to the stock mounts.

 

Fall migration is rolling. Had some fun at a refuge 1.5 hrs south of town.


I then went and test drove a 4th gen. they seem to have solved the engine power issue, now the power delivery is back pretty close to the 3.4l. Torquey but loses steam at the top. Walked away feeling like i would rather keep dumping money into my old truck instead. I cannot understand why an SR5 is priced at $44k. Insane money for how little you get.

 

They look great, and I want one, but I'm curious how the new hybrid stuff does long term. It's a lot of money for a short term thrill. Prob get a sequoia for the fam before I spend it on a new taco though

 

I didn't even try the hybrid one. At least that has something to it to justify some price. If anything my mind says an SR5 should be $34k and the hybrid $40k. At those prices it does make sense to me. I would prefer the hybrid if given the choice, based on how much I've liked hybrid platforms on other vehicles. Like I said I did like the truck minus the damn hood being way to big, looks bigger than the third Gen I had and that's saying something. A simple no frills truck but a premium cost of entry... No bueno.

 

Ah, I was under the impression they were all hybrid. Good to know, I'll have to look a little closer at them, haven't had a chance to drive one yet.

 

Wow that's a ton of cranes! Cool! Love those birds.

Yeah spendy for sure. Supposed to be much more comfortable though too. All new cars are spendy. 45k seems to be the new "base" for a new decent vehicle. Still nuts.

Nah I think you have to get a Limited as the lowest trim level you can get the hybrid. Which also has coil suspension in the back. SR5 is still leaf springs.

 

still seems insane for what you get.

And no, SR is leafs, the SR5 I drove, I crawled under, def coils. It rides nice for sure, I hope I can get my truck to ride better though.

 

Yeah I think 1st gens are a bit limited just in their geometery. you can get it good. But never be as smooth as a 2/3/4th gen.

But still be nice.


Yeah all our vehicles are over 250k, approaching 300k. And I can can't afford a payment much less 2 payments. Even used. I've seen things that people are agreeing to like 10-20 year car loans to have the payment down. But then you end up paying like 100k for a ford focus haha


wild times.

 

So... I know this won't make anyone feel any better really, because $44K seems insane to me as well for the price of a Tacoma, but I paid $23,500 for mine in 1999, new. Granted, I got the equivalent of a TRDOR trim with the various options I got, but certainly today's SR5 Tacoma has a lot of things mine doesn't.

$23,500 in 1999 → 2024 | Inflation Calculator

Pretty spot on.

 

Yeah if only wages have kept up with that same inflation. I'd be making almost 200k a year!

 

I admit having lucking out from that perspective, and then not had to worry about it for the last while. What was your starting salary whenever you started working at Tippet (man, I'm about to feel old, real fast), and what is it now? (if you don't mind sharing)

Edit:

Just found this, which isn't quite the entire time period, but does seem to imply that on average, wages/inflation tracked similarly at a national level between 2005-2022, though wages were going up faster than inflation until recently (and we know 2022/23 was crazy for inflation).

And of course, very few are average, so there's skewing of the data based on those who are making money hand over fist and those who aren't.

source: More Ways to Look at Wages and Inflation : U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

 

Wild times indeed. I guess it's been normalized to just carry high levels of debt, on a house I think is not a bad thing, but on depreciating assets is crazy to me. I go back to looking at a used cayenne one day, more power, way better features and comfort for $20k on the used market. Higher maintenance costs but that's a way easier pill to swallow.

Ha! I was going to pull the window sticker out of my truck and do the same comparison!

I compared your number to what I would say is the equivalent new Tacoma, the iforce-max trd off-road which rolls in at $52k before delivery so call it $54k. Yikes!

Regardless of what the chart says about wages, I know how different it feels just in the last 9 years. I had a mortgage and a new car payment for less than my rent is now by a significant margin. And that's hard to wrap my head around regardless of the math/logic is there.

 

interesting on that chart even my 2011 Tacoma (off-road with pretty much all the options) fits right in "line" with what I paid. I paid ~32k i think (ball park at least).

Least they have good resale. Im selling my tomorrow for 15k which is probably the low end of what i could have got if i actually had tried to sell it.

 

Mine didn't scale right at all off that chart, was 17,900 in 1996 according to the window sticker (which anybody paying MSRP or dealer window would have been laughably stupid back then so it was likely less OTD) brings it to 35k now call it 36. But even for a lower model I had options like cruise, ac, 4wd, and a V6 so it isn't the lowest model which would barely be in line with 35k if it was a 4 banger pre runner. I think these prices are typically supposed to be considered on a national level so it shouldn't make a difference that my truck was purchased in Pennsylvania.

 

I know a lot of people feel this way these days. I'm sure there's truth to it, since I think the wage gap is really out of control (at least here on the west coast) and I think there's also some societal "brainwashing" (probably not quite the right term... maybe "mis-set expectations" is better) that is responsible as well. With people seeing so much consumption on social media, and half of our political complex telling people that they have it "really bad," there's a new expectation/understanding about what we should all be buying/expecting, and that it should be what we want whenever we want it. That we should be eating out frequently, etc. A bit of the keeping up with the Jones' mentality.

Interesting! (on the pricing side)

As for the features - I mentioned that in mine as well, but I think that's a bit of a red herring. Today's vehicles have a lot of "standard" stuff that wasn't even an option on our trucks, so when we say "but the current base model doesn't have X from my truck," we forget to say, "but it does have A, B, and C that we never even thought of at the time."

 

You're either arguing that it has scaled appropriately or non-comparably and I can't figure out which it is.

 

I would agree perception is a big one. Just hard to use a broad painting brush and then see it apply to oneself perfectly. Plus a lot of it is I think people are worse off because of being shit with money so their situations are worse but from their own making. For me, I'm comfortable, but if I went and bought a brand new car then I would not be as comfortable! I hear what you're saying. Expectation vs reality. A lot of entitlement is in play too. Having been on both sides of the spectrum of drowning in debt and then debt free, it changed my perspective in a big way. Only took a decade, two house and a divorce to figure it out

As far as the features, I think you have to look at it vaguely. Like my 2001 V6 TRD off road was the top trim of TRD with the most powerful engine offered. It should be comparable to the most powerful TRD option available today.

Lol it took me a second but when considering his personality I figured out which direction he meant.

 

I'm just saying that we can't really tell. So, you got what I was saying, hahaha.

I think cars always seem expensive in whatever time they are purchased.