New England B.S. Thread

Good choice. Vermont has some great microbrews. Long trail is my go to.

 

x2, I haven't replaced nearly the amount of parts John has but I've also never had another vehicle that I've had to replace as many parts as I have on my Tacoma.

Miguel, I actually tend to agree with you on the build quality. I like my truck now because it's finally built up the way I want it but the repairs it's needed to date tell me that Toyota's build quality has slipped. My truck has been off road once, I shouldn't be replacing bushings and bearings yet for the use mine has seen. The factory suspension was an absolute joke and their 'fix' was just adding insult to injury. Now that it's paid off and I've spent the time and money fixing it up right, I have no plans to trade it in anytime soon but there was a time (when the truck was still fairly new mind you) that it was damn close to be traded in on a new Chevy 1500

 

You'll be here some day!

 

This worries me, especially since I've already had to have the chrome bumper, clutch master cylinder, and the heater blower motor replaced.

 

Be prepared to have the heater blower motor replaced every year. I am on my third one. Seems like every winter it starts squealing again

 

I have the powertrain warranty but the full warranty that covers everythings ends in like 500 miles so I'm shit out of luck.

I hear you on that one. I had mine replaced 3 months after owing the truck and I just had it done 1 month ago and needs to be replaced again lol. When I asked the tech why it keeps happening, He said the parts are made cheap and when they replace it under warranty, it is not a new part. They just take the old ones, fix up and put them back on. Im really getting fed up. I have never had to replace so many parts on a truck so soon. Its so stupid.

 

Stop taking it back to Toyota. Fix it yourself and you'll never have to touch it again. I tore mine down, adjusted the set screws, lubricated it and haven't touched it again in almost 3 years now. Toyota has a horrible habit of replacing the whole part when the actual problem is something much simplier and cheaper.

Prime example, they wanted to replace my door lock actuators to the tune of $220/door for just the parts (2 doors stopped working). I spent a little bit of time, tore the actuators apart, lubed the $1.50 motor and they work like new. Saved myself the time dealing with the stealership and probably over $500.

 

Well I'm glad you agree with me mike. Its deff crazy how many parts on these trucks that need to be replaced.I'm kind of wondering if its worth it to have this truck anymore. I mean I brought it new, had it for going on 2 years now and it looks like its 6 years old. With the paint chipping and stuff, It deff sucks.

 

No, you are NOT shit out of luck. Ford tried to pull that bullshit with me many years ago. If you have a documented problem with the vehicle while it's in warranty, they still have to fix that problem once it's out of warranty. It takes some fighting sometimes but if you're still experiencing the same problem, that means they never fixed it. The dealerships can't just limp a vehicle across 36k miles and they wash their hands of it.

 

For paint chips, try Dr. Colorchip. Their touch up system is awesome!

In the end, the base truck is very good. The engine and transmission seem to be very solid. The suspension was questionable at best and there are some little annoyances along the way but the truck itself will last a long time (at least I hope). I'm not unhappy with my truck, but it has not blown me away either. At the end of the day though, I do believe I have a reliable vehicle. If I were to buy another truck today, I'd still consider a Tacoma, but I would certainly consider other makes as well.

One thing I really do like about the truck is the aftermarket support. holy hell, I've never seen so much crap you can add to a vehicle!

 

Thats true. Do you have a point. I will have to write stuff down and document it. There is alot of stuff I will need to write down lol


A friend of mine has a wrangler Rubicon. Like a 09 or 2010 and it was really good to drive. It was stock but rode nice. I didn't have to worry about when the door shuts and the truck shakes. The body seemed nice and well built and not like my truck where I can push the fenders in and dent it lol. Its deff not plastic and no dam push pins holding the fender on . It just shows you have cheapy made this truck is. But I cant help like how amazing this truck looks are. I love the look but thats it lol.

 

There is a mod on this site to fix it permanantly, but I will continue to have the dealer do it as long as its under warranty. When my warranty is up, Ill pull it out and use the write up on this site to fix it

 

When my warranty is up, I will pull it out and fix it. For the time being, its easier to have toyota replace it for free. There is no way I would pay for them to replace a part when it wont fix the root cause of the problem

 

You're much more patient than I am. I hate sitting at the dealership.

 

Yeah I saw that write up and will do it in the spring but it still makes me mad. I was use to buying all used SUVs before my truck. I would always have a problem and I would find out that it wasn't taken care of or that it was In a crash early on before I got it. So I said, I wanted a new truck so I wouldn't have to keep replacing parts. Buy now that I have it, I'm replacing parts like crazy. I thought buying new was gonna stop that but I guess not. I shouldn't have to fix parts or look up write ups on how to fix things that should of came from the factory well made. It's stupid. Sorry if I seem really heated like now but I'm just mad. A couple of replacing parts was ok but after more and more, I can't take it.

 

Ehh, more laziness and lack of time than patience. The dealership is only a couple miles from my house, so I will drop it off and pick up it later. I wont bring it to them for anything that will be out of pocket. I brought it to them for my 5 free oil changes, but since that ended, I do my own maintenance.

 

And you complain about mileage in the Tacoma? Wait till you see what it is like in the Jeeps.

I must be one of the lucky ones cause I have very few problems with my truck(that aren't caused by me). My Mazda on the other hand has had a ton of major parts replaced. The parts on the Mazda made the ride terrible or unsafe. I have replaced all the brakes (at 50K), had to replace the windshield wiper motor, all shocks and struts (at 60K), and other rando parts that shouldnt wear out. You guys should go test drive some other make cars and trucks to see what the competition is like. The grass is always greener on the other side. I always enjoy the ride in the Tacoma after driving the Mazda all week long.

 

If you watch this forum everyone is bitching about rattles and sqeaks. I agree that the quality is lacking in the aestitics but I think the driveline is still good. When I was looking the American small truck was a waste and I didnt want a full size again. I would have liked if Toyota cared about us but lets face it the manufactures/dealers are the same they care about $$ profits and shareholders. I bought a Lexus for my wife and it was by far the best car either of us had but when we bought the second one you could see the quality of material and workmanship go down. Now she drives a Honda and loves it. From experience, the dealer will always suck. They have to show a profit, the tech has to hustle to make his $$. That just leads to poor service, if they get away from flatrate maybe you would see more care. The tech is quicker at changing a radio or a blower motor than actually fixing it so that is what you get. The business has turned into parts changers and that is not all the tech's fault, the manufactures like it that way.

 

Miguel as far as the radio goes you have changed all kinds of shit on the outside why not change the radio to what you like and do it right. Same for the horns I get it that toyota is paying under warr by why kill yourself by it once and mount where you want up out of water and facing down (not like a vase) and be done. The grass is always greener but check other forums and listen to others bitch about their vehs. Do the repairs that you want yourself and do them correct

 

x2 on the Jeep MPGs. They're also unreliable and prone to more severe failures (like catching on fire for instance).

As far as the grass being greener, I'm basing my opinions off past vehicles I've had. The first Ranger I owned was stripped down. Didn't even have power steering or A/C so there really wasn't much that could go wrong. I traded it in at around 80k miles running perfect. The second Ranger I had I bought brand new, it has the 3.0L and a manual tranny, 2wd. It ran and drove great. The dealership screwed up my rear brakes doing a brake job but otherwise 0 issues, only changed the oil in it. I traded that in for a Chevy 1500 Z71. The only reason I got rid of it was because it was huge and pushing that magical 100k mile mark. I was living in Quincy and parking on the street so the big truck didn't make sense. Truth be told, it wasn't too much worse with fuel economy than the Tacoma. Again, I only changed the fluids, no bushings bearings, suspension parts, etc.

A lot of the money spent on my Tacoma was because I elected to make an upgrade or add a part but the all the other stupid stuff that breaks or wears out starts to get a little annoying after a while. Now days though, vehicles are generally built cheaper and loaded with electronics so pretty much all the makes have their share of small annoyances. I'm at the point with my truck where at least I know what's been done to it and I've worked out most of the kinks. Trading it in and starting over would just be a waste for me.