New to site after buying my first Tacoma

Hey,

I live in the metro Atlanta area and made my first Tacoma purchase this past weekend. On Saturday, I bought a 2007 Tacoma Regular Cab 4.2 Automatic (2.7L, rear wheel drive) with Desert Sand Mica exterior color/gray interior. This 2007 Tacoma had 9,400 miles on it from a previous owner (corporate fleet) and, after looking at several new 2008 models and a few other vehicles on the lot, I ended up purchasing this truck for $13,000 after trade-in (I traded in my 1999 Toyota Corolla at same dealership).

I don't see many Desert Sand Mica colors for a Tacoma out on the road, but was interested in this one because my work vehicle, a Blazer, has a similar color and manages to always look very good despite being washed on very rare occasions. My last vehicle, the Corolla, had a dark emerald green exterior that showed dirt just hours after each washing. Desert Sand Mica doesn't show dirt as much and this should come in handy in light of our current drought situation here in Georgia.

Overall, I'm loving this vehicle so far. It's my first pickup after owning three Toyota Corollas in the past. I've needed to carry a few furniture loads in the past and needed a truck, but, most of all, I'm glad to finally be able to see over traffic during my commute through Atlanta every day. This Tacoma drives smoothly and the turn radius is great. No problems parking in these crazy Atlanta parking lots so far. I'm also glad that my usual junk fits behind the seats in this regular cab (my jumper cables, a rain jacket, rain poncho, pair of gloves, flashlight, various hiking accessories) and there's not a storage space problem. The dash console lights are a favorite feature as well.

A couple of small negatives...

The factory stereo speakers are a bit lacking and I have to be careful to keep the CD's at a reasonable volume. The bottom door speakers show distortion and rattle when the bass level is high. I'll probably replace the speakers at some point soon or have them looked at in a different Toyota dealership, but the stereo sounds fine 99% of the time for my listening habits and I bought the truck aware that a base model automatic 4x2 Tacoma is hardly an audiophile vehicle.

My big question, and the reason for posting here, concerns the tire pressure light. Two days after I purchased this Tacoma, the outdoor temperature here in Atlanta dropped very sharply overnight and I woke up to a cold morning and found that the tire pressure light was on. The tires appeared fine and, when I took the Tacoma to the dealership, they informed me of the tire pressure light idiosyncracies when the seasonal temperatures drop or rise abruptly. They confirmed that my tire pressure light had come on because of a pressure drop in my spare tire (pretty cool that the tire pressure light has a sensor on the spare, by the way), and took care of the pressure. Before I left, I had them pump nitrogen (Nitro-Fill) into all five tires to hopefully alleviate future tire pressure notices after temperature changes. I made it clear to the dealership that, having purchased the vehicle just two days before, I needed to be assured that I wouldn't be seeing the tire pressure light come on every other day or something like that.

Have any of you here experienced outstanding problems with your tire pressure sensor lights? I love the fact that this Tacoma has a tire pressure warning light, as I'm generally paranoid about tire pressure driving on Atlanta interstates and I've never owned a vehicle with this feature. I just want to know if this particular warning light is a trouble to anyone or if it comes on often during temperature changes for other owners.

While I'm here, are there any red flag issues with 2007 Tacomas that I should be aware of, having just purchased mine?

Apologies for the long-winded post, but, hey, I'm pretty excited about my first truck.

 

Welcome to TW, 5862007! You should be excited. They are awesome trucks. Here in Kansas we have large temperature fluctuations daily. For the last several days my tire pressure light has been on every morning (it's been around 20-25 degrees). By the time I get off work the tire light stays off (it has been in the upper 40's by late afternoon). Apparently my tires are on the lower end of the allowable pressure range.

 

Appreciate the welcome. It's good to know that it's apparently common for the tire pressure light to appear during seasonal changes.

I'm a minimalist when it comes to most bells and whistles with a vehicle and I like this truck because it still has manual windows, manual seats, etc. Just give me an air conditioner plus CD player and I'm a happy man. That tire pressure sensor light is one feature that I am glad to see, though.