What's your story? How'd you end up in a Tacoma?

Well... My Tacoma journey started 4 weeks ago when I totaled my new 2015 Chevy Camaro Supercharged SS 1LE Custom Build. So yea... Well thanks to insurance writing me a fat check; I was able to get into a new 2015 4x4 DBL CAB SR5 Tacoma (w/ TRD Supercharger and MagnaFlow Exhaust) *Pics to come soon*.

Going from 500hp and having instant power to your tires, and then going to a truck was not the easiest thing for me to get used to... However, I am having a blast in my new Supercharged Tacoma (lacks the instant power, but is night and day from the stock engine). After my accident and purchase of my new truck I planned on having $$,$$$$ left over to do something really special to this new truck. I am currently planning on a complete LT Front/Rear build by DMZ fab and cannot wait to get my truck out to Cali for the build!

My extensive research on the new build, and some of my ideas have mainly come from the input from members here on Tacomaworld.com! Thanks everyone for your inputs and willingness to help new Tacoma owners go down the right path! Anyways, thought I'd share my short story. I'll keep everyone updated on my progress with the new truck!

PS. Anyone on here live in Colorado?

 

I got my first tacoma in high school. It was a 2002 Ext Cab limited 4x4 that had been traded in at the Toyota I was working at. Before working at Toyota I never understood why people liked tacomas so much. To me they were just plain trucks that didn't have much luxuries to offer like a lot of the other brands of trucks. Once I started working at a Toyota dealership I soon realized why people had so much love for them. So after that I was determined to get a tacoma. One day while I was working a guy pulled up in a lifted tacoma that had pretty much everything All Pro offered for first gen tacomas back in 05.The guy driving it saw me drooling over it and said "Maybe one day you will have one just like it", little did I know that that day was going to be the following day. I had so many great memories with that truck all over California but had to sell it when I moved to Texas. Ever since owning that truck I have been a toyota fanatic.

 

I was driving a 1999 Honda Accord and really needed a change! I do a lot of mountain biking and surfing and just really needed a truck! The Tacoma has always been my favorite truck, so I got one! It's been great.

 

When I was 18 my parents gave me a 1991 Toyota pickup as my graduation gift. It had had high mileage and needed some TLC but was in great shape. I immediately fell in love with the truck and am still kicking myself for selling it, but after driving the wheels off of it for 5 or 6 years it started having intermittent issues, and was breaking down every couple of weeks. I named her Gertrude after my grandmother because she was a tough old gal who could do anything, but was also a stubborn bitch who didn't take shit from anyone. Being a poor college student I couldn't afford to keep fixing it and needed a reliable vehicle for work and school. I limped it along until I graduate and fell into a cheap, but reliable Accord and drove that for a few years. I hated the car but it ran great and never gave me a problem. I started saving and car hunted for years thinking maybe I wanted a small SUV or an AWD wagon, but I knew I would be more comfortable in a small pickup again. I looked at Frontiers, Rangers, Colorados, and Tacomas trying to convince myself that whatever was cheaper with the fewest miles would be my truck. I test drove a bunch of trucks that weren't Tacomas and liked a couple, but I started doing more and more Tacoma research and decided that since the Accord was running well I would wait until I found exactly what I wanted in my price range. Finally I found my truck for sale almost 400 miles away, talked a good friend into driving me down to look at it and took her home. The interior and everything felt just like my old truck- I even brought the old shift knob and put it in my new truck and that sealed the deal. Gertrude 2.0.

 

I used to be a jeep guy and had a yj trail rig, a 99 sierra and a trailer to tow it. I decided i need to simplify and always wanted a toyota truck so i traded the sierra for the tacoma. I never wanted to wheel the taco until i wore the jeep out, and was peer pressured into wheeling my tacoma. @ months later the jeep and trailer was sold and the mods began on the taco and it has been downhill ever since.

 

O.K. Honestly, I knew I was going to get a Toyota, one day, as soon as this appeared on Back to the Future. I mean, that truck and Jennifer Parker...........paradise!

 

After years of other vehicles, my father settled on a Tacoma and was impressed by what he had.
When I was in the market for a new vehicle he helped me search for a good used one (1990 Tacoma).
Have been with a Tacoma ever since.
My parents have always had some kind of Toyota since having their first Tacoma also.

Side note - my siblings all have Toyota vehicles too (Highlander, Rav4, Tundra).

 

Tacomas weren't made until 1995.5. Prior to that they were something else.

 

Yeah, it wasn't. I guess it was just a pick up to them, right?
Forgot about that. I remember now then they called them "Tacoma".
wow....

 

In about February of 2004 i was driving around a mid nineties honda civic, 5 spd. Great little car, but it broke down (alternator went out) one to many times. Finally said f it and started looking for new vehicles. Wanted a truck so i wouldn't speed (that didnt help). Found a nissan supercharged frontier and test drove it, then test drove my tacoma, non supercharged. It was a no brainer. I was more impressed with the taco. Had 2716 miles on it, so how could i go wrong. She became my true love on valentine's day that year. Well, $27k, 170k miles, and 11 years, it's still a no brainer. No major problems to complain about EXCEPT i shouldn't have listened to my parents, who convinced me to go with two wheel drive... It needs some tlc. ie front tundra brake swap, leafsprings, new shocks all the way around, timing belt, tires, and a supercharger (so i wont speed)! Just did leds all the way around inside and outside. Very content.

 

I owned a Dodge Ram 50 (mitsubishi). Enough said. When it died, I found a '97 TRD with 64K. Great truck, but lost her to the frame rust buy back. Then found a '00, which also went bye-bye to the buy back. Then an '01, which had its frame replaced. Then an '03, and sold the '01. All 2.7L, 4wd, extra cabs. Should have kept the '01 and saved my money though. The '03 is a fine truck, but I already had it all with the '01.

Oddly enough, all were bought on eBay, sight unseen. I've never been sorry. Toyota been very very good to me.

 

My first truck I could call mine was an '86 D50 Dodge/Mitzu. Loved that thing. Many good times in it and it only let me down once when a fan belt broke.

 

I'm 19 years old and my first vehicle was a 2001 Jeep Wrangler stock, I added 3" zone offroad lift and factory Jeep jk Rubicon wheels and tires which were 32" bfg km1s, two years ago I flipped the Jeep when I lost control of it and ended up in a ditch I climbed out through the passenger window and had some friends come flip it back over and I drove it back home. Long story short my mom wouldn't let me keep it so I got a stock 2002 Toyota Tacoma double cab with 180,000 miles.

 

Was in the market for a new vehicle and was concentrating on Chevy/GMC but happened to watch the episode of Top Gear where they tried to destroy an old Toyota pickup called a hilux in Europe. That put toyota trucks on my radar as well and when one came along with relatively low mileage and apparently rust free I bought it. I will say I have been disappointed with the gas mileage, barely better than my old full sizes, and the constant concern about frame rust mean I likely won't buy another but I will run this one into the ground.