New direction down an older road

Hello, I guess I can say I've come full circle when I picked up my 99 taco last Friday.

I started with a 62 baja bug, a 87 Ford Ranger with mild prerunner mods, 95 Nissan Pathfinder (loved it), 99 F-350 SuperDuty (loved it)... Then I needed a highway commuter and got a TDI Jetta; recently purchased back by Volkswagen (Dirty Diesel Scandal) which left a very bad taste in my mouth toward that company. I will never buy a VW again and will never purchase NEW again.

For the past couple months I've looked at Mercedes, Audis, and BMW's, but I just couldn't pass up on this Toyota 4-banger when I saw it. So simple, and so back to my roots.

Running wise it's a gem. The rest? Well, I'm here to start that journey and see how much fun I can have tinkering around and finding the bits my new ride needs. My baja style mood is back and I'm ready for it.

99er

 

Welcome!

 

Welcome to TW.

 

Welcome to the TW, love to see a pic.

 

I had a 2006 Tacoma that I loved and gave to one of my kids after 67K miles last year. bought a 2016 Tacoma 4x4. The automatic transmission hesitates going into drive, continually shifts on the freeway up and down, and rolls backwards on a hill when i take my foot off the brake. Never had a car do this in my last 45 years of driving.

 

Welcome to the TW

 

Ok, there it is.. rough and tumble. Second day driving it to work. It's going to take some time getting used to not getting over 40mpg. But don't get me wrong, I love driving it.

And thank you all for the warm welcome~

 

From another angle. Ya, it's rough, and I'll get to that stuff as I go. Right now I need tail lights, tailgate cables, and the full set of e-brake cables to ensure safety and utility.
My local wrecker seems to want full MSRP for used stuff, so I found all that stuff on Parts Geek. Is that a good source?

 

I am curious about the VolksWagen "scandal"... They offered to buy the affected models back, but would the state still allow the owners to pass emissions thereby allowing the owners to keep them on the road? I've only heard bits and pieces of it.

 

They (VW) offered nothing. They tried (to cheat), they lied, they dragged their feet for a year ignoring the customers they defrauded. We got to drive them dirty until they took them back one by one. Some people opted to keep driving until a 'fix' was approved, which means they can still drive them and just save a ton of money on fuel costs until they get 'fixed'.

I was stuck making payments (plus full coverage insurance) for a year after the scandal went public (Sept 2015) which is also the period they got to base the value for buy-back. Had they brought me in and offered to make it right and get me into a gasser, applying the money I already paid, I'd probably be driving a GTI right now. But they lost a life time VW driver.

Whatever with that, I still have a '61 VW bus in the garage and we were borrowing a 4X4 Tacoma from a friend for dump runs (I loved driving it)... so I am fine with where I'm at today.