Our first Taco (95 SX Auto)

My lovely gal and I have had a couple of pickup trucks in the past. After selling our '95 pickup a few years back, we have always been on the hunt for another. It was generally understood that a Tacoma was out of our price range. The only tacomas I could find were beaters and the only ones under 3000 were manual.

We went as far as going to an 87, then 91, then back to 89. The search literally was taking 4 months. Lots of shady of course on craigslist. Questions that weren't being answered etc. As luck would have it, we got a call on the 4th of July about a 95 "truck" that we emailed a while back. The ad just said 95 toyota work truck, no picture. This is where you normally roll your eyes and think the worst.

This older lady called from her landline. She said the truck is great, I just had it all fixed up at the mechanic, but I don't need it really. She bought it for her cousin to pickup flowers (They live in a remote area), but the cousin couldn't pay for it. It formerly belonged to a landscaping service.

I wasn't on the call, but my ears were pointed in the direction of the conversation. After the call, we talked about it and my gal mentioned tacoma. I quickly did a double take and said, did you say Tacoma? Yes. I honestly didn't even know Tacomas went back that far. CALL HER BACK, I jumped out of my chair and asked to make sure. If it is a Tacoma, let's go get it right now. I'm usually pretty laid back and like to analyze the deal. But if it was a Tacoma for $2000, I was in. We offered 2k over the phone which was accepted and were on the way.

It was a 50 mile drive, pretty smooth, and we ended up in a back country area of San Diego. We finally saw the old pickup under some leaves. It hadn't been started in 3 weeks, looked a bit beat up. In the back of my mind I kept saying Tacoma Tacoma. I noticed new tires and brakes (which she paid for), along with a new Catalytic, new front end bushings (previous owner), and lots of good mechanical things.

We fired it up, stumbled for a second then settle to a nice purr. Engine wise, sounded great. The interior was above average. Turned out to be 286k miles (I thought I heard 186k on the phone). AC doesn't work, but it drives straight, doesn't appear to be leaking anything, and Tacoma! I drove it a couple of miles and said we have to have this thing. It's not exactly what we wanted (looking for extra cab), but it's a good deal at 2k.

We drove her 50 miles back home nice and smooth. It included a $600 receipt for the oil change, new front brakes and rotors, and 4 new tires. The bottom of the engine was covered in dirt+oil, but I could tell it was old. I power washed it all and the engine looks like new. I'm hoping that it as some former leak that was fixed.

I'll report back about the AC and possible leaks.

Taco out!

 

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