New member, 3rd Toyota & 2nd Tacoma

Hey all, chiming in here from the Bohstin (that’s ‘Boston’ for you Southerners, lol) area. Am just onto my 3d Toyota and 2nd Tacoma.

My 1st Tacoma was an early 90s 4-cyl 4x4 XtraCab that I believe that they called them way back then, like a smaller access cab I recall. That one was a manual transmission and I put 186,000 miles on the original clutch. When I went to replace that clutch, at the service place I sent to, when paying the bill the Owner said “Hold on, the mechanic wants to meet you”. That mechanic came up to me extended a big greasy palm to shake my hand and said ... “I just wanted to shake the hand with someone who knows how to shift a standard properly.”, or something like it.

It wasn’t all highway miles either, as that truck was my workhorse. It’s still in use today, not road worthy, but is driven around on a farm as needed for additional transport; read: she’s still faster than a tractor! That truck was completely reliable and I only did scheduled services to it for something like 300K, less the clutch replacement, a water pump and a bearing at another time.

My 2nd Toyota alas was not a Tacoma truck, but a simple Rav4 with 4x4 for the Winters here. I can’t complain, as I was doing a lot more commuting then and less off-roads or woods trails, so it fit the purpose. Can’t complain one bit about the reliability of that Rav4 either – just scheduled maintenance and normal wear items – less the engine. More to that, this one rattled like an old metal coffee can full of pennies being shaken and soon after ownership I began complaining about ‘high oil’ consumption. It took years for Toyota to finally come around, but when the ZE7 recall finally hit, mine failed miserably and scheduled she was for their top-end repair/replacement.

The deal was I got a day/time and rental car for 1-day, so in she went on a Monday morning. By WED afternoon I knew something was going on, so I called the Dealer and low & behold they said that top-end was really bad off. Now duh – I knew that and had complained for years! What’s weird though, whilst using oil like I was a Saudi Arabian Prince, it always started and ran well, was reliable, passed all inspections and got decent mileage! Long story shortened ... they ended up getting the authorization to drop a new motor in it. And get this, I had marked accessory items on the block with a Sharpie marker and when I got the Rav4 returned ... everything under the hood, less the battery ... was new!

OK, onto my 3rd Toyota and 2nd Tacoma. I had been planning for years to get back into a truck ‘for me’, now that the family is grown and mostly (?) out on their own. I looked at new ones, but specifically wanted a nice blue Tacoma and loved the older Blazing Blue Pearl color, which to me, is the best shade/color of blue ever put onto a car or truck. Well lo & behold I almost threw up with the Voodoo Blue, which looks better online than in person and if I offend those with Voodoo Blue ... oh well, or ‘res ipsa’ as they say in Latin.

Anyway I ended up buying a double-cab SR5 4x4 with low miles and in superb mint condition. So far I’ve done the typical new 3rd Gen easy mods such as the OEM bed mat (the Dealer threw in), LED interior light upgrades, storage tray for the center console and tray/organizer for that huge glovebox. I sprung for a 3-panel hard folding tonneau cover and then had the Dealer do the heated seat upgrades (awesome upgrade available for my Toyota models), which is awesome for me, as not having a garage in a Winter climate. That also required getting a remote starter installed too. Next up will be the sound system speakers upgrade, where the Suburu tweeters are already in.

So that’s about it ...

Tacoma World – My biggest impression so far is #2 – for how helpful people can be! And for #3, how crass some can be and/or fast-fingered in replying, especially when they clearly didn’t read everything the OP had reported, duh. Take a moment there fellas, lol!

And my #1 impression and now Pet Peeve for TW is ... “Those who FAIL to read the bleeping manual!”

Are you kidding me? Ever hear of RTFM? Seriously, how can one be soooooo with it (?) to be able to buy a nice new truck and yet be so ‘challenged(?)’ at the same time as to not even read or review the Owner’s Manual or even review the Quick Reference Guides? By Gawd I’m new here and when reviewing the 3rd Gen posts, I could have answered 50 or more ‘simple’ posted questions myself, even after just a few days to a week of ownership.

Rant out ... see you on the road!

 

Welcome m8

 

Coming in swingin' I like it! Welcome!

 

I like that blue I just went with my buddy yesterday to get his. Same color

 

Welcome aboard

 

Welcome to TW!

 

Welcome to TW!

 

Welcome to the forum! Glad to have a long term Toyota and car lover among our ranks,

 

Welcome!