Looking to purchase, any advice?

Hello everyone, new forum member living in the Omaha area. I currently own a ‘05 Grand Cherokee 5.7L, and it’s been a lemon ever since I bought it in 2019 after being overseas for 5+ years. Looking for a crew cab pickup with better mileage but still legit 4x4 capabilities...no hills in Omaha but winter driving is no joke and at some point I’d like to drive the truck back to my home are in northern CA to hit the old logging trails. I’ve heard wonders about Toyota 4x’s reliability over the years. Are there specific years for Tacoma’s I should be wary of (conversely, try to look for), or specific things I should be aware of (Recalls, etc) when checking the used car lots? I know that seems a little bit generic, but the Jeep forum I joined after the fact last year had some good threads that I wished I’d known about prior to purchasing. Thanks for any advice/assists!

 

Welcome to the forum Brian
Do you have a budget?
Frame rust is a major issue on these rigs.

 

Welcome to TW Brian
I like Tacomas

 

Welcome to TW...All Tacoma’s are subject to frame rot if you live in the salt belt and there is a 12 year warranty from the in service date. It takes a 10mm or bigger hole for frame replacement, so check the frame over good. The 05’s and 06’s are known for head gasket issues, I had an 05 with 130k miles and had no problems. I’m not too familiar with the 3rd
Gens but there are threads on here about poor automatic transmission performance.

 

Thx. Road salt’s a major issue around here. Last winter was mild (I’ve been told), only down to 5 degrees F on the coldest day, but the salt was ever present for a few months.

 

On the budget question, I don’t have one yet, mainly because we’re waiting to see what my wife’s new teaching job will allow on top of my salary. I’d like to stay at/under $20K but from a cursory look that may not work...I went cheap on the WK and paid for it (162K miles when bought, not worth getting the blown head gasket fixed and other issues).

 

Welcome to TW!