New Member, New Taco

Hello All,

I bought a Magnetic Gray Metallic 2020 TRD Off Road DCSB on July 13th.

I've been lurking TacomaWorld since late June when I started car shopping, so I think it's about time I get my first post out of the way.

Additional boring background info to follow.

Photos from the day after I bought it:

 

Welcome to The Forum!

 

Welcome to TW.

 

Welcome to TacomaWorld

 

Vehicle History

This is my first brand new vehicle, and third vehicle over all.

1999 Volvo S70; 2006-2017
2011 Mini Cooper S Clubman; 2017-2020
2020 Toyota Tacoma; 2020-????

The Volvo was getting pretty worn out and I was slowly replacing parts to keep it driving. But when it broke down near Des Moines while driving from Nebraska to Chicago for Christmas 2016, I decided that was the end. I had it towed to the Des Moines Volvo dealership and rented a car to make the rest of the trip.

I grew up in a suburb of Chicago, but moved to Nebraska for college. For some reason I'm still here. In Chicago pickups were never on my radar, but in Nebraska every other vehicle is a pickup so I began considering them as an option for my next vehicle as the Volvo was getting up there in age. Some time around 2012 I began noticing Tacomas on the road and how cool they looked.

When the Volvo bit the dust I initially looked into Tacomas but quickly realized that to get something within my price range at the time I'd have to get one even older and higher mileage than the Volvo. The Volvo dealership was conveniently right next to the Mini Cooper dealership and that re-ignited my interest in Mini Coopers, which was actually my dream car in highschool.

I called the Mini dealer to see what they had, not expecting any to match my criteria, but they had the exact car I wanted: British Racing Green 6-speed manual Clubman S. I purchased that car at the end of January 2017, and it was a blast.

As Minis are knows for being unreliable, mine had its share of issues I had to fix, but nothing too outrageous. I did all of my own maintenance so despite the expensive german parts, I saved on labor costs. However in June 2020, I was driving East on I-70 in Colorado, almost to the Eisenhower tunnel, when I had the overheat light come on (Minis don't have a temp gauge, so you don't know what's going on until it's too late). I pulled over and opened the hood to find steam and coolant spewing out of the bleed screw on the thermostat housing. Got towed to Denver, thermostat housing replaced the following day, and made it back to Nebraska trouble-free. But a couple days later it started sputtering and then died completely as I was driving home from work. Fortunately I was only a block or so from home so I was able to coast into my driveway. I pulled the spark plugs and a couple were wet with what I assumed was oil. But I also noticed my coolant tank was completely empty.

I decided that was over my head so I had it towed to a local shop and their diagnosis was a cracked engine block. He said they poured over a gallon of coolant into the reservoir and it all drained straight into the engine. Said it would be at least $5,000 for a motor replacement, or he'd pay me $200 to buy it off me as a parts car. I declined both, towed it back home, and began my search for a new vehicle.


The Mini was a lot of fun to drive and perfectly adequate for 90% of my usage, which is driving to and from work, but I decided to look at Tacomas again because I wanted something more capable for camping and hauling that my mini was not the best at. I noticed the 3rd gens when they came out and thought they looked even cooler than the 2nd gen. Initially I wanted to keep my budget around $20k, but realized that to get everything I wanted in a relatively low-mileage Tacoma that was newer than my Mini, I needed to increase my budge by a lot.

I always thought I'd never buy a brand new vehicle, to let the first owner take the blow of the initial depreciation, but apparently a 3 year old Tacoma is not much less expensive than a brand new one so I just went for it and bought a 2020.

I knew I wanted a manual as I had been enjoying the last 3 years of driving the manual Mini. Fortunately my local dealer had a manual on the lot for me to test drive. From what I've read on TW, the manuals are not always easy to come by. I test drove a manual off-road and a 4runner off-road (auto of course). While the 4runner was very nice and a lot more spacious interior, it was just not as fun to drive. It felt bloated and too soft.

I wasn't a big fan of the white color of the Tacoma they had on the lot so I had them search for a Cement or MGM for me. They found 1 of each that they could procure for me, and I ultimately decided on the MGM because it had the premium package. Yeah that increased the price even more, but I had leather heated seats, sunroof, and automatic climate control in both of my previous vehicles and was afraid to take a step back technology-wise. I liked the Cement color slightly better, but I can't see it when I'm inside driving anyway and I'm happy to have the interior comforts that I am used to.

Photo of the Taco next to the Clubman:

 

Thanks guys

 

In late September I was able to take some time off from work to take my new Taco on a camping trip to Colorado.
Of course, the truck was everything I had hoped for and more. It far exceeded my expectations for on-road performance on the windy switchbacks, and being a complete newb at off-roading, I was extremely impressed at how capable it was on the rough trailhead roads I took it on.

 

My truck came with some options I didn't care about or didn't think I needed, like the LED bed-lights. I figured I'd probably rarely used them, but maybe they'd come in handy some day.

Well it turns out they were great for cooking my pre-hike oatmeal at 5am in the dark! Now I'm happy to have them.

 

Hello and welcome!

 

Welcome to TW!

 

Welcome to TW!

 

Thank you

 

Welcome!

 

Welcome to TW!