New to the Taco world!

Hello all, my name is Bill, and I JUST purchased my first Tacoma.
I drove Jeeps for, well, decades, mostly Wranglers. My last purchase was a Compass, for reasons I wont get into here. But, I have been eying the Tacomas for a few years now, after my brother bought one in 2018.
Given the current market, it was a good time to look, if you could find models you were looking for. Friday, I went to a local dealership, and poked around. The KBB on my compass gave me about $6k after they paid it off, plus I had a few grand to play with. I went into the dealership (who were very nice), and told them what I was looking for, what I had for trade and cash, and what model I wanted.
We all know the inventory sucks right now. I get it. The model I wanted in the TRD Off Road was a few months away, and, given the current state for used car values right now, I was sure that would depreciate in that timeframe. The sales guy said they have a winter chill pearl TRD Sport, in manual transmission, if I were interested. Same package I was looking at, just in the sport trim.
Sold.
As it will largely be my daily driver, I was OK initially giving up the rock crawling and locking differentials. But, the more I looked into the manual tranny, i kind of realized that I am not REALLY giving those up with this. The differential will lock on this after the tires spin for 1 second. Not ideal, but I am not rock crawling, just possibly extricating from mud. So, that would work. And I dont need the crawl, due to the gear ratio (44:1 ratio for the manual, compared to 36:1 for the auto) of the rear diff on the manual. Again, not doing extreme stuff, but occasional fun driving and, of course, the sometimes treacherous weather up here in New England.
Anyway, I am excited to get this truck! I havent seen the color in person yet, and its been 4 years since I have driven a stick-and I am VERY looking forward to that experience again!

 

Welcome to TW!

 

Welcome to TacomaWorld

 

Awesome! You will love your tacoma! They are great trucks. I don't know what the transition will be like going from Jeep to truck but new vehicles are always a learning process. Everyone is pretty nice on here so welcome!

 

welcome to the world.

 

Congratulations on your new Tacoma and welcome to Tacoma World.
I'm in the midwest rust belt and the 4 new Tacoma trucks in my household always got a rust prevention. I feel Ziebart was a superior product but they closed in my area and now have gone to Ming.
Anyhow I think it's a worthwhile $600.00 spent.
Cheers to your new truck, I bet anticipation is huge.

 

Thank you all. Yes, I will get an undercoating before winter here. For sure. I have less than 24 hours before the keys are in my hand, and the anticipation is killing me!!!
First thing I am doing is removing the air dam. That will get done as soon as I get home lol.

 

Down on the bottom front? Yeah that is low hanging for sure. Makes approach angle little better than my Chevy Impala! With it on I mean.

 

Welcome to TW & congrats on the new truck!

 

Yes, that cheap plastic part that improves gas mileage-but curiously isnt included in any other models, that get the same gas mileage...

 

Welcome to Tacoma World. I, too, was a Jeep driver for many years. But we recently added a Tacoma and it is better than the Jeep in some ways, like highway hauling long distance. Not as good in others, like crawling through mud and sand. Still, looking forward to see how your story unfolds.

Do you have any modifications planned beyond the air dam? There is an amazing thread of cheap mods on here. I got a lot of ideas from it.

 

Welcome!

 

Welcome. Looking forward to some pics. Due to a bad left knee, I can not drive a stick anymore (Daily Driver anyway.),One of those things if you did it before, you'll get it back no problem.

 

Welcome!

 

Welcome to TW!