New but been lurking for years.

Hey new here but been lurking for a long time to learn and find information about trucks I’ve had in the past.

A little about me. The first truck I bought was a 2000 Reg cab Tacoma 2.7 4x4 5 speed in 2013. Terrible frame that I fixed up and it was great. Eventually sold that because it was getting old and crusty. After that I purchased a 2011 AC Tacoma V6 Trd OR 4x4 6 speed manual with 40k in 2016. What a great truck. Had the frame recall and it was super clean. Im an idiot so a year later I sold that truck because I made good money on it, 6 grand more than I paid for it. After that truck I purchased a brand new Ram 1500 Crew Cab 4x4 with 5.7l straight off the lot. Although the Ram was an awesome truck it wasn’t practical and terrible on gas. I have no idea why I bought it other than at the time I got a good deal on it and was sweet looking. Wasn’t necessary. So in early 2021 I sold the truck for 7 grand less than I paid for it due to the market, truck had 39k miles on it. I jumped on that offer immediately because I knew I would never get that money for it ever again and wanted to downsize and get something efficient and recoup some money. I’ve been saving a bunch of money driving my 2006 Jetta Diesel around for the last year after selling my Ram. Seeing how it gets 45+ mpg I was saving over 70+ bucks a week just on fuel and I own the car so I’ve had no payment either so I was saving a crap ton.

In December of 2021 I bought a house so I needed a truck really bad. The Jetta can only hold so much stuff lol but it does great. Any homeowner needs a truck and it’s almost impossible to do everything I need to do on my own with what I have. The Jetta is a great commuter car but that’s all it’s meant to do.

I needed a truck again and I know I needed to get back to the TACO’S! They are practical and fuel efficient enough to not kill the wallet but they can be expensive. In this market good luck finding any deal on a taco. Everyone knows what they have and everyone knows the reliability of them. With how reliable they are they fetch a premium especially a clean one in New England where live. They are pretty much gold here.

Knowing the reliability of the taco I know that I could roll the dice on a high mileage example. This was really my only option without breaking the bank. Everyone I know would never buy a vehicle with 200k plus miles especially one here in the salt belt. The mileage doesn’t scare me because I have the ability and the garage space to work on and fix what I need. I felt like I could find a great deal because nobody is willing to drop the coin on a truck in New England with that kind of high miles. Another great thing about tacos is most of them have gotten a new frame. The new frame was the deal breaker for me and I would only buy one with the frame replaced. It’s necessary around these parts.

I’ve been searching everywhere for a clean high mileage taco. Had to be under 10k dollars. It had to be 4x4 and had to have a manual trans. I also only wanted the 2.7l because of the sheer simplicity of them. I’ve had both the 4.0 V6 and the 2.7 i4. I much prefer the 2.7 because it’s simplistic and easy to work on and it can get good mpg. I don’t need the power and the 2.7 is more than enough for what I do.

I had found the perfect truck recently and it was close at about 30min from my house. Everything I’ve found that was worth it was hours away and I didn’t want to go through all that getting a truck and trailer and tow it home.

So I drove and checked this truck out not knowing what to expect but it looked decent from the pics. Found it on Facebook. It’s a 2005 Taco Access cab 4x4 2.7 5 speed. Exactly what I wanted and it had a cap which I wanted anyway. It was a okay price because of the miles, 204000k miles and has a new frame. I checked this thing out with a fine tooth comb and couldn’t really find anything wrong with it that was a deal breaker. A few issues is it has a slight oil leak from the passenger side timing cover, ABS light is on, the parking break light is on, and the back up light doesn’t work. Oh and could use a set of tires. I test drove it and it drives as good as my 2011 with 40k miles. Felt good and drove great. Everything is solid other than the things I listed. The dude has a stack of receipts for basic maintenance items and he paid a lot of money to get the stuff done. He replaced both side upper and lower control arms due to rust. He replaced the suspension with oem trd offroad bilsteins. Replaced clutch with a Aisin stock kit. He also replace the whole exhaust system with a oem original from the header flange back with brand new cats. Everything replaced is oem. The truck is really clean. Like too clean for around here given the age and miles. I ended up buying it and couldn’t be happier. I couldn’t not buy this. I feel like given the condition it was worth it. Got it home and now back on the taco bandwagon! Why did I ever leave? These trucks are the best!

 

Welcome to TW!

 

Jumping on the Taco bandwagon... Priceless

Welcome to TW!!

 

Welcome to TacomaWorld

 

Welcome to the club! Backup light switch is an easy fix, mine did it too.
It's on the side of the trans above oil level ( I think passenger side) and has a plug with a couple wires.

 

Thanks I’ll try it

 

Nice rig!! Love how clean it is, welcome!