Just bought my 1st Taco.... 2023 Sport M/T in blue crush

Hey All, newb here and wanted to comment on how helpful this place has been..... after countless hours of reading around here, I ended up with my ideal truck and setup.

Picked it up last week Friday. 2023 Blue Crush Metallic Sport 6sp MT w/Adv Tech & Premium packages.

I'm completely new to owning Toyota (and trucks for that matter). I chose it because besides a Jeep, the Taco is the only manual left out there. I didn't want an older Frontier or Ram2500.


I couldn't find one anywhere in the Midwest. Thankfully I found the Tacoma inventory thread on here (awesome thread!). There were only 3 in the entire US. I ended up buying in Oregon and shipping it over here. Surprisingly, that was still cheaper than ordering it locally (my local dealer automatically add 10% markup.... some were adding static #'s like $5k and one was $6k).


1st "mod":
A lot of salt on the roads here, so I had it shipped directly to a Fluid Film sprayer. They accepted delivery of the vehicle and sprayed it before I ever saw it. For anyone in IL/WI area, Midwest Customs are great people!

2nd mod:
Two days later I met with the OTT tuner and had the OTT tune installed. What a difference! Drives like a different truck now. I tried the most aggressive throttle response just for fun.... that was pretty sensitive haha. Ended up on the lowest setting and it's still a world of difference from the mushy stock feeling. It's quite awesome.



Next items on the mod list:
- removing the accumulator. My little brass disk just arrived in the mail from the Ebay seller on here.
- get a Tonneau cover.

 

Very nice looking truck.

Welcome to TW.

 

Congrats on the new truck

 

Congrats man but how did you even know you need a tune or an accumulator delete?
Drive it for awhile before mods is my advice.

 

Another beautiful taco stolen from Oregon!

 

Welcome to TW! What area of IL are you at? I'm out near Aurora.

 

+1 FOR IL

 

Congrats!!

 

Welcome to the TW

 

I've been lurking here reading for months (on & off) before I ever bought the vehicle. After test-driving several (test drove an off-road, sport, sr5 2x4), it was pretty clear that all the negative comments about the mushy pedal and no power below 4k were spot on. I decided on the tune before even purchasing the truck. So glad I did.

I'm not minding the stock shifting feeling right now, so not sure if I'll do the ADD now or just wait until summer. It doesn't seem as bad as people say. I might do it just to see what the difference is - since it's reversible.

Haha yeah. Kendall Toyota was a pleasure to work with. The finance manager Kris was great. Very good experience w them.

Actually..... I'm up in WI . +1 for the Midwest

 

Darn

 

Swapped hoods today. Yes I got rid of the scoop in favor of the non-scooped (flame away).

Nice beautiful snowy day in WI to change hoods. Besides not being able to feel our fingers, it went well. We didn't drop them.

I really like the non-scoop. And the off-road owner was really happy with the scoop, so it worked out.

 

I usually advise people to drive it for several months, because everyone is different on their feelings and needs. Before you continue to mod, please drive it off road and on. Then you will get the experience needed to mod to your special circumstance. Everyone is different.

 

Was it easy to align the hoods after ?

 

Good advice

Well our fingers were frozen, so once they were swapped we were just happy that they closed. Mine was a little off to one side, and I did attempt a re-alignment while still out there, but it just mis-aligned it too far to the other side. After that I just resigned to doing it later when it warms up. But yes, it's very simple. Just loosen those 4 12mm bolts.

 

Welcome to Tacoma ownership

Swapping hoods on a snowy day in a parking lot must have been quite the sight for people to see.

Sorry to see you gave away the SKEWP, but the Off-Road guy makes out like a bandit

 

I like the non-skewps better myself.

 

It made me feel like a true Wisconsinite.

I didn't care for it, and he seemed pretty excited.... so I was happy to get him a late Christmas present. Full disclosure, he also gave me $100 bucks, so it paid for my babysitter that afternoon.

 

Welcome to TW, nice looking rig.

 

That blue hood scoop is rare out here in Cali I hardly see them… lol He must of been supper happy with the swap!
Love the color! Congrats on the Manual!