It finally happened . . .

I worked maintenance at an ALL GIRLS CAMP. I married one of the swim instructors. 42 years now.

 

I've heard the clutches in the Tacomas tend to last longer than a typical vehicle, or car at least. Maybe because it's more robust? I know the manual driving technique has a lot to do with it.

 

You gave your son a great truck! And your post reminded me sooo much when I was a kid. Starting since I was about 12, we would randomly be somewhere, could be 1 mile from the house or 20 miles from the house and my dad would say, drive us home. He had an old Nissan manual pickup. Lol! Forced me to learn how to drive a standard shift and more importantly taught me to pay attention to my surroundings. Because, if he said drive us home, if it took 2 hours, I'd have to figure out or ask directions.

Then once I was 15, I got the truck, but with conditions... You can have the truck, but the first time your late for work or school you lose the truck! At the time I thought it was kind of a d*CK thing! But later I learned In other words, he knew I had a job making $5 an hour plus going to highschool and I couldn't afford repairs. So it would force me to learn mechanics.

Man, I can't tell you how many times I spent the weekend on trails or muddin' having fun and then realized I broke something. Got home and dad said, well you got x amount of hours 'till school, better get to work! And it started out to where I would sometimes spend all night fixing something stupid like a vacuum hose, by the time I graduated highschool, that truck was long gone and had built a CJ-7 and a Bronco. That's is the extreme example, but the most important thing is it forced me to at least learn the basics of how my truck worked! So if I broke down at least I could diag my problem and get home.

 

I'm still on the original clutch after 160K miles and teaching 4 teenagers how to drive it. Although it might be on its last legs.

 

Not bad at all considering what it's been through! Only one of my kids ever drove a manual - years ago I had an '86 Dodge Caravan with a 5 speed manual (yes, they made a few). He took it around the block once.