Tacoma Collector - The Story

It is 2022, Sam is humble and a hard worker. He works in the operations department of a concrete company. He has had this job since 2010 shortly after he got out of college. It was supposed to be a temporary job but he found the job reliable and did not want any changes in his life. He was happy with his life. He did not over spend on anything but he loves scratch tickets. He has had a Volkswagen Passat for a while. He bought it used but he definitely needs a new vehicle now. He is tired of the maintenance cost especially replacing the timing chain and water pump which gave him a hefty bill since he is not hands on and did not do it himself.

Sam goes into a Toyota dealership to look at a few vehicles. He has had his eyes on the new Tundra but he knows he cannot afford it. No matter what, his goal is to get a reliable vehicle, he is dismayed by the maintenance cost for the Passat. He decides it is his chance to get a Tacoma. A vehicle he has read about in many articles and in his research on google for 'most reliable vehicles', Tacoma kept popping up. He starts to look in the lot, and covid has made the market for the dealer than anything else. He found the Tacoma he can afford and wanted, a 2022 SR5 4x4 double cab. He wants a 6 foot bed but due to lack of inventory, he can only get the 5 foot bed. He is very eager for the truck and does not want to wait around for a 5 foot bed version.

Sam asks how much his Passat is worth. Dealer is only giving him $3k. Last year, Sam spent $4k on maintenance and tires. He is just done with the Passat and does not haggle. The SR5 has a $3k mark up. All said and done, he ends up getting the Tacoma for MSRP with Tax. He is happy with this. He got the truck he knew that will not give him headaches. To Sam, this looked like cost savings in the long run. He was very happy. The truck already had a full tank of gas when Sam left the lot but he still went to the gas station. He had to get lottery tickets. He wanted to see if it was his lucky day.

Sam spent $35 on tickets. He got 1 $20 ticket, 1 $10 ticket and a 1 $5 ticket. He scratched the $5 ticket first, he only got $2 back. He scratched the $10 ticket next, he got his money back with a $10 win. He then scratched the $20 ticket. He could not believe it, HE WON $5 MILLION!!!! He was very happy. Sam thought the truck was very lucky for him. He believed the truck changed his fortune.

Sam went home with the winning $5 Million ticket and slept on it. Keeping to his humble self, he knew that he did not want to change anything in his life. He just wanted to enjoy the winnings. Sam woke up the next day and went to work. He asked if he can leave work early. Sam's supervisor knows Sam is a hard worker and granted him his early leave for work. Sam left around Lunch time and went to the Lottery Ticket Redemption Office. He was then able to deposit the roughly $3 Million (winnings after taxes) into his bank account.

Sam spent the next few weeks living his normal life. He did not tell anyone about his winnings but he knew that he wanted to do something with it. He reflected back at the series of events that led up to the winning and he gave his appreciation to his Tacoma. He came up with a great idea.

Sam took the weekend to go to the dealership and he inquired for more Tacoma's. Sam wanted to collect Tacoma's. To him, he knew they would last forever and would remain a relic even if time passed. Sam spent a few trips back and forth from the dealership for the next few months and was able to make a connection with the salesperson. By this time, the 2023 models were now the recent models you can get. He requested for one truck with each trim. He did not have any special request or have any restrictions on color, bed size or packages, he just wanted each trim. It took the dealer 4 months to properly acquire all these trucks and they even delivered it to his home.

Sam, now home, sipping some tea, in the early winter dry morning, walks outside and stares at his 8 trucks. 7 trucks for the view and 1 to daily. He is thinking of what to do with all these but his mind is steering towards to do nothing. Just keep them clean and don't use them. Sam has roughly an acre of land on his property. With the winnings, he built a nice garage where he can store all the trucks together. He still had alot of money left over and he decided this was it, he did not need anything more. He humble self was joyful with everything he had.



To be continued

PS. Not sure if fictional story telling is allowed here. I am new to writing but a story has been stuck on my mind for a while and i thought i would share it.