Bought an old rusty trusty Tacoma and you won't believe what happened next!

It was 2022, the tail end of covid and I had been looking for a new-to-me vehicle for a long time but the prices were insane. I work from home so I couldn't justify spending a ton of money on a truck that was going to sit in the driveway until the next time I needed to go to the hardware store. I also knew I wanted a truck that I could toss construction debris into the bed without worrying about the scratches that may arise as a result.

And then I saw it - a 1999 red Tacoma with 62k miles on it. I called the dealership and immediately hit the road to go check it out. When I got there the first thing I saw was the rust. I was new to the Toyota world so wasn't aware of the frame recall issue, but even if I had been I'm not sure that could have swayed me. This truck was exactly what I was looking for. It had crank windows, no cruise control, and no clock. In short, no bullshit. It was the base of base models and that was absolutely perfect for me. I knew as soon as I saw this truck that I was going to drive it until the wheels fell off. Maybe that was a year from now, maybe it was five, but for $7k (which included a plow) I figured even a few good years would be worth it.

So I scooped that truck up and headed home. Shortly after getting the truck home I noticed the "To" and "ta" of Toyota had all but worn away and the "ma" on Tacoma had fallen off so it was henceforth called YoTaco. And the YoTaco kicked so much ass for the next three years that it left everyone in awe. I would have people coming up to me on the street offering to buy it on the spot (without exaggeration, that happened at least three times). But this truck was my pride and joy and there was no way I was going to sell it.

Sadly, about two weeks ago the rust got the better of it and the YoTaco was given a terminal diagnosis - a rusted gas tank that was attached to a rusted frame making it damn near impossible to fix. It still runs great, and only has 84k miles on the engine, but the frame needs quite a bit of work and it's no longer safe to drive on the roads (or so they say). But despite all of the money I poured into the YoTaco (alternator, ball joints, belts, transmission, etc.) I never regretted a single penny spent on that truck. For the past three years I have seen these monster trucks driving past me on the road and they're just getting bigger and bigger - and I can't figure out what because there wasn't a single thing I needed that truck to do that it was incapable of doing - and I did a lot with it from hauling stone dust dumped straight into the bed from a bucket loader like a scene from a commercial, to pulling trailers eight hours up into northern Maine. That truck was a beast.

So despite it being a money pit and the epitome of a rust bucket - I am a fully converted Toyota Tacoma fan for life. So I just recently bought another 1999 red Toyota Tacoma that will be appropriately called YoTaco2, but this time there isn't any rust on the truck and it has a clock. You know what they say - if it's not broke, don't fix it - and that truck was never broke in my book.

 

Nice story.

Now get out there and clean up that frame and get protection on it before winter.

 

Welcome to TW and congratulations on the new truck. Thanks for sharing the tale of your first truck!

 

Welcome.

Fluid film. Do it. At least once a year up here in New England

 

Welcome aboard!