Advice for Prospective Buyer

If you're looking for ease of service, then a V6 second gen is pretty easy to work on. The oil filter is right on top, the differentials and transfer case are super easy to swap fluids on. Since you're looking to go manual you don't have to fool with any special filling procedure like the automatic. Driveshaft U-Joints are greaseable from factory. Some of the other trucks you're considering are a pain to do just simple services. There are a couple repairs that are a pain in the ass, but that's any modern vehicle. If you can keep the rust at bay you'll have a solid truck. I will warn you at 100K you're at the life of the wheel bearings on these trucks (front and rear). I'd still have my 2009, but the underneath was slowly starting to get really bad. That and the automatic transmission was definitely on its last leg.

 

Excellent advice! I agree, although I do the PPI myself (my dad's a certified mechanic and taught me a lot). The only reason I care about mileage is that I plan on listing the truck on a car sharing site, which requires it to have under 110k when listed. If I weren't planning on sharing it, mileage wouldn't really matter to me.

 

Thanks! That's exactly why I sold my Ranger. Oil changes were easy, but every time I'd fix one annoying issue, another would pop up. And nothing on that truck was designed well (except maybe the door panels, those came off and went back on easily).

Good to know about the wheel bearings. Looks like they're easy enough to change out. I like the hub style units that just bolt right in!

 

Having owned a Chevy S10 and bunch of other GM products all I can say is that owning a Tacoma will cause your mechanic skills to atrophy. Fill with gas change the oil... fill with gas, change the oil. Unless you do mods this gets boring... but in a good way.

 

Sounds like exactly what I'm looking for! With the number of projects I still have and the number of people who routinely ask me to work on their cars, I seriously doubt my mechanic skills will be in danger.

 

I see you are in NoVa... I am over here in MD... so there is salt. The older the truck the worse the potential issues. You know about the frame but some other stuff can be an issue eventually. I had to replace a portion of the transmission cooler hard lines where they go into the tranny. For some reason those got a lot rustier than the other hard lines and developed a pinhole leak that almost cost me a tranny. Luckily I noticed the first bad shifts and found and fixed the leak. This area is easy to inspect on the passenger side behind the front wheel. As a data point my truck is a 2009 bought in November 2008 and this just became an issue this past fall.

 

I was stationed in Portsmouth VA for five years and moved back home to Maine in the winter 'salt belt' and am less then 10 miles from the ocean.. One word: Woolwax.

 

Sounds like a good idea, but I'm not sure if I'd like having a film overtop of everything underneath the truck. Does it make maintenance and repairs less pleasant?

 

As long as you dont grab the frame to drag yourself around on a creeper underneath it, its fine. Will probably suck with any major repairs but id rather deal with some black crap on my hands/gloves than a frame rusting in half personally. My damned chickens like to play under my tundra though and all have black tips on their tails from hitting the WW

 

Thanks! I'm thinking it might be optimal to spray WW inside the frame and coat the outside with POR-15. That should give me the best of both worlds and not require annual recoating.

 

Frontier

 

Def not a 2012 bro!!!!! They have the limp codes from hell! Please please buy 2013-2015

 

Thanks! The one I'm looking at is a 2013. This is the kind of advice I was looking for

 

Best advice ... test drive extensive

 

Im on my 3rd Toyota truck. They really are great trucks. Here is my 2 cents on getting a 6MT tacoma. If youre comfortable driving a standard you probably wont have much of an issue getting used to it, but these trucks do not drive like a Honda civic by any means. They like to be shifted slow and accurately. You can shift them pretty quickly if you are that kind of person, but ive heard stories of bent shift forks due to aggressive driving. That being said, I think the same transmission was also put in the tundras, so I would think that these transmissions are well over build for the application. Ive never had issues with mine and I honestly like it quite a bit. The gearing is a good balance for on/off road driving (with stock gears) and I can get some pretty reasonable MPG with my 295 mud terrains. The clutch is a little bit dead but whatever, its a truck!
I still prefer having three pedals

 

I wanted 3 pedals.....but there’s no way the wifey could drive a standard in the snow.

 

@Kolter45 only one way to learn!

 

Thanks for the heads up! Nearly all my vehicles are manual, so I think I'll be fine

 

Hell yea!

 

Thanks everyone! I am now a happy Tacoma owner!