Are first gen Toyotas actually worth the price?

Somebody will see it. Lol

I recall it as the slow lane as well, if there are 2 lanes, otherwise it's the middle lane np

 

is that gonna make your life better? owning a 2nd gen over a 1st gen? if so then you should buy a 2nd gen.

2nd gens are not inherently better trucks. they are different trucks.

 

I paid 2,200 bucks for my 1st gen with a 6 year old frame. Am I going to get 2,200 buck worth of value out of it? Absolutely. Would I have paid 8,000 or 6,000 or even 5,000 for a 18 year old truck with 175,000 miles on it? Hell no. Still, it's a nice truck, and does almost everything I could want it to do, as a *truck*. For everything else, there's my daily driver car.

 

I am quite content with my manual '01 extra cab with 6ft bed. It has everything I need/want and nothing I don't. It may even be the last 'new' car/truck I ever own because I don't like all the increasingly complex/techno bullshit loaded onto new vehicles. I f'ing hate touchscreens. I don't need lane departure shit made for incompetent drivers. I don't need some POS computer to attempt to determine what gear I need to be in. I don't need a damn light to tell me my tire is low on air or that I have 7.2 miles left to drive on my tank of gas. Etc... If I had to replace it, I'd spend weeks/months hunting around for a similar year truck over anything made by any company today. IMHO, yes they are worth every penny (if in appropriate condition).

 

Yeah usually the people that post them online are a bit pricey, try cruising down some cities you might find an old school guy who kepted it up and really just looking to sell it for a reasonable price

 

No worries at all man- I’ve got a toddler so half the time I re-read my posts and they don’t make sense so I could have been confusing as well. I was strictly saying that in my opinion/area/ and financial situation the clean first gen double cab 8500 was better than spending 20,000 on a truck that’s around the same mileage just a few years newer (and I couldn’t convince the wife to let me spend 35,000 on a new TRdOR ha!)



OP i don’t think we will get anyone to agree on this subject because we all have different preferences like the guy a few posts up who loves the new trucks because they are so much more technologically advanced but just a few posts later you have guys who will claw “tooth and nail to get a first GEN again because they don’t want all of that extra fluff -just a good simple reliable vehicle

I think the important thing of this thread just shows that Tacoma‘s whether first second or third GEN are all the best truck out there -in my opinion and many others since we are on a Tacoma forum ha ha.

thanks for the read though- been a fun thread

 

To me, 1st gens drive/feel like a Toyota and the 2nd gens feel much more like an American designed/built vehicle. I guess it could be the difference in size but I think there's more to it than that. I'll let others decide if the difference in feel is better or worse but for me the added performance in trade for size on the 2nd gen is definitely worth the cost difference. They're both great trucks!

 

i know of some (or many) on TW that seem to not like the 'road noise' the 1st gens make and go to great lengths to literally 'gut' their trucks interior and mod it to make it more like a 2nd or 3rd gen that are probably not quite so noisy on the road and all that jazz, but to each their own yadayada
the road noise has not really ever bothered me other than a few stretches on I-80 in Iowa that has some weird pavement that amplifies the noise to the levels of driving highway speeds with the windows down. but i have endured that for 20+ years and its so much more quieter on the roads then the old Corolla, which has had multiple exhaust leaks and may have bad wheel bearings now that rumble nonstop

 

The engine was louder on the 1st gen, the 2nd gen I couldn't hear the engine at all with the windows up and on the freeway. Tire noise was louder on the 1st gen. Wind noise is louder on the 2nd gen, in fact there's a thread about it as the 2nd gens have a noise very similar to a wazoo (I think it's called a wazoo). Based off of noise in the cabin it's a toss up IMO.

 

I've never driven a second gen or even been in one. How much difference is there between the two when you're driving? Is there really that much difference?

 

2nd gen sits MUCH higher off the road from my experience in a stock height
its not like looking almost straight over your hood at the road in the 1st gen if you are stock height
i cannot comment on the performance because the 2nd gen i was driving was a 4cyl and just dogged out on the highway could barely get it up and moving to pass when necessary

 

So it does actually feel like you're in a much larger vehicle.

 

yes i think so, it was a single cab so had less room on the interior than my xtracab
but definitely higher off the road

 

Feels larger than my 1st gen Tundra. I don't like driving my father's 08 Taco. But I also don't like driving most modern vehicles.

 

Did you pulled the trigger on new suspension or not yet ?

 

to be fair, it is a larger vehicle though. a 3rd gen DC weighs almost 20% more than a 1st gen DC.

 

They are die hard vehicles. Esp if you take care of them. I really like the lack of excessive electronics in my 1st gen compared to the second gen. In some ways I think they used better materials in the 1st generation but then again they did make a mistake on the frame being susceptible to rust. I def think they are worth 10k+ esp if you get one with low miles and no rust. I would rather get one of those than a newer 2nd gen that lived in lets say NY where there is salt.

The simplicity of these 1st gen trucks is also a plus. It allows for lots of work that you can do yourself if you are mechanically inclined. Just get the Haynes manual.

I have been though so much in my 1st gen truck. Driven it cross country countless times, all kinds of weather. Unfortunately I even hit a bear once in Vermont driving late one nite on a hwy through a national park. It was sad and unavoidable but my truck had minimal damage. This is where it may have saved my life. Toyota trucks current popularity is based on the 1st generation's reputation and success so there is something to be said about getting an original.

 

And with how common tacomas are and the fact that they share lots of parts with the 4runner and even 1st gen Tundras/T100s, there are so many amazing videos on youtube.

 

no not yet, may or may not need it yet IDK
would like to get my stock wheels refinished up nicely first!

 

Having owned a handful of 1st gen Tacomas and 3rd gen 4Runners I can say they are 100% not worth the prices some people pay. Moving into a newer generation of either one is objectively an upgrade with very few tangible things that are less desirable. Make out the real list of pros and cons for either one and the older trucks will 100% lose at this point in time. If you paid any more than 6,000$ for your 1st gen Tacoma, you overpaid IMO.