are the 2nd gen Tacomas garbage?

They are definitely not garbage! I had mine up on the lift for the first time this week and looking at the drive train and the way the frame is built, these trucks are built very well and beefy! The rear driveline on my Tacoma is bigger than the one on my 67 F250 3/4 ton! I am jealous of my Taco in a way, it has lots of things in it that came from the factory that I wish my Bronco and Jeep had!

 

I have an auto 4cyl. Wish I had bought the v-6 as the gas mileage is pretty crappy. Then again my s-10 v-6 was too. I have a few annoyances with this thing. Got one fixed it was the squeaky blower motor. The other one is an annoying rattle in the dash somewhere ......t comes and goes. The stock radio and speakers are rather cheap. I think the a/c could be a little better too. Other than that it's been great!

 

I'm happy with my truck. Of course it isn't perfect, there are a few things that are annoying. For example: shifting (not as smooth as my old 93' 4cyl. yota), blower squeek, wheel wells (if you plan on doing any wheeling on 33"s prepare to trim a lot, and have broken fender flares), MPG sucks on the v6 6-spd. I don't understand this. You would figure a standard transmission would get better MPG than an automatic WTF. But, can't complain on that last point, I bought a truck knowing this. Plus side my commute is 10 miles round trip.

Only time will tell. So far I enjoy wheeling my truck and it being my daily driver.