Dad's Gonna Buy Son new Tacoma as a College Grad. Gift - Learning

New Member, I'm a dad planning to purchase a new 2010 Tacome 7188, 2X2 4-Dr. Dbl Cabin for my 25 y/o son who graduates from college on Dec. 12th.

I know that the Tacoma is a generally a good product and so I have confidence that it will deliver good service to him. My interest by joining your forum is to gain insight (learn) as to options I should (or should not consider, be they Toyota OE, Dealer installed or Aftermarket). I also plan to have the truck "semi-tricked out for him" by a) selecting the right OE pkg, i.e. TRD, Sport, etc., upgrading/changing out the OE stereo system to a high end Nav/Audio/DVD/MP3-4 system with 6-8 speakers +sub, leather seating surface upgrade on all seating surfaces and door panels, suede headliner and visors, fiberglass bed cover and bed liner, extender, skid plate, 17' wheels and All terrain tires.

Want to visit hear read about and learn what other owner's have done to theirs....

Also interested to hear from any members in the SWLA to E-Texas area who have purchased locally and want to recommend a dealer (of course I'll be looking for a decent deal on the vehicle outright). Also any recommendations for the uphosterly and/or stereo upgrades work.

So please if you have something to share, let me know...meanwhile I'll be reading away and likely asking a few questions.

I.e - is the Toyota Factory extended warranty a good deal (your observations/lessons learned?)

 

Welcome to TW, from deep south Texas!!! You may want to look into getting him a 4x4, TRD Sport Package. I have one and love the ride.
By the way I'm up for adoption!...lol

 

Welcome and good luck to you all!!! Found the right place with a bunch of good guys!! I would personally go all after market and do it yourself.
It would be cool to buy it and do the upgrades with your son so he could learn what the truck has to offer. I am pretty sure that he will like the fact that you want to share something like that with him! I also know that there are guys/gals down there in LA to help out!! Good luck

 

First of all, welcome!

Now to answer some of your questions.

The package that comes with the 17" stock rims would be the TRD sport. You could then upgrade the tires to something like BFG All Terrains, Nitto, or something else in the AT category.

As for the seat upgrades you might want to check out Wet Okole. You can check out this group buy LINK for some information and pictures.

To upgrade the stereo you can probably just take it to a car audio shop locally, but the space where you have to put the amp and sub is very thin so you have to have a custom box built to fit behind the seats. Check out one of tacomaworlds vendors, Mr. Marv for this.

I'm sure others will chime in with some advice as well.

 

great info 707! welcome to tw. there are plenty of sources on here to give you the insight you need. your son is lucky!!!

 

I'd say do the TRD sport package.. but you just mentioned you might want to recover the seats.. I've heard some members special ordering their seats to come in leather (our members from canada have the option of leather and seat warmers!) so you may want to look into that. I have the navi/dvd player touch screen style stereo and have been very pleased with the way it looks and acts. Just make sure and find one that can have a sellection of colors considering our stock interior lamps are a pretty ugly shade of orange. (i like my lamps to all match.. no orange/blue/whatever for me!) and make sure he gets the IPod hookups.. he'll dig that.

for suspension, at the least make sure to get the bilsteen 5100s. they really make the ride amazing. and find out more about the rear spring TSB that was issued.. i dunno if you can do it for the 2010s... but it would be worth looking into. if you cant, i ahve a spare extra spring i can sell ya!

good luck and welcome to the forum

 

your an awesome dad, I got 100 bucks for graduating then bought my truck myself

 

i got a eurorail pass and a plane ticket into germany (right on time for oktoberfest) and a flight out of rome a month later. That was pretty pimp. BUT its all in what your parents can do.

it coulda been worse.. they coulda changed the locks and said "You're college educated - get out!!"

 

Welcome to TW. Your son is a lucky guy!

I have just a small bit of advice. Do not buy the Toyota hood bug shield. They are known to dig into the paint. If you want a bug shield go aftermarket.

 

yeah my parents have made me work for everything my whole life and I love them for it, would do the same to my child, you dont respect something unless you have had to work for it

 

Just my fatherly opinion Rick, but if I was you - and I'm not - I would help him buy it, but ensure he had some part in making the payments. After graduation, nothing should be free. But you love him and it's hard not to want to help him in his first steps.....I completely understand. I have a 2006 SR5 4x4, thus far, not one single fault or problem. Nada.

 

TRD sport 4X4! YOU ARE THE COOLEST DAD EVER.

 

hello & welcome to TW.