Daily Driver Concerns

I drive my 2nd gen on average of 650 miles weekly. As long as the maintenance is up to date there will be no issues. I had none so far.

 

I say enjoy it and drive it, not to sound cliche or morbid but the next 8 years of your life isn’t guaranteed (I mean hopefully you live long past that) worst case scenario if your engine takes a shit you can always rebuild or replace and if you drive the shit out of it, if and when that time comes you might be ready for a new rig anyway

 

My 2007 was my daily driver until 2016. In those 9 years I put 180,000 miles on it. I drove it from GA to the Grand Canyon and back with 175,000 miles on it when I left GA.

In 2016 I needed a bigger truck and bought a F150 crew cab and the Tacoma became my wife's daily driver. Until about 2 years ago when we bought her another car and I got the Tacoma back. I still have the bigger truck, but only use it when I need a bigger truck. The 16 year old Tacoma is driven a lot more and I have 232,000 miles on mine. I plan to leave my Tacoma to one of my grandkids in another 20 years if that means anything.

I change the oil every 6 months regardless of miles and have never touched the transmission. I fully expect 400,000 minimum out of both the transmission and engine. There are some million-mile Tacoma's out there. The owner's manual says don't change the transmission fluid and I have no plans to do so. The local transmission shop says they see 400,000+ miles out of the factory fluid all the time and I'd literally spend more changing it every 50,000 miles than it will cost me to have it rebuilt if it ever goes bad. And I've seen no evidence changing it prolongs transmission life.

The only thing I've replaced was the alternator at about 170,000 miles. Just normal stuff like brakes, batteries etc. otherwise.

 

You can reduce the amount of miles on your odometer by going with larger tires, like 40's. You're already saving some with 33's, but larger the better!

Haha, nah, Tacoma's are solid.

 

What some will do is have a vehicle specifically for commuting, something that gets exceptionally good mileage like a prius or camry. Then the fun vehicle is used on weekends.

Being a prius driver will get you plenty of disrespect. I was in a borrowed one during the time between when my Nissan pu got totaled and I bought the Tacoma. It has a 3 way selector switch. Eco, normal, and power. Eco is supposed to keep it in electric mode, doesn't work, even if you try to accelerate very gently it still doesn't work. Power mode is surprising, drives like a fast car.

 

wait until you hear how much cash you have to buy gas by taking that bag of money required to buy a Prius and not buying a Prius

one assumes if you drive a 4x4 you need one to commute in inclement weather

if not, a secondary summer vehicle of any kind still costs money
In insurance, registration, and payment of the vehicle. And potentially higher octane fuel

if the Tacoma is too much, there are plenty of other vehicles that still have traction in inclement weather with better daily gas mileage

such as AWD Audi
or, even a FWD car with spare set of snow tires

Apparently if you want to spend $1k in gas on a year instead of $2k, the mathematical solution is to buy a second vehicle for $20k (that is likely costlier to repair than a Toyota)

improving skill, developing side hustle, relocating to lower CoL, getting raise, switching profession/job, also not a solution

maybe a solution is to sacrifice personal safety by buying a salvage Hyundai that’s painful to drive

check out the Ford Ranger. More speeds auto trans, more efficient 4cyl turbo

 

I don’t have 33’s but I DD mine and use to put 30,000 miles a year on my vehicles.. a 30 min commute is laughable where I live. Ive had drives that where 102 miles one way daily.. do the basic maintenance and you should be good for at least another 100k+

 

I’m from the future, your truck will out live us all, zoom in, upper left corner, that’s your truck in the distance.

 

Same here - keeping my 2002 Silverado as a backup while I'm still working, or for very large loads of firewood. I bought my 2007 Tacoma last May to use as my daily driver. Weekdays about 33 miles round trip. Have about 151k on it now, but based on research (and hopefully typical situations) here and elsewhere I'm not concerned about it being a daily driver. I'll occasionally take the Chevy to work or shopping during the week.

Nice to see another Tacoma still driven routinely with over 200k miles - and other 2nd gen driven over 600 miles weekly.

Wow, that 102 mile one way commute is impressive. Hopefully it was mostly highway. I guess it's all relative - I had a co-worker in Boston years ago say 'I live close to the downtown store, about a mile and a half. I can make it there in only 45 minutes' While a customer from Oklahoma said - we're moving our office right down the road, about 30 miles.

 

I'd get a set of stock size wheels and tires that are p rated. Why? Weigh less (pun intended) drivetrain and suspension wear with lighter wheels, way less noise, and they'll pay for themselves due to gas savings
(which I know you're not concerned about). Why anyone would want to wear out $400 a piece tires mall crawling or interstate driving is beyond me. Switch out the wheels for your 33s when you need to. Takes 20 minutes with a good floor jack. Of course, you do you. Stay on top of maintenance and the truck will last a long time. Most importantly, inspect your frame. This is the weakpoint on these vehicles.

 

Awesome truck, I'd sell the 33 Mts unless you are going to be doing some hardcore stuff. 33s look awesome on our trucks but I'd look for a 33inch AT tire in the low 50lb range, C or D load, still looks good and works out on the trails but get you better MPG.

 

^this

when you start talking 2nd vehicle so you're not DD'ing the taco, or really any "weekend fun vehicle", it pays to really sit down and do the realistic math on it. It takes a *lot* of resources to make a dedicated weekend fun vehicle out of a relatively new rig (<10 years). Even when you start talking 33's, suspension, armor, etc it typically makes better sense to just keep on DD'ing that rig vs. buying a 2nd and parking the taco.

also keep in mind we're talking about a depreciating asset that you may or may not be financing. Granted, probably the best vehicle to have in terms of depreciating asset but still...its not an e30 m3 or some other limited-production, high-demand vehicle.

so feel free to pour the miles on. Keep up regular maintenance and it will last you a long long time

 

A second vehicle is like a mistress; if you don't take it out at least every 2 weeks, the seals get tighter and it breaks down more often. It often becomes more of a headache than it is worth as you have house it somewhere as well. And it's going to cost you a lot regardless. Oftentimes you're better with the one.

 

this. OP also 33s are robbing you of power, and cost a lot more to replace, especially if you have 5, which you should for "uberlandung." Also, dont forget to recalulate your mileage and MPG using the tire sizing tool on this site to reveal reality. And once you start modifying, it will be nice to be able to leave it apart in the garage becuase you have a Yugo for commuting.

 

One thing that many people neglect to think about when keeping any vehicle for the long run is what kind of replacement parts you put in when they are actually needed. (And yes, as reliable as Toyotas are, they do need parts replaced occasionally.) I would highly recommend OEM parts whenever possible. Sure, they cost more than local parts store "white box specials," but there's a reason for that. Don't fall for cheap replacement parts because you do get what you pay for.

 

Other points being made about second vehicle cost valid too.

Depreciation moment: my 2015 with 50k on it got damaged by tree.limbs in recent storms. The insurance adjuster told me a story of a claim he had where I guy drove his new Tacoma off the dealer lot and almost immediately totaled. FMV dictated that the reimburment value was higher than the purchase price. The owner made money in that accident. Food for thought.

 

especially O2 sensors and the like.

 

I roughly calculated a bit over $500 a year to keep my Silverado on the road, considering insurance (liability, no collision), taxes, registration, emissions (every 2 years) etc. That's not counting repairs like the expensive fuel lines that were replaced a few years ago. While working full time as I am now I can afford that and do want it in case the Tacoma needs repairs, like air conditioning done at a shop during the work week this summer. But, when I retire, which may not be too far away I'll likely at least take the Chevy off the road. At that point it's all about money and minimizing expenses. I traded in a newer SUV for the Tacoma considering retirement. You guys are probably a lot younger and have a longer employment future ahead of you which could justify having a second vehicle, especially if you have a spouse or kids that may need to use it at times.

 

This never occurred to me before, but now seems kind of obvious, if maybe a little hard to verify:

How much selection bias & reflexive feedback loop is there within the Toyota brand + buyer's demographic? Maybe Toyota owner/drivers as a group have a higher-than-average frequency & quality of routine maintenance, because they are naturally-inclined, by temperament & by choice, to care for their vehicle engines/drivetrains more. More frequent/better-quality routine maintenance on already-well-designed-and-built engines = even better average service lifetimes..

----

Regarding parts, 99% of the time I buy the OEM part. For popular Toyota vehicle models, it seems like the parts pipeline for OEM parts extends back at least 25 years. I have no problem getting OEM DENSO™ parts for my 1999 2.4L 2WD taco.

 

minimal impact i bet, most people arent enthusiasts who browse the forums and do their own routine maintenance. Most people just drive their toyota as a DD then take it to Valvoline instant oil change lol