Howdy

First time Taco owner. The Oldsmobile Intrigue my father gave me when my '90 4runner 4banger snapped its camshaft gave out a little over a week ago. It had quit just as I pulled in front of my driveway. I was able to start it and back in to my driveway, but when I turned the engine off, the THUNK was followed by a rolling sound and out from under the hood a serpentine belt pulley rolled into the street. I was d*mned if I was going to drop any more coin into that P.O.S. Intrigue, but I had to be at client sites the next three days.

Fortunately, a 2004 Taco Double Cab V6 4x4 was sitting over in a dealer lot a couple miles away. It had more miles than I wanted for a '04 (173K), and I thought the dealer was asking too much ($12900), but I needed a vehicle NOW. They wouldn't deal much (only agreed to replace a headlight bulb), and I think I would have walked away (esp. since it turns out the TB had never been replaced)... but did I mention I needed a vehicle NOW? It test drove OK, and I could find only a trace hint of rust under the right front door (time for some POR15), so I bought it. I did manage to get in writing from the dealer a 3 day, 150mile bring-it-back guarantee. So two days later I had my pre-purchase post-sale inspection. The mechanic said it was in pretty good shape, no major issues, so I went ahead and replaced the TB, idler & tensioner, and water pump (with all Toyota genuine parts).

Today I had the bed Line-X'd and found a pristine, used Leer topper for $300.

On my drive up to Ft. Collins and back to Denver to get the topper, I achieved 23.5 mpg. I'm sure I pissed a lot of people off not exceeding 60mph in the right line of I-25, but c'est la vie. For an automatic V6 4x4, I'm pretty happy with that. I think I'm going to give that air filter I've seen mentioned here on TW a try, and make sure I'm running my tires around 40-45psi (assuming they can be run that high). I'm shooting for 25mpg highway. FWIW, I used very light throttle, cruise control set at 60mph on the flatter sections of highway; if it got hilly and the AT downshifted out of overdrive, I cancelled CC and went back to manual throttle.

Looking forward to picking folks brains as to how to go about outfitting my Taco for offroad / trail running.

Nice to be here.

 

welcome. I go to school in Laramie so not too far away from denver and I also have tons of family in denver and sounding areas

 

Welcome to TW!

 

Howdy!