Just got my first Tacoma yesterday

My last vehicles were an 89 pontiac lemans with a 3 speed automatic transmission, an 04 accord with a manual transmission and an 06 civic also with a manual transmission which I still have.
I purchased the lemans with about 70k miles when I was 16 under the assumption that low miles was the most important thing and means that the vehicle will last a long time. I quickly learned that I was wrong when the timing belt snapped on the drive home from purchasing it.
The accord I bought with 180k miles and got it up to about 289k miles before the engine gave out.
The civic has been having rust issues and I wanted to get another vehicle to have so that I can rip the interior out and repair the rust holes underneath. I got it about 4 years ago with 130k miles and its a bit over 160k now still with no major issues besides the rust holes underneath.
I spent months looking; unsure of what to get. I was between a tacoma and a corolla hatchback. I finally decided I wanted to get a tacoma and use it for traveling and camping. I knew that I wanted to get something with a manual transmission since both my hondas are manual and I genuinely enjoy driving manual vehicles and have been since I was 19, i’ll be 29 in december.
I had been doing a ton of research on the tacomas and wanted to get the best truck I could get that will hopefully last a very long time, and also try to get the best deal I could on one.
After months of research and discussions with a close friend who has owns a 2019 tacoma I decided that I wanted to get a 2013-2015 or 2020+ tacoma with low miles. I wanted to get one with a manual transmission, v6, 6ft bed, and 4wd. I was looking for something with under 70k miles and my max price was $35k but realistically I was looking to spend under $25k. I spent months, and months, and months looking. It started to feel hopeless, maybe I was being too picky. I was seeing a lot of the 2016-2019 tacomas with these features for sale and it was convincing me that I was making the right decision because I did not see a lot of the 2013-2015’s for sale. There were plenty of the 2020+ for sale, but not with under 70k miles and under $25k. I could have spent more but I really was trying hard not to.
I had reached out about a handful of these trucks over these past few months. There were concerns or I just straight up would not hear back from the dealership when I would ask about photos underneath because this seemed to be the biggest issue with these trucks.
Finally, on tuesday I saw a 2015 with 69k miles for $20k. It was the base model, a trd would have been nice, but it had everything I was looking for. I reached out and of course they tell me other people are interested in it. I had conversations with my friend and a mutual friend who works at a dealership and decided to go for it. I was taking a huge risk, I live in Pennsylvania and the truck was in Indiana. I tried to do a pre purchase inspection on the truck, and the dealership originally agreed to it. I scheduled an inspection with a reputable nearby mechanic who said they had done this for this dealership in the past. When I informed a different salesperson who I was now dealing with that I had this scheduled and I told her that he told me he would need them to drop the truck off for 5-6 hours she asked me “5 or 6 hours, what is he doing tearing the whole truck apart?”
She suggested I used a different service where a person comes out to the dealership and test drives the truck and inspects it and it takes around 2 hours for them to do. She also mentioned that this truck is inspected at the auction they purchase it from, and inspected again when it arrives at their dealership and if there are any issues they can return the vehicle to the auction.
After talking this over with the mutual friend who works at a dealership, he asked me to tell him the name of the dealership. He did some research and saw that they were a large reputable dealership with good reviews. He said they would be screwing themselves over a lot more by selling me a truck with major issues than they would be screwing me over and that he thinks I should just go for it.
That’s what I did. I put money down on the truck on thursday and purchased a plane ticket for saturday from Pennsylvania to Indiana. They told me how much it would cost to ship and I calculated that with the entire trip I would be saving about $500 by going to pick it up myself rather than having it shipped to me.
I was supposed to arrive at the dealership around noon on saturday, I figured at best I could make it back home around 9 or 10pm that night…
After about 12 hours spent in airports due to delays I made it to the dealership a bit after 11pm. They worked with me and the owner and some of the other people stayed late and just hung out at the dealership waiting for me to arrive. I took the truck for a test drive, came back, signed all the paperwork for it and was on my way home around midnight. I made it home around 10am.
It was definitely a very interesting and frustrating experience, but I didn’t have any issues with the truck. Everything went smooth and seems great. Everything to do with this truck seems better than I expected it to be.
I am now in the process of figuring out exactly what I want to do as far as building the bed to be able to camp in it. I have a few ideas of what I want to do, but am always open to suggestions or ideas. I am thinking I want to get one of the taller caps, the tallest one I can get. I reached out to a local distributor and they said its about a 6 week lead time and $3k for either of the models I had asked about. I feel like its going to be tough to find a used high rise cap for the 6ft bed tacoma based on the limited searching I have been doing, but I would definitely rather get a used one if I could get a good deal on it. I saw the “ez lift topper” and figured I could make something like that if I wanted to by purchasing actuators and building something similar to make even more space in the back for when im in a more secluded area and the weather is nice, but that is something i’m not exactly decided on yet. I think I might have enough room with the high rise cap alone to be able to spend time comfortably inside the truck bed.
I am thinking about using a solid sheet of wood at the bottom, and mounting a custom futon with storage space underneath that when folded down into a bed would sit flush against a counter/storage space on the other side of the truck bed. In my mind, if I have it all attached to a solid piece of wood at the bottom, although heavy it could be removed in one big piece and then the truck bed would be completely empty if I need it to be.
The research I have done on this has been limited, the majority of my time over the past few months when I made the decision that this is what I want to do has been spent trying to find the truck.
Now that I have it I can start spending the time planning exactly how I want to set the truck up. I also would like to start working on repairing the civic and completing that as quickly as possible so that I can continue to use it as my daily driver and limit the amount of miles I am putting on the tacoma.
I know this is a lot, I am not sure if anyone is actually going to take the time to read all of it. I would love to hear any of your thoughts, opinions, or suggestions. Even if it’s just someone making fun of me for having a manual transmission, any feedback would be appreciated.
I might post some pictures in some future posts.

 

Welcome to TW

 

Welcome to TacomaWorld. Attach some pics of your new truck when you get a chance. We like pics here.

 

Welcome aboard!

 

2015 would be a good find... Being the end of Gen 2.5 (2012-2015), which has a near bulletproof* reputation for reliability. My son has a 2014 that he bough maybe 4 years ago... Aside from a modest lift, some tires and wheels, he really has only had to fill gas and do regular maintenance. So, I would say just on that experience, he made a great choice. He also did a ton of research before deciding he was hunting for a 2014 or 2015 Gen 2.5 Tacoma.

I just got a 2017. Say that being the second year of the new Gen 3, but before labor and production difficulties during COVID, that 2017 had many bugs seen in first year 2016 models fixed. I have only owned for a week. So I can say but I like to think that theory is a good one.