My most expensive ride home...

I'll give the quick version of my 1st gen tacoma journey.
Almost a year ago my girlfriends parents said they would be willing to loqn me some money to buy myself a vehicle. The first vehicle I recall thinking of getting was a first gen tacoma. I was so stoked. I always loved the first gen tacomas but never thought I would be in a position to own one. So my search began after a few weeks of looking on Facebook and the classifieds for one I set my sights on a 2004 5lug. In am effort to keep the number low with how much I would need loaned to me the 5 lug was in the range I felt comfortable with. The price on the ad was $4300, I ended up paying $3500 for my first tacoma. I hadn't done much research in the different trim levels or what to look out for. I was lucky the frame wasn't rotten but it was a 5 lug, so no 4wd. Living in Utah where it snows 4 Months out of the year IMO 4wd is the way to go. Plus the 5 lug didn't have the same suspension as a 4wd. When I realized there was a big difference between a 5 lug and a 6 lug tacoma and what I had decided to purchase I started feeling buyers remorse. But I was still grateful so I bought bigger tires and tricked it out did everything but put a lift on it. I raptorlined the whole thing white and then decided that the 5 lug wasn't and never was what my heart was after in a truck/tacoma. So I listed it and ended up selling it for $3750. I still owed my gf parents $250 so I got my money back, minus the rims, tires, and all the time and effort and energy I put into trying to make it what it never could be. I learn3d alot from the experience and I was set out to find me a 4wd. So back to the classifieds and fbm I went checking them throughout the day ATLEAST once every few hours. At the time I had a company vehicle I was driving so I wasn't in to big of a hurry I felt. But after a month and a half of looking it was wearing on me I wanted to find a 4wd. I had a budget of a Lil under 5 grand. I ended up buying one took a lift all the way out to Evanston to buy it . A 1998 2.7liter (TRD stamped but not a real TRD) with 224000 a broken muffler a fucked up cab roof 35" mickey thomspn Baja tires beadwork wheels, rear icon. Suspension, arb winch front bumper, rear tube bumper it had more but someone put some money into it. It was ridiculous not my style but I figured I would just take it back here to utah and flip it. Fucked up roof yes but there was enough there that $2500 seemed like I wouldn't have a problem making a Lil coin off of it. I needed to make a Lil money since life keeps happening and I had to dip into my truck fund a Lil bit. So I drive this thing back to Utah when I realize the title showed the truck had a lien on it. The whole thing in Evanston was a Lil sketch when i looked back at but what could I do at that point. Well I decided to call the bank and see what was up with the lien and turns out the lien was sartisified a long time ago and they were going to send me a release of lien to me. Ended up one of my buddy's bought it off of me for $3500. I sold it that low since the roof was pretty bad. I couldn't gelieve this truck didn't have a salvaged title. A vehicle report I pulled on it showed it was in q accident on the freeway going 60mph.
Anyways so I had my budget back at around $5000. I knew I wanted a white 1st gen tacoma. I thought the white looked awesome on a first gen and that's what I was after. My gf father and I had a few talks and he said he would be willing to loan me a Lil to get what i wanted. After of wondering what the number was on how much he would loan me he said he would loan me the money I ended up paying him back with. So that meant another $3500. I was at around $8000 to spend on a truck. I was so stoked. For a gut like me situations like this don't happen all to often. With the opportunity of a lifetime i set out to find my first gen. I was set on white for the most part. Well I always had a thing for the surf side mica color that I seen a few times on the internet and one came up for sale on classifieds. It sparkd my interest and it stayed on the classifieds for about 3 weeks. When I decided to go test drive it. Priced at $8500 this 1998 tacoma wasn't a TRD or a sr5 but just a base model 4wd. The odometer reads Ata whopping 515000 miles and a clean utah title. The pictures on the ad the truck looked amazing. Clean engine bay paint look3d good f4om the pics and it listed a bunch of upgrades as well as an engine and tyranny swap with a motor and transmission with 160000 miles on them(supposedly). Well before going to see it i talked him down to $7000 without the front and rear offroad bumpers he had on it in the pics.
I was planning on going and test driving a white tacoma with 334000 miles on it for only $4000 before going and checking out the surf side green one, but someone swooped it up omw to go see it. Oh and couple days before all this I lose my job and the benefit of having a vehicle to go test drive all the ones catching my eye, so at this point transportation has become a issue forgot to mention that.
So I show up to the surf side mica owners house and I see the truck but it's not as clean as it was in the pics. It was almost as if the pics were ones he took when he bought it or something cause i didn't know this At the time but it had been garaged for almost two years. I know this cause it has the timing belt schedule written on it the engine the last time it was serviced was in 2021 @ 515000. That's the amount of miles it had on it when I purchased it that day.
I feel so stupid buying a truck for $7000 with 515000 miles on it. Especially when it wasn't as clean as the pics. But idk I just felt like he had something i wanted and I was set out to buy the damn thing. I'll post pics of the truck that is now mine but I regret it really I paid way to much considering the mileage and condition of this thing. I forget all the upgrades that were listed in the ad but I still feel like I could have done better. I guess that's my story of one of my most expensive ride home..
Anyone else have similar experience I would like to hear I'm not the only one. Thanks for your time I'll go out and take some pics and post them next.

 

So in the end you paid $7000 for a truck with 515k miles on it and a rot hole in the roof?

 

Yep I did

 

That’s a really long winded way to say you blew a bunch of money on a rusty pile. Given how tight money seems to be for you buying an overpriced Tacoma was probably the last thing on the list of bad decisions you could have made.

 

this is a passion project. Money becomes irrelevant. Give this guy some slack, study a trade, get an education. Money comes and goes, we're driving 20 year old vehicles. This isn't an ROI discussion.

 

I got a bridge for sale in Brooklyn If your interested.

 

Things happen and ya live and learn…..





Ya learned, right??

 

I have some ocean front property in Arizona, he might be interested in that too. At least he wouldn't need 4wd there.

 

You borrowed the money from your girlfriend’s parents?

 

Unfortunately this is the state of the auto market. In Q2 about 18% of all new car loans had ~$1000 monthly payment.

 

https://iask.ai/?mode=question&q=Wh...+5+lug+Toyota+truck+and+a+6+lug+Toyota+truck?

 

Damn the seller made out like a bandit on that deal.

 

Don't beat yourself up: We all make mistakes. I've made purchases like this over my lifetime that I just "had to have", and it was invariably cars & trucks at the bottom of it. Take your girlfriend on the ride to go look the next time.

Concentrate on working to pay off any remaining loans with your GF's parents if you can: even if you have to pay them $10.00/wk if you can afford it.
Move on and start over. See if you can fix the roof and fix anything else enough to get it watertight and sale-worthy.

Finally: Take as much of the emotion out of purchasing a vehicle as you can. It's hard and the sales folks, honest and otherwise, know this.
You'll get through this with a success story and a truck and I bet it won't take you long. Make sure you come back here and post it! (with pics)

Bonne chance!!

 

Some people just love to pile it on, likely abused as children. Shit happens man, not one of us alive who hasn’t made some choices we wish we could have back, but not everyone who lives them learns. Consider it a little smack in the face and next time I bet you won’t turn the other cheek.

Also, good on you for being real about it.

 

I’ve lost money quicker and on stupider shit. Sometimes when you get it in your mind that you are gonna buy something it’s hard to turn it off, even if it’s not right. I’ve also passed up on some things that I should have bought but didn’t cause I was being too conservative. Both will haunt you but it’s best to just let it go.

Pay your girlfriends parents back, move on.

 

I haven't done this with a car (at least not that I will admit), but I have on smaller purchases. Typically I have been looking for an item for a while and one finally pops up for sale, a little far away. The distance I've traveled and the time I've spent searching feel like sunk costs and in the moment I'd rather not leave empty-handed; I can see that desire being amplified if the car you were looking at was also how you planned to get home. Hopefully you don't beat yourself up over it and can recover some value from it, either through use, learning/repair, or sale.

 

You got any friends in the market for a tacoma?

 

Welcome to the surfside club, brudda. Don't sell this truck. Not only because you won't get the money you have on it, but sounds like you really wanted a taco and may regret it more if you sell it. Sounds like ya been through a lot, maybe time to settle. Work on it every chance you get until you're satisfied with your purchase, just my opinion.

Nice topper