Need Advice: My 2016 Tacoma TRD Off Road WILL NOT BE DELIVERED - Do I order the 2017?

My heart breaks for you and for your Dad. And for your Mom ... she did get what she wanted, finally, so perhaps just knowing brought joy to her heart.

My parents were very frugal and Dad saved his VA disability [not much but it added up], and saved every month. When Mom went to work, he took her money and put it in savings [stocks/bonds/municiples] and gave her $5 allowance. [She ALMOST left him over this, but thought better of it.] She had less than $20 a week to spend on groceries to feed the 4 of us, in 1959. But Dad was very smart, they were able to buy a house, then build a house, he got promotions, the Dept of Education started paying a little more [my Mom earned less than $5000 her first year teaching and retired making just over $25,000 and the next year, beginning teachers started at $25,000.] They moved with Dad's job. We never had a boat, were not members of the Country Club, etc. Because Dad was a financially frugal man ... they were able to retire to an Erickson Community [Charlestown] and obtain a "million dollar view" apartment that overlooked Baltimore Harbor Place, 2 miles away. You can see the Stadium from their apartment window. And the fireworks with a 180 degree view on July 4. They went on overseas travels with the Teachers Association [Mom taught 7th grade forever] beginning when it cost $395 each for a week. Mom went to England even when Dad couldn't. They were members of the Robert Burns Society of Annapolis, MD. [Sister City Dumfries, Scotland] Dad took his Westinghouse retirement payment and turned it into nearly a million dollars by careful investing and then finding a good stock broker.

Then in 2012, Dad had surgery to remove a gangrenous intestine and had a heart attack on the operating table. They brought him back. He had a calcium deposit on a heart valve and opted not to have the surgery to try to remove it. He died 26 days later. Mom did well the first year and the second, but beginning in 2015, her kidneys were functioning at less than 50% and she was getting tired. She "weaned" me off of her daily emails and weekly calls, although I visited quite often, for weeks at a time. My brother lived 20 minutes away and saw her weekly. When she stopped emailing in the early part of 2015, I sent letters, which she read [I found them while cleaning out the apartment]. My brother hired an aide. I saw her for her 92 birthday in November and didn't realize just how deteriorated she was. She was a good actress. She even entertained people while I was there, fixing them breakfast and serving it in the dining room. I left in early December and she fell in mid December and gashed her head. Blood tests revealed that her liver was at 10% and her kidneys were now at 10% and her lungs were filling up with fluid. She 'suffered through' Christmas so as not to ruin it for the kids and grandkids, sent out 17 Christmas cards of the usual 150 [down from over 600 back in the early 2000's], and then, slowly shut down, dying in Hospice the end of January. I was able to drive up [all night] and saw her the last full day of her life.

My brother and I never felt deprived with all of Dad's frugality. We went to a private school in the 50's. I had piano lessons at The Peabody Institute. Neither of us were ever given a car. I went to 2 years of college before marriage. [The only return on that investment was 2 grandkids for my parents. And 7 great-grandkids and 2 great-great-grandkids.] My brother joined the Navy. [He and his wife have a married daughter.]

The ONLY reason I am able to have my dream vehicle is because Mom left me the money. I don't know what my brother is doing with his. I think he's planning to buy a newer Class B or a small Class C or A when his wife can retire. We were NOT expecting Mom to die without spending the money Dad had frugally saved and invested all those years. And I really think she was so terrified of going into a Nursing Home that she died on her own terms.

So, if anyone wants an explanation, there it is. Not everyone is as blessed as I am, I'm aware of that. My kids will have to wait until I die to benefit ... well, mostly. My granddaughter [son's child] got the 2011 Corolla and my grandson [daughter's child] will get the same amount as the payoff towards his college after he graduates from High School in 2017.

And I ... I would rather have my Mom [and Dad] than the 2016 Tacoma with all the bells and whistles. So, the truck is like a memorial to them because they made it possible. Maybe it's not how most people would memorialize their parents' frugality ... but I think my Dad and Mom would approve 100%. Dad always said: You can only spend your nickel once, so spend it wisely. There were so many little indications that he approved of my purchase ... maybe I read them into the events that happened ... but, maybe I was supposed to do so ... I like to believe that they're glad they made it all possible.

And at 71, and not knowing what the future holds ... whether gas will go to $8 a gallon ... or less than $1 ... at least no one can take the joy of owning my dream truck away from me. Even if I can't drive it, I can sit on the tailgate and drink a cold one and smile up into the heavens and say "Thanks Dad and Mom, I love the truck you gave me."

Have a GREAT summer y'all ....... I know I will ..........
Because I just purchased a used 2004 Aliner Sportliner and pick her up in July! Little did my parents know what they'd unleashed when they left me an inheritance.

Thanks for giving me the opportunity to live my dream, Mom and Dad!

Carol
And if anyone says TMI ................... just scroll on, because someone needed to hear all that.

 

Well said

Loved reading it

We are all strangers with our own stories. Felt privileged to read yours.

Thank you for sharing.

 

We are 'kind of strangers' in a sense ... we're also FAMILY in a sense ... we're Tacoma-Family ...

Consider yourself gently 'fist bumped' and maybe 'side-hugged' ....

Carol

 

Carol,

Just letting you know you're not the only 71 year old buying and enjoying their new 2016 Tacoma - I am too! And like yours, mine is a semi-tribute to my Dad (yes, bought using inheritance money but I could have paid cash on my own). Small world...

Gene

 

I would find a 5500 pound trailer and see if a local dealer would let you test drive a Tacoma with that trailer . I think you will be seriously disappointed with the trailer towing capability of the 3.5