New 2008 Single Cab Owner

Good day TW Forum!

I am the proud owner of a new-to-me 2008 Single Cab Tacoma in Silver. It's pretty base model with the 2.7, automatic, and even A/C! Otherwise, it's not rocking much except being it's great little truck self.

So, story on my journey on my now second Tacoma. Long post here, but I like to talk (type) and other hobbies include fountain pens strangely, so words are something I like.

I originally owned a 2003 Tacoma - also a single cab, with the 2.4 - but it also did have an automatic transmission and A/C (this one was a fleet truck I know for sure, my current one I suspect is, but cannot confirm. It also lived its whole life in Texas, then New Mexico, and finally AZ here.). It was a vehicle my mother and I actually got together and she's a cool lady - I was in my late 20s at the time and she had just turned 60. So, my aunt, her sister, was frequently visiting us and insisted on a vehicle here to use instead of renting one. My mom and I decided, why not make it a super practical one and get a truck?

So, we got Randy the Truck, which we named after the dude we bought it from. It was a bit beat up, having been in a minor-moderate accident but no airbags deployed and Randy the owner had replaced the headlight (he did this after he took pictures which is why I suspect it didn't sell quickly even in 2015 and part of why we were more open to buying it). It did have an airbag light on... but I'm pretty savvy on cars and knew the airbags hadn't deployed yet didn't know why it was on. I wasn't worried, as I'm decent with cars and along the way in life found a local mechanic who does wondrous repairs and could fix what I can't (and with the emphasis on airbags, you might know how this story eventually ends).

So, we get Randy home and proceed over the next 6 months to make it our project truck. We pull out the few dents on the body and hood. My mom does a lot of the small paint work touch up. We add a super cool bug deflector and we even find some good fender flares that were easy to install and even covered up some of the small dents we couldn't pop out (front-driver side was harder to get on and where the accident was).

We eventually figure out the airbag light is on because some bad dude cut the sensor off when it was in the accident to part out. It's the one under the battery that routinely I found out gets corroded. I know it was cut because there was NO damage there and the wire sensors were flush and cleanly cut. So, my mom spends a couple weeks at junk yards to find a 1st gen that has an intact sensor. She does and my super cool mechanic splices it into the truck and airbag light is off and no issues.

Randy lives his life for many years doing great things. My aunt uses him as a rental car until she finally moved out here. My mother in law used it when her old Corolla finally died while looking for a new car. It's delivered couches, beds, TVs, moved friends, helped my mom set up her cabin, hauled things to Goodwill, and loved his little retired truck life.

Well, one day I take my son and Randy the Truck out - because why not and no reason to let a nice vehicle sit. We made a day of it and went to get him a build-a-bear, I stopped at the local hobby shop, and we got lobster rolls to bring home to mom.

Well, 1/4 of a mile from home on the main road, jerk-face-loser-scum decides to gun it out of the side-street full force not seeing my Tacoma and PLOWS into my front passenger side so hard, my front wheel is pushed in a good 25 degrees. Now, trucks don't steer very well after such a thing and I had started to veer into the oncoming road with the very little time I could and my truck kept careening into the oncoming traffic and we eventually were stopped by a large city light pole. Well, the airbag deployed for me when he smashed into me (my son didn't have his go out, he's still a bit too small and I turned his off). Unfortunately, airbags don't redeploy usually and hitting the pole smacked my nose/face into the wheel. I'll save gory details and I only had some minor cuts and a decently broken nose. My son only had the seatbelt rash and thankfully unscathed.

Jerk-loser-face's Scion TC was also incredibly totaled and stalled in the street because it too would never drive again. Apparently, boot-scum-loser decided to hoof it away. My son vaguely saw him, I didn't, the witness lady saw a 'man' and nobody knew where he went. So, local PD didn't/couldn't do much. Randy was dead, my insurance has been great, the airbag worked well and kept me from more injuries, my son is importantly OK, and I'm slightly sad a second Toyota was destroyed too.

Now, onto the happy news! A half year later or so, after looking, I've got my new 2nd gen Tacoma though! We found it at the local used shop my mother in law recently got a CRV from. It's very nice - it has only 56,000 miles on it. He's had one owner before me all in Texas, so no rust anywhere. It feels great, the truck too was in a minor accident but best as I can tell, it was lightly side swiped on the driver's side. No real dents, some decent scratches they tried to kinda touch up with paint. The inside is immaculate and the bed has like 4 scrapes and somehow he got a decent couple dents on the tailgate.

I did replace the intake box, because stupidly checking it out, I didn't know how finicky the guide tabs are on and busted the front/side one off and left a gaping 3/4'' hole above the filter which seems bad. Amazon got me one here in 2 days and about 30 minutes showing my son how to replace it. He loved taking out the sensor and dropping it back in.

I did lie, it has 1 modification - previous owner put an extremely thick and very well bolted to the frame (12 bolts if I recall) cat-guard thing. It's very shiny aluminum and probably worth more than the cat he was protecting. It looks cool though if you're under the truck!

Only other thing I gotta figure out is it's a bit stinky on start-up and the oil smells a bit like gas, but I suspect even for AZ it's been cold and very short trips so far in the truck. Or is this indicative of some other problem? It goes away after driving and I don't smell it when I turn it off or idle at a light.

Oh, also his name is Tommy the Tacoma. Named after my cousin who loves Tacomas and had a 2nd gen (that got so bad, Toyota bought it back with the rusty frame issue) and now he has a super duper cool top of the line 3rd gen of some sort.




Anyway, you all are very cool here and I've been a lurker on this forum for many years before when I couldn't find the answer elsewhere on my 1st gen and I'm sure the same will happen for my 2nd gen!

 

Looking good and welcome to the great TW!

 

Thank you good sir! Sorry I wrote a lot.

 

What a story! Glad you found your replacement Tacoma and welcome to TW!

 

Welcome to TW! Absolutely love the story! Back stories always give common everyday items depth. A life of sorts.

 

Nice long story. Rip Randy. Welcome to TW to you, Tommy, your son, your mom, your aunt and all of your loved ones.

My heart began to sink during the tale of Randy. But I’m glad you’re not terribly injured and most importantly the boy is ok.

 

Thank you all for the warm wishes again. Hopefully Randy is living his best life on the forever road and glad all of us are OK.

Looking forward to finding out all the nice, fun, annoying, and great things a 2nd gen offers.

 

Looks good.
Now it's time to replace those ugly OEM wheels and their undersized tires.