help me brainstorm what to get for my next vehicle

[DAA]

I've spent a lot of time this past year riding shotgun in a '14 double cab Tacoma TRD Off Road. Great, great truck. Rides nice, comfortable for long days in the saddle over rough terrain, gets pretty good MPG. Back seat is easy to access and has a decent amount of space (for gear, I pity anyone that has to actually ride back there though...). My only complaint - and I'm not the owner, mind you - but my only beef is that the bed is just teeny-tiny. Not sure, but I think that you can get a Sport DC with a little bit longer bed? When we put my ARB fridge back there, it seems to take up about half the bed. No room to separate the bodies from the gear, end up with a lot of coyote blood all over everything...

- DAA

 

[sixstringsteve]

You're right, there are tw bed sizes. I thin I'd rather have the short wheelbase of the short bed. To be honest, I've never had a problem with coyote blood getting on my gear.

 

[johngottfredson]

Some guys have bought the 2wd tacomas to save money, and done the 4wd conversion. They say its not bad, depending on how cheaply you can source the parts. This was for '99-04, not sure about other years. That would let you go to California, Arizona, etc, buy a clean, rust free vehicle, and not be competing against all the off road buyers fighting over the 4wds.

 

[jeep-N-montero]

To be honest Steve, you really need to narrow down what the heck you are going to buy and just do it, just saying.

 

[johngottfredson]

To be honest Steve, you really need to narrow down what the heck you are going to buy and just do it, just saying.

I disagree. For some of us, changing vehicles happens more because we want something new and different, rather than actually needing a vehicle change. Researching and trying on different rigs is a fun part of the process. And I think Steve is (slowly) narrowing things down. What's the rush?

 

[Caleb]

I've spent a lot of time this past year riding shotgun in a '14 double cab Tacoma TRD Off Road. Great, great truck. Rides nice, comfortable for long days in the saddle over rough terrain, gets pretty good MPG. Back seat is easy to access and has a decent amount of space (for gear, I pity anyone that has to actually ride back there though...). My only complaint - and I'm not the owner, mind you - but my only beef is that the bed is just teeny-tiny. Not sure, but I think that you can get a Sport DC with a little bit longer bed? When we put my ARB fridge back there, it seems to take up about half the bed. No room to separate the bodies from the gear, end up with a lot of coyote blood all over everything...

- DAA

I think that's the only downside I can fault on my Tacoma (but it's the same with any double-cab Tacoma of any year). However, 95% of the time, I prefer having the short bed...there are those cases where having a longer bed would be nice. Picking up a couple pieces of lumber even is a bit tougher with the short Tacoma beds and you're really limited to only 8' pieces. I recently bought some 12' Trex decking and had to slide it in my back window up to the front windshield in order to get it home. again, most of the time I prefer having the short bed...I think it makes the overall drive-ability of the truck much nicer but some times I wish I had a few more feet. I've thought about the bed extender, or just getting a small utility trailer...either would probably appease my needs.

 

[sixstringsteve]

I've done the old 2x4's through the sliding window on the windshield many a time.

I don't know what I would have done without that sliding window.

 

[sixstringsteve]

As much as I'd love one, I think a new to new-ish tacoma is too much of a financial stretch right now. It would be best to just get something cheap in the interim while I continue saving for my tacoma one day. I don't want to buy a taco with more than 50k, which means $27k plus, which means waiting a while so I don't deplete my savings.

At the moment, I've narrowed it down the following 3 rigs:

1st gen 4runner
4th gen 4runner with the v8
3rd gen Montero

I'm having a tough time finding any Monteros or V8 4runners for the prices I want. The Monteros are either beat or they're asking too much. If I found a clean one that had been taken care of for $6-7k, I'd buy it tonight. Unfortunately, there aren't that many around and most haven't been taken care of. The 4runners are in pretty hot demand and they sell quick. I also wonder how these would hold their value over time. Maybe they'd even go up? Who knows.

I'm thinking I'll probably get that '87 4runner in CA and drive it for a year and see if I bond with it. If I love it, it'll probably get a 3rz transplant at some point. If I don't love it, I can get my money back and hopefully by that time I'll be that much closer to affording a new tacoma.

 

[gijohn40]

I think you need to buy this beast and turn it into what you want then sell it next year....

 

[sixstringsteve]

Whoa! What is that? It looks like it gets awesome mpg.

 

[Spork]

Whoa! What is that? It looks like it gets awesome mpg.

It's amazing how all my searches end up back at RME...

http://www.rme4x4.com/showthread.php?34932-Grunt-Runt

according to http://www.kitcarlist.com/discontinued.html they used to be based out of SLC, looks like all the old links are dead

Tatonka Products
3363 S. 700 West
Salt Lake City, UT 84119
(801) 262-8200
www.4x4kit.com
Manufactures street-legal off-road vehicles using S-10 Blazer (the Runt)
and pre-’93 full-size Blazer chassis (the Grunt). Runt kit prices start at $5,700,
Grunt starts at $25,000. Turnkeys start at $49,000.

 

[Kevin B.]

I'm thinking I'll probably get that '87 4runner in CA and drive it for a year and see if I bond with it. If I love it, it'll probably get a 3rz transplant at some point. If I don't love it, I can get my money back and hopefully by that time I'll be that much closer to affording a new tacoma.

I like this. I agree with Kyle, I don't think you're going to settle for anything but the Tacoma you want (like you ever settle ), but it's the closest thing on your list and the prices on clean 4Runners keep going up so you're near guaranteed to sell it for more than you bought it.

 

[STAG]

That white thing almost looks like an FJ Cruiser on steroids if you squint with lemon juice in your eye.

 

[sixstringsteve]

^ I was thinking the same thing, especially the back door.

 

[Unimog]

Ditto. Before I read on, I thought it was an fj with a bunch of front end mods

 

[sixstringsteve]

I'd pay $10k for this, but not $12.5

http://www.ksl.com/auto/listing/1551474?ad_cid=1

knowing it's carmax, they won't budge on their price at all, and it's overpriced like every other car they sell.

 

[nnnnnate]

...and they probably only paid 6k for it in the first place.

When I was trying to sell my truck last year I decided to swing by Carmax just to see what they would offer. I had no prior experience with them other than their tv adds. They offered me 14k for the truck. It was an '07 crew cab long bed diesel lariat with leather and 90k miles on it. It was in great condition and was pretty darn clean. I laughed at the guy when he gave me the quote and left. I ended up trading the truck in when I got my JK and got 22k from the other dealer.

I won't ever be back to carmax.

 

[sixstringsteve]

That's about what I expected from them. Their "no haggle price" is always about 20-30% over book.

 

[Kevin B.]

The nice thing about Carmax is they'll buy almost anything, and they don't look very hard before they do.

 

[sixstringsteve]

I read that they auction off everything older than 6 years (though that doesn't seem to be the case with the montero).