Toyota Tacoma Review

Overall Rating

Decent gas mileage for the category, about 20-22 mpg around town and squeezed 24-26 mpg on the highway. Excellent reliability and Toyota trucks retain a very good resale value which translates into less ownership costs if your a bi or tri yearly auto trader.

The interior could have used more room, although not uncomfortable by any means (unless you get stuck in the back seat {!} and that could be tradgic). The ride was a bit choppy over bad pavement with the almost weightless rear tires hopping like a child on a pogo stick while meeting rough roads in a turn. Tricky...but kinda' fun!
:)

Toyota Tacoma 2.4L. SR-5 Extra Cab Truck Review
I purchased the 4 cylinder model after a test drive proved it to be more than capable for what I needed. The 142 HP 2.4L. DOHC Engine was enough to carry that 2,800 lb truck with enough spunk to satisfy. Most of the power was found mid-band but the lower rpm's didn't suffer nor was it afraid to rev. Front disc / rear drum brakes did well to stop the near-17 foot long truck safely.
It was an auto-shift SR-5 extra cab with A/C and a factory cassette unit that was quick to come out and replaced with a righteous Kenwood CD player.
It had dual airbags but the passenger side could be disabled with the ignition key via a keyhole located in the dash.
I purchased the truck for a haggled-for discounted price of $15K. I owned the truck for approximately 2 years. I sold it for $12K which means I paid only @$125 per month ($3K cost for 2 years) in the end to drive that new vehicle. A little more if you want to get specific and count the taxes and finance costs. *This is one of the things that make Toyota special!*
During that 2 years I put over 70K miles on it. Needless to say I drive an extaordinary amount of miles because of my work and lifestyle.
In the period of time I owned the truck I had experienced absolutely no problems whatsoever. Which you would expect from a Toyota with only 2 years and 70K miles under it's belt. Only the normal maintenance of oil changes, tires and brakes. However, there at the end of my possession of the truck I noticed that between "extended" periods of time between oil changes there were small amounts of oil loss due to oil burning which, with my experience with Toyota, is normal. I've owned several used and new Toyotas. It seems that, especially around the 100K mile area, Toyotas will burn oil. However they will continue to run virtually forever...so long as you keep a watch on that oil level and/or change it more frequently. I generally wait 5K-8K miles (!) between changes (I know - BAAAD)
How happy do you think I am in our modern society that technological advancements has brought us synthetic oils that can go up to 10K miles between those pesty intervals.
Before anyone makes a move to spank me, just know that I do keep maintenance pretty much on schedule as often as possible.

I know, I know...damn American's.
But there's still hope for us yet. As soon as we stop calling Football *Soccer* and switch (finally) to the metric system.
...yeah, it'll be OK. I promise.
:'D