Here's some for you: I'm on my 3rd Toyota pickup truck. The first one in 1981 was a 4 cyl with the 22RE engine and Warn hubs. Drove that thing up the mountain on a washboard gravel road to the ski area for years. When it hit 350,000 miles I decided it was time. Still
sold it for $2,000 CDN to a local rancher who said he was just going to use it on his land. One day a year later, driving on the only bit of 4 lane highway we had then, it passed me! I think they only came in beige.
The next one was the same truck but with an Extended Cab which was a real treat except to access the back seat area you had to flip the front seats forward. Drove that one up the mountain to 425,000 miles but the road was paved by then.
Enter # 3, a 2006 Extended Cab Tacoma, 4 cyl. 2,7l. 4WD, Manual trans. Purchased online one year old. An import from the U.S. as they weren't bringing the 4 cyl. models into Canada then. And this one had the suicide doors to access the back seats. As I didn't know I was going to be towing anything then I wanted to stick with the trusty 4 cyl. with a standard transmission. A bit slow going through the Rockies, but the standard transmission sure helps. The trucks sure got bigger over the years. It's my daily driver.
It has only 108,000 miles on it right now. Nearly brand new! Two years ago it towed my
Trillium to the Arctic Ocean, over 8,000 miles, and a lot of dirt roads. I did some preventive work before that journey - new hoses, belts, plugs, etc. and had no problems thank goodness. On the Dempster Highway there is one gas station in 500 miles. Didn't even need the extra spare tire for the sharp shale roads.
New shocks, new springs on a recall, usual regular maintenance, and no issues outside of the A/C quitting which I gather is common. Run Finnish Nokian WRG2 snow
tires year round that have a good sipe for the rainy Wet Coast here.
After years of VW's my last one, a Passat, kept needing new front wheel bearings and it was only 8 years old. I'd had the same VW mechanic for years and he was about to retire. He told me to get rid it. I asked him what I should buy instead. His answer: "Anything Japanese"! I was absolutely floored.
That's when I purchased a new Corolla. Had 2 of those as I commuted 3 hours per day to my paying job. Kept the local Toyota dealership busy for years. Now I have my own independent mechanic again.
Every time I bought one the price went up another $10,000. But they hold their value. The reason I purchased the first one was I'd moved out to the country where we got snow. My grandmother had died and left me $10,000. What to buy? I looked around and noticed all the young men seemed to be driving/off-roading with these things and they couldn't seem to wreck them, so that's how I made my decision and became a Toyota convert.
Recently I was thinking of getting a Subaru but the head gasket issue was still going on up until at least last year. I wish Toyota still made the old Corolla 4WD station wagon. They were great cars. Not fond of AWD or automatics.
Now that I'm retired I should be able to keep this one going until I can't drive anymore as I'm certainly not putting the miles on like I used to. Whatever you drive, almost, if you take care of it, it will take care of you.
Now I've had my say I'll see you again at 450,000 miles?
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Le Corbeau
Definitely fewer color choices back then, but yeah, they did have the typical red, yellow, tan & blue along with some fancy versions with stripes.
Boler 1700
Linear Mode
