Took a Break From Toyota - Big Mistake, HUGE Mistake. But I'm Back Where I Belong

[TOYOLO4x4]

Hey everybody! I'm a longtime Toyota Fanboy. My very first truck was a 1986 Toyota 4Runner in Medium Blue. (I always say it was an '87 because that's the year my twin sister's Toyota Pickup was. So if I say '87, I mean '86!)

I have owned every generation of 4Runner - 1987, 1992, 1997, 2003, and 2023 - Except the 6th Gen. And, I owned one very rickety 1982 Toyota Trekker! Man, that thing squeeeeeked.

As you can guess, I love 4Runners. So, what am I doing here? Well, it turns out, I also love Tacomas!

My sister's bright red 1987 Toyota Pickup Truck got me hooked on the 4x4 styling of the pickup and later the Tacoma. I was always a little jealous she got the pickup and I got the 4Runner. My first Tacoma was a white 1st gen. It was a work horse and I drove it until it was stolen in Redlands, CA. while visiting my mother.

That theft put me in my first Ford. A 1998 Ford Ranger. Also a very stout little truck. Which I sold almost immediately upon returning to Texas. That truck led me away from the Toyota brand as a whole. I started checking out the grass in other pastures. Honda, Chevy, Dodge, Chrysler (I actually bought and drove a Chrysler Laser Fastback... What was I thinking?) and back around to Ford again with a 2021 Ford Bronco.

Mistakes were made.

Now, I'm not going to dog on the Bronco, but mine at least, was a dumpster fire. I was breaking tie rods in 2WD on pavement (I carried a bag of spare ranger tie rods in the back seat for emergency repairs, it was THAT bad), shattering rear glass when closing the door, having internal panels break at the clips and fall off (no fewer than four, including the rear gate panel completely popping off like a piece of toast), had the roof fly off at highway speeds, which was terrifying... And the VINs on either side of my build were blowing engines left and right, literally.

So, I sold that piece of garbage for 10k more than I paid for it and bought myself a 2023 4Runner! It was a great ride, but it wasn't quite what I wanted. So I traded that one in in April of 2024 and got myself a new 2024 Tacoma.

This is me! I've had it for a little over a year now. Couldn't be happier! It doesn't quite look like this anymore, but I'll save that for another post.

Looking forward to bein' part of the community here!

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[TacoFreak]

Welcome back to Toyota world from another long time fanboy. Your truck looks great right out of the box and I would love to see what you have done with it.

 

[Ray T]

Congrats welcome back

 

[SilverSurfer]

WB bud, looking forward to see what you can contribute with all your Toyota experience.
I had a 98 4Runner manual, a 2012 limited, my wife got a 2014 sr5, and my last was a 22 TRD OR in Army Green. Love 4Runners.

 

[TOYOLO4x4]

WB bud, looking forward to see what you can contribute with all your Toyota experience.
I had a 98 4Runner manual, a 2012 limited, my wife got a 2014 sr5, and my last was a 22 TRD OR in Army Green. Love 4Runners.

Well, one experience I love talking about is how I drove my '86 4Runner from Texas up to Idaho and then through B.C. and into Juneau, Alaska. Then I drove it to my grandfather's cargo ship at a port of Alaska and caught a ride back down to Washington where I offloaded it and drove it down to Mexico along the PCH.

Once in Mexico, I drove south through most of the coastal states all the way to Acapulco, then through Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and then all the way to the Panama Canal. Put it on a ferry and crossed the Panama Canal while riding inside my 4Runner.

Decided NOT to go to Columbia, because... No. Just, no. Spent two days in Panama waiting on my Grandfather to come through. Caught a ride at the Port of Cristobal where he was offloading and stayed on the ship for the return trip to a U.S. port.

Got dropped off in Los Angeles. Cleared customs with all my stamps and drove to San Bernadino to visit the cousins and then headed to Las Vegas. Spent a few wild nights in Vegas. (I arrived on my 18th birthday.) My truck got impounded. Found the impound lot. Got my truck back and drove home to Dallas, Texas. Just in time for the first day of school.

It was the summer before my Senior Year.

I drove that truck everywhere, man. When I sold it after 5 years, it had 235k miles on it. When I got it, it had 000,007.

Right now, I can literally walk a half a mile and look at it. A neighbor from California bought it and her husband drove it out here. It's definitely my old 4Runner. My initials are carved on the inside of the glove box. It's got 273k miles on it and it's for sale. I haven't told him it's my old truck, but I can't see spending the 10k he's asking for it. I'm waiting to see if he comes down on the price and maybe I'll get the truck back. Who knows?

 

[Compy386]

Nice truck! I grew up in a "Ford family" - all of us had them. Multiple generations of F150s and such. I truly believe Ford made great trucks in the 80s/90s, but I couldn't be paid to own one now. I finally talked my dad into a Tundra about a year before I got my Tacoma and now we both love our Toyotas - they've been great trucks.

The modern Bronco is fantastic looking and that's about all it is. Everything else about it is just overpriced, under-built garbage.

 

[SilverSurfer]

I have a 22 ford f350 Tremor because it does stuff 1/2 ton Trucks can‘t. Overall, I’m very happy with it. It’s my wife’s daily driver.

While I wouldn’t touch a 21-24 F150, I could be persuaded to swap my taco for a 25 F150 Raptor because malls are a challenging road environment.

 

[MERAKIAUTOWORKS]

Welcome back!

-Josh

 

[Mini2nut]

Welcome back!

Speaking of durabilty I met a customer last week that has owned 6 Honda Odyssey minivans. He swears by them.

He put over 800,000 trouble free miles on one of them and 520,000 miles on another. His secret? Religious maintenance and 3k oil and filter changes.

 

[MJE]

Well, one experience I love talking about is how I drove my '86 4Runner from Texas up to Idaho and then through B.C. and into Juneau, Alaska. Then I drove it to my grandfather's cargo ship at a port of Alaska and caught a ride back down to Washington where I offloaded it and drove it down to Mexico along the PCH.

Once in Mexico, I drove south through most of the coastal states all the way to Acapulco, then through Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and then all the way to the Panama Canal. Put it on a ferry and crossed the Panama Canal while riding inside my 4Runner.

Decided NOT to go to Columbia, because... No. Just, no. Spent two days in Panama waiting on my Grandfather to come through. Caught a ride at the Port of Cristobal where he was offloading and stayed on the ship for the return trip to a U.S. port.

Got dropped off in Los Angeles. Cleared customs with all my stamps and drove to San Bernadino to visit the cousins and then headed to Las Vegas. Spent a few wild nights in Vegas. (I arrived on my 18th birthday.) My truck got impounded. Found the impound lot. Got my truck back and drove home to Dallas, Texas. Just in time for the first day of school.

It was the summer before my Senior Year.

I drove that truck everywhere, man. When I sold it after 5 years, it had 235k miles on it. When I got it, it had 000,007.

Right now, I can literally walk a half a mile and look at it. A neighbor from California bought it and her husband drove it out here. It's definitely my old 4Runner. My initials are carved on the inside of the glove box. It's got 273k miles on it and it's for sale. I haven't told him it's my old truck, but I can't see spending the 10k he's asking for it. I'm waiting to see if he comes down on the price and maybe I'll get the truck back. Who knows?

I know everybody’s financial situation is different. But. After that kind of adventure I’d have to message on it even to see if they’d come down a bit.

 

[nato0825]

Hey everybody! I'm a longtime Toyota Fanboy. My very first truck was a 1986 Toyota 4Runner in Medium Blue. (I always say it was an '87 because that's the year my twin sister's Toyota Pickup was. So if I say '87, I mean '86!)

I have owned every generation of 4Runner - 1987, 1992, 1997, 2003, and 2023 - Except the 6th Gen. And, I owned one very rickety 1982 Toyota Trekker! Man, that thing squeeeeeked.

As you can guess, I love 4Runners. So, what am I doing here? Well, it turns out, I also love Tacomas!

My sister's bright red 1987 Toyota Pickup Truck got me hooked on the 4x4 styling of the pickup and later the Tacoma. I was always a little jealous she got the pickup and I got the 4Runner. My first Tacoma was a white 1st gen. It was a work horse and I drove it until it was stolen in Redlands, CA. while visiting my mother.

That theft put me in my first Ford. A 1998 Ford Ranger. Also a very stout little truck. Which I sold almost immediately upon returning to Texas. That truck led me away from the Toyota brand as a whole. I started checking out the grass in other pastures. Honda, Chevy, Dodge, Chrysler (I actually bought and drove a Chrysler Laser Fastback... What was I thinking?) and back around to Ford again with a 2021 Ford Bronco.

Mistakes were made.

Now, I'm not going to dog on the Bronco, but mine at least, was a dumpster fire. I was breaking tie rods in 2WD on pavement (I carried a bag of spare ranger tie rods in the back seat for emergency repairs, it was THAT bad), shattering rear glass when closing the door, having internal panels break at the clips and fall off (no fewer than four, including the rear gate panel completely popping off like a piece of toast), had the roof fly off at highway speeds, which was terrifying... And the VINs on either side of my build were blowing engines left and right, literally.

So, I sold that piece of garbage for 10k more than I paid for it and bought myself a 2023 4Runner! It was a great ride, but it wasn't quite what I wanted. So I traded that one in in April of 2024 and got myself a new 2024 Tacoma.

This is me! I've had it for a little over a year now. Couldn't be happier! It doesn't quite look like this anymore, but I'll save that for another post.

Looking forward to bein' part of the community here!

Welcome back!

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