As mentioned in my previous “What’s Going On” post we are looking for the next vehicle to take on the road. We plan to head further south in Texas first and we will probably storage our trusty 2019 Sprinter 4x4 in a storage facility and drive to and from it on weekends. This allows us the opportunity to have a fully equipped vehicle that one of us can stay in overnight when fishing and exploring. The second vehicle will be setup for the other person to sleep in when we are camping overnight as well as driving to and from the Sprinter.
I was looking at a 2025 Toyota Tacoma SR online that was base model but with the only option being added the optional 4x4 drivetrain. I really liked the idea that it was a very basic and simple model truck but more importantly the Tacomas have a great track record with reliability.
Next I went to searching online to see if one was in the area that I could maybe go see and test drive. I found one and headed down to the local dealer. One of the first things I noticed was that this truck had a bed liner option on it. This was not an option I really thought about but after seeing it I really liked how it was added from the factory. I thought maybe a plan would be to add a camper top to the truck so this would be a nice surface to start with instead of the bare metal for a rear camping build out/bed.
Moving around to the front of the truck my wife commented that it looked like a Storm Trooper lol. Since the truck only had two seats the salesman quickly jumped in and asked if my wife could stay at the dealer while we went for a test drive. I really hesitated at that point because I could already tell I knew more about the truck than he did. I was right because as we did the test drive I asked questions that I already knew the answers to just to pass the time and he got every one of them wrong. So instead of letting the 49 year old buyer take the test drive with his wife he instead was quickly on his way to losing a sale. My wife may of jumped in the truck and said she loved it and we would have bought it on the spot.
When we returned from the test drive I started looking at the sticker and noticing the add ons most of which I did not want. I really see no reason for a nice $130exhaust tip and "vehicle protection package" on my base model truck.
I got down to compare the suspensions of the leaf spring rear SR vs the coil over SR5 rear setup. The salesman quickly said it was all the same. He told me "lets go see what kind of deal I can get you" and I quickly told him I would discuss it with my wife, describe the test drive and return later if we wanted to move forward. He asked me to meet his sales manager of which I did quickly as my wife and I left. I told the manager that he was very nice but I was going to do more research.