After lurking on the site for some months, and learning so much, I’ve decided to put together a build thread to help me keep track of things, decisions I made, and places I’ve gone. I have had the truck for 8 months, so my first couple posts will be to catch up.
The vehicle: A 2016 Toyota Tacoma Long-Bed TRD-Off Road 4x4.
I bought a used 1997 Tacoma 4x4 back in college which I drove for over 10 years and never had a single problem. Was a great truck. However, living in the CA Bay Area, commuting wasn’t exactly fun in that truck, especially with the manual transmission. So, I sold the Tacoma on Craigslist, and went to the BMW dealership and bought a BMW 328i Coupe.
The BMW was a great car for commuting and wine tasting, but not for the rest of my lifestyle which is mostly skiing and mountain biking, with some rock climbing and surfing thrown in. The car worked for a while since my wife has a 4Runner, but not having a truck around was an inconvenience and only having one 4x4 vehicle was limiting some of our weekend options. My wife was always calling the BMW useless, and although I defended the poor little guy for five years, deep down I knew it was true... I was going to have to go back to a truck.
I started looking for a truck in 2014. My requirements were for a truck that could get me to a remote trail head so I needed some off-road capabilities. However, my off-roading would not be rock crawling or anything even close to hard core and I preferred to keep the truck stock. I also needed at least a 6’ bed so that I could sleep comfortably in the bed on trips. A double cab was high on the priority list as I keep my vehicles for a long time and there was a good chance that eventually the truck would need to haul more than just my wife and me. I was heavily biased to the Tacoma based on my prior experience, but was open to other makes/models. I wanted the TRD Off-Road package because of the rear differential locker which had gotten me out of some jams in my old truck, but that package was only available on the Access Cab or the Double Cab Short Bed. Yes, I could always get an aftermarket locker from ARB, but I really wanted to keep things stock. In 2014, there were some baseless internet rumors that Toyota was going to refresh the Tacoma in 2015, and I wasn’t in a huge rush to pull the trigger, so I decided to wait.
2015 came and went and of course there was no Tacoma refresh. However, there was some reliable news coming out that there would be a 2016 refresh. I was having trouble waiting so I test drove a Tundra. That truck was a beast, but it was just too big. Wouldn’t fit in the garage with the 4Runner and parking it in Bay Area wouldn’t be fun. I then went to test drive the redesigned GMC Canyon which looked pretty good on paper. However, at the dealership I couldn’t drive any of them as they had been pulled of the lot for a recall since the airbags were wired incorrectly. That brought back my quality concerns for GMC/Chevrolet and I never went back.
By this time, I figure I’ll wait and see what the redesign is like. My thinking is hopefully they will have a DCLB TRD OR and I’ll be set. If they don’t, or I don’t like the redesign, I’ll get a 2015 DCLB and have the suspension upgraded and lockers installed. Someone leaks the model codes and allocations, and it turns out the 2016 has DCLB TRD OR configuration! The configuration that I wanted is the DCLB TRD OR in the color Quicksand with the technology and JBL options. There was flexibility with the JBL option, and a couple of other colors that I liked less but could live with. Once the truck actually started hitting the dealer lots, I was searching inventory just about everyday looking for a truck which met my requirements. I had dealt with my local dealerships and they weren’t very helpful so I was going to do the search on my own. On October 27 I see this search result on CraigsList:
2016 2016*Toyota TACOMA*4X4*Premium Tech*Quicksand*TRD OFFROAD*LONGBED - $40237 (burlingame)
FINALLY!!! I called the dealer who made the posting on CL, and make an appointment after work. I drove down to Putnam Toyota in Burlingame and the truck is waiting for me. Several people were looking at it stood out as it was there weren’t many of the new models out yet, and this was the only one in Quicksand. I took it out on a test drive and was hooked. Get back from the test drive, and ask what they would give me for the BMW which was in perfect shape and had less than 40k miles on an eight year old car. I wasn’t expecting a great deal on the trade in, but the offer was horrible. I got them to come up $1k, but it was still well below what I could sell it on my own. Since now I wasn’t going to trade anything in, I attempted in vain to negotiate on the price of the truck which was listed at MSRP. I had no leverage since this was the only truck in this configuration and dealer would not have any trouble selling it. Plus, if I didn’t get it now I would be probably waiting sometime to find another. Also to note, at this time some of the more shady dealerships were actually marking up the new Tacomas above MSRP! I played my last card, walked out of the dealership and they just let me go. I circle the block, and then do a walk of shame back into the dealership to tell them I’ll take it.
So, I sign the papers, leave the BMW in their service department parking to be picked up in a couple days, and drove off in the new truck ready to start some new adventures!
The vehicle: A 2016 Toyota Tacoma Long-Bed TRD-Off Road 4x4.
I bought a used 1997 Tacoma 4x4 back in college which I drove for over 10 years and never had a single problem. Was a great truck. However, living in the CA Bay Area, commuting wasn’t exactly fun in that truck, especially with the manual transmission. So, I sold the Tacoma on Craigslist, and went to the BMW dealership and bought a BMW 328i Coupe.
The BMW was a great car for commuting and wine tasting, but not for the rest of my lifestyle which is mostly skiing and mountain biking, with some rock climbing and surfing thrown in. The car worked for a while since my wife has a 4Runner, but not having a truck around was an inconvenience and only having one 4x4 vehicle was limiting some of our weekend options. My wife was always calling the BMW useless, and although I defended the poor little guy for five years, deep down I knew it was true... I was going to have to go back to a truck.
I started looking for a truck in 2014. My requirements were for a truck that could get me to a remote trail head so I needed some off-road capabilities. However, my off-roading would not be rock crawling or anything even close to hard core and I preferred to keep the truck stock. I also needed at least a 6’ bed so that I could sleep comfortably in the bed on trips. A double cab was high on the priority list as I keep my vehicles for a long time and there was a good chance that eventually the truck would need to haul more than just my wife and me. I was heavily biased to the Tacoma based on my prior experience, but was open to other makes/models. I wanted the TRD Off-Road package because of the rear differential locker which had gotten me out of some jams in my old truck, but that package was only available on the Access Cab or the Double Cab Short Bed. Yes, I could always get an aftermarket locker from ARB, but I really wanted to keep things stock. In 2014, there were some baseless internet rumors that Toyota was going to refresh the Tacoma in 2015, and I wasn’t in a huge rush to pull the trigger, so I decided to wait.
2015 came and went and of course there was no Tacoma refresh. However, there was some reliable news coming out that there would be a 2016 refresh. I was having trouble waiting so I test drove a Tundra. That truck was a beast, but it was just too big. Wouldn’t fit in the garage with the 4Runner and parking it in Bay Area wouldn’t be fun. I then went to test drive the redesigned GMC Canyon which looked pretty good on paper. However, at the dealership I couldn’t drive any of them as they had been pulled of the lot for a recall since the airbags were wired incorrectly. That brought back my quality concerns for GMC/Chevrolet and I never went back.
By this time, I figure I’ll wait and see what the redesign is like. My thinking is hopefully they will have a DCLB TRD OR and I’ll be set. If they don’t, or I don’t like the redesign, I’ll get a 2015 DCLB and have the suspension upgraded and lockers installed. Someone leaks the model codes and allocations, and it turns out the 2016 has DCLB TRD OR configuration! The configuration that I wanted is the DCLB TRD OR in the color Quicksand with the technology and JBL options. There was flexibility with the JBL option, and a couple of other colors that I liked less but could live with. Once the truck actually started hitting the dealer lots, I was searching inventory just about everyday looking for a truck which met my requirements. I had dealt with my local dealerships and they weren’t very helpful so I was going to do the search on my own. On October 27 I see this search result on CraigsList:
2016 2016*Toyota TACOMA*4X4*Premium Tech*Quicksand*TRD OFFROAD*LONGBED - $40237 (burlingame)
FINALLY!!! I called the dealer who made the posting on CL, and make an appointment after work. I drove down to Putnam Toyota in Burlingame and the truck is waiting for me. Several people were looking at it stood out as it was there weren’t many of the new models out yet, and this was the only one in Quicksand. I took it out on a test drive and was hooked. Get back from the test drive, and ask what they would give me for the BMW which was in perfect shape and had less than 40k miles on an eight year old car. I wasn’t expecting a great deal on the trade in, but the offer was horrible. I got them to come up $1k, but it was still well below what I could sell it on my own. Since now I wasn’t going to trade anything in, I attempted in vain to negotiate on the price of the truck which was listed at MSRP. I had no leverage since this was the only truck in this configuration and dealer would not have any trouble selling it. Plus, if I didn’t get it now I would be probably waiting sometime to find another. Also to note, at this time some of the more shady dealerships were actually marking up the new Tacomas above MSRP! I played my last card, walked out of the dealership and they just let me go. I circle the block, and then do a walk of shame back into the dealership to tell them I’ll take it.
So, I sign the papers, leave the BMW in their service department parking to be picked up in a couple days, and drove off in the new truck ready to start some new adventures!
