Just spewing out thoughts on vehicles right now. Feel free to ignore my ramblings, unless you have some experience in this area.
Looking at this thread now kind of makes me sad, why? I should be excited about the prospect of a newer vehicle, but somehow I’m not. Due to changes in the business, I’m looking to buy a horrible gas guzzling mid size truck of all things. Some might think that’s great, trucks are all the rage now, but I’m sad kind of sad though. I love cars, I really do. I’ve always driven a car for that reason. Going from a vehicle that gets 39MPG city/35MPH HWY to possibly one that gets 13-14MPG city and 12-13MPG HWY makes me a little sad.
I wanted my next vehicle to be at the very least another hybrid, but hybrid/full electric trucks are just not in the budget in the foreseeable future.
Right now I’m looking at a Tacoma, because let’s face it, they are built very well and last a long time. My business partner has an F-150, and other than the engine the thing is, not so great after 8 years. Not even on my raider. One might say the Ranger is possible, similar to a Tacoma, but the thing has a turbo, turbos equal expensive repairs when it, not if, it goes. The build quality of the F-150 lingers in my mind too. Honda for a truck? lol, no. Nissan Frontier? Brand new platform, too many unknowns. RAM 1500? Cheaper option, but cheap for a reason? Chevy? I don’t know anyone that has one to know what that experience is like.
I test drove a Tacoma TRD Sport today, it drove like the big thing that it is. The V6 power is way more than I’m used to, the shifting is nothing like the ECVT of my Camry hybrid, which is smooth like butter. I have to remind myself not to push the gas so hard, driving like that would burn a hole in my wallet. The Tacoma has noticeable shift points, kind of forgot what the felt like after 5 years of hybrid driving. The truck has what I need for work, which is nice, but that’s about all I can say about it. It has most of the wiz-bang stuff modern vehicles have, love the backup camera.
Okay rambling over.
