I am now married, and I am in my late forties, and I also have a fixer upper house, which has constant needs and issues so this old Tacoma is now the house fix it truck. Now, that I have owned this rig for more than a decade, I can tell you this old Tacoma has been an extremely useful tool for my family. This is good since both my wife and I live in the Seattle area, and driving a stick shift in the Seattle area is quite miserable since Seattle traffic is insane. Luckily, this Tacoma is no longer needed as a commuter rig. Mine gets anywhere between 16-18 miles per gallon depending on where and how I am driving it.

They are also very smooth, but they do not get good gas mileage by any stretch of the imagination. These 3.4 Liter V6 engines are great motors as far as power and reliability. The engine still worked with the blown mass air flow sensor it just would not accelerate smoothly or quickly. It went out about a year after I bought it. It was the only part that ever needed replacement due to failure. The one exception was the mass air flow sensor.

Wow, I have now owned this Tacoma for 15 years, and I have never put a dime into it except for routine maintenance. I now drive about 25 miles one way to each day now instead of 70. Truck odometer will soon show 485,000 miles. I am down around 20mpg where years ago I was around 26mpg. I also notice that my gas mileage has decreased some. I have noticed that some of the plastics are starting to break or show some serious signs of wear. I now average 250 miles a week instead of 700 as when I lived in Atlanta. I have some issues now but they are minor as the truck is still a reliable form a transportation to and from work. I still have the original clutch and motor. It is now and my truck now has 478,000+ miles on it. I would drive it to across the US with no worries. I still have the original clutch and have replaced the front brakes and rotors one time. I have had to replace the battery once and also the catalytic convert (about $1000.00). I have had to replace the power steering pump, twice as the first one was a rebuild and under warranty. I have had to replace the electronics to repair a left turn signal issue that cost about $500.00. I ran 2 crank cases of 10w-30 Castrol regular motor oil.ДЄfter that, I have used 10w-30 Castrol synthetic motor oil ever since. Guess that's the price you pay for the peace of mind a Toyota provides. Most of these Toyota trucks don't come cheap. We like the Tacoma, but question the value it represents. Toyota hopes to attract buyers with the style and image of its Tacoma as well as a lower price tag. Toyota's new PreRunner has benefited from considerable suspension tuning and development work with Toyota Motorsports desert racing truck program to produce a 2WD vehicle with 4WD capabilities. Historically, a 'pre-runner' is a truck that pre-runs an off-road race course. The PreRunner model is set to attract truck buyers who desire, but cannot afford, a 4WD truck, 4WD truck owners who don't use their 4WD as often as they expected, and 2WD truck buyers who take their vehicle off-road. In top-of-the-line Limited pickups, a One-Touch Hi-Four switch is available for easy, pushbutton engagement of four-wheel drive. Four-wheel antilock braking is optional on all Tacomas, and all pickups contain dual airbags with a shut-off switch for the passenger's side. Manual-shift trucks feature reverse-gear synchronization to reduce gear noise when shifting into reverse. With V6 power, borrowed from the now defunct T100, this compact pickup can tow up to 5,000 pounds and soundly trounce most factory sport trucks in the stoplight dragrace.ДЄll Tacomas have front coil springs instead of the former torsion bars, but 4x4s feature longer suspension travel to improve ride/handling qualities. If those won't suffice, however, consider the V6 option: a DOHC, 24-valve unit that whips out 190 horses and 220 foot-pounds of torque. Toyota claims that its four-cylinder engines are comparable to V6s from competitors. Tacoma 4x4s earn a 150-horspower, 2.7-liter four. Two-wheel drive Tacomas get a 2.4-liter four-cylinder base engine, rated at 142-horsepower. Swoopy fenders, a larger bumper, aero-style headlamps and a new grille set this truck apart from its forebears. Regular and extended cab bodies are available, with either two- or four-wheel drive.ДЄ freshening of the front end occurred on both the two- and four-wheel drive models during the last two model years. Toyota aimed for aggressive styling, inside and out, and Tacomas sport an excellent selection of interior fittings. Any of three potent engines go under the hood. It's supposed to suggest the rugged outdoors, as well as strength and adventure. Toyota's sixth-generation compact pickup debuted as a 1995.5 model with an actual model name: Tacoma.

Toyota 1999 truck series