Hear me out as I try and sort through this truck mess I've made for myself. Last Spring I sold my 2011 Tacoma and my 1985 restored Toyota SR5 pickup. Both totaled well over a half million miles and expensive repairs were around the corner. The rest of the family fleet are older cars too and one of them was costing an exorbitant amount in repairs. Fed up with repair bills I pooled the money from my trucks and went and bought a 2023 Tacoma and got rid of the breakdown prone Chevy Silverado (they are crap for reliability).
Immediately I regretted selling the 85 SR5. To provide myself a means of getting around the hunting property I bought an ATV and used the new Tacoma to trailer it. The first time I tried to use it this hunting season the roads were muddy and I ended up jackknifing the trailer into the bed of the new Tacoma due to a rut and a short tongue. Insurance is covering the $5500 repair. I've been without my truck for three weeks and it really sucked not having a vehicle to tow my ATV/boats for the last half of duck season.
I just got off the phone with the repair shop. They informed me Toyota is out of stock of the blind spot/backup sensor and they cannot legally release the truck to me without it because of the liability they will incur. Seems ridiculous because that sensor is an option and most Tacomas are running around w/o one. If the old sensor proves to be unusable, I will have to continue to drive a rental, which I'm paying for, until they can come up with a replacement. They could not tell me how long that will take but did say they searched the Toyota parts DB and there are none in the US. I'm not going to panic over this because I bet it will sort itself out before too long.
But the point of all this is to justify my hatred for the unnecessary electronic gizmos on vehicles these days and my disdain for them. Since getting the new Tacoma I find most of the electronics to be useless and used so seldom I can't remember what it has or how to operate things. Oh, and that fancy use a computer to get un-stuck button is WORTHLESS in real life. No match for Alabama red clay. I'll take a locked axle over it any time any day!!! My advice to a new truck shopper is get a stripped-down model and build it up the way you like with aftermarket parts. Lord knows there are enough aftermarket goodies to make a truck better than a factory gizmo model.
My feelings now are I want to get rid of this truck and go back to two vehicles, an everyday driver and a weekend work/hunting truck. The question is can I do it without getting soaked by selling the new Tacoma and not buying a lemon in the process.
Arrrggghhhhh!
