At $13,800, Will This 2002 Toyota Tacoma Pick Up Your Spirits?
With a one-owner history and a well-considered option list, today's Nice Price or No Dice Tacoma 4X4 has a lot to offer. Let's see if it's priced to make a lot of us happy.
Aside from the diesel Mercedes we saw on Wednesday, all the cars we looked at last week were pretty much oddballs. That included a patchwork Polo, a pair of Suzukis operating under individual aliases, and a crazy Cadillac emulating the vehicle of choice for 1970s urban flesh peddlers. A motley collection, to be sure, but Friday's 1970 Cadillac Eldorado 'Super Fly' coupe was the most baroque of the bunch.
Cadillac once touted itself as the "Standard of the World," and offered cars that merited that honorific. Friday's Eldorado, on the other hand, showed that Caddy's could also express a grittier side. Well-equipped and gloriously tacky, our Super Fly-emulating car also came with a Hollywood-esque price tag—$19,000. That proved too much of a trick for it to turn according to most of you, earning the Eldo a hefty 78% 'No Dice' loss.
Back to normal
Okay, enough with the weird cars, let's get back to something safe and sane today. And what better way to do so than a nicely-appointed, comfortable, and capable Toyota pickup?
Toyota, more than any other Japanese automaker, has embraced America's pickup culture. Yee-haw, and all that. The company has also built some of the category's best small trucks. It all started with the Hilux all the way back in the 1960s, evolving into the oddly plain-wrapper named "Pickup" in the '70s, and finally the American-market-focused Tacoma in the 1990s. Small, sensible, and, as proven by the yabbos on the only good Top Gear ever, totally un-killable, the only thing the Toyota truck doesn't offer is buyer's remorse.
This leads to the question of why the owner of this 2002 Toyota Tacoma Double Cab SR5 TRD 4X4 wants to be rid of it. Could it be because the name is too gosh-darn long?
On the double cab
That name, or at least the model and package-specific appendages, serves a purpose. Let's break it out so we know what we're dealing with. First, there's the base, Toyota Tacoma. The name "Tacoma" is the Native American name for what others call Mount Rainier, for which the city in its shadow is also named. Then there's Double Cab. Despite what you're thinking, that's not a delicious wine-flavored Wrigley chewing gum, but the descriptor Toyota chose for the full four-door versions of its pickups. Following that, there's SR5, which once denoted sporty variants of Toyota models, but in the Tacoma, it only means chrome bumpers, standard A/C, and some comfort and convenience features in the two-row cab. Finally, there's TRD, which stands for Toyota Racing Development, and on this truck it denotes an off-road package comprising Bilstein shocks, progressive-rate springs, a locking rear differential, black fender flares, and five-spoke alloy wheels. You will note that on this truck, those alloys have been given the heave-ho in favor of a set of handsome steel wheels. Whether that's original dealer spec or a later change is not explained in the ad.
You wear that well
Overall, the truck looks to be in pretty good shape for its age and the 135,281 miles showing on its odometer. There are some indications that this has not been squirreled away in a museum, though. On the exterior, there's a sizable chunk taken out of one of the rear mud flaps, and the paint abrading on the window frames of both front and rear passenger-side doors is a good indication which side of the truck has seen more weather. Everything else, from the straight bumpers to the still-popping Radiant Red paint and decals, looks to be in great shape.
There are minor indications of age in the cabin as well. That's mainly limited to the front seats, which are exhibiting minor wear from ingress and egress. The rear bench looks like it's never been used. In the dashboard, an aftermarket single DIN stereo has been added, replacing the factory two-story unit.
For power, this Tacoma has the top-tier 5VZ-FE 3.4-liter V6. That brings 190 horsepower to the table, along with 220 pound-feet of torque. Behind that is a four-speed automatic with lock-out overdrive and on-the-fly 4WD. According to the ad, the truck has been "very well maintained," and comes with a clean title.
Small truck, big bucks?
I think we can all agree that, in addition to being very normal, this Tacoma offers many desirable features and should provide a solid, reliable ride for years to come. The only slight drawback is that, with the 4WD and V6, there probably isn't a gas station this truck won't want to meet.
Another drawback might be the $13,800 asking price, but then, that's what we're all here to decide. That's a hefty sum for a nearly quarter-century-old Toyota that isn't a Supra, but then prices for all sorts of small pickups have been trending upward over the past few years, so maybe this one's asking price is actually a deal.
What do you think? Is $13,800 a fair price for this well-equipped and oh-so-normal Toyota? Or is that too much to ask, even for such a tarted-up Tacoma?
You decide!
Nice Price or No Dice:
San Francisco Bay Area, California Craigslist, or go here if the ad disappears.
H/T to George Z @ large for the hookup!
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