Talk about the pursuit of what we love! Trying to find the Tacoma of your dreams is not an easy task, to say the least.I’ve been a car (and truck) guy all my life, I’ve purchased and sold dozens of vehicles so I was sure this would be a piece of cake. In reality, this search was like nothing I’ve ever experienced. All I knew was that I wanted a 2005 or newer, TRD Off-Road, with a dual cab, so I started looking in January with a 50 mile radius from home, only to find a couple of matches. Unfortunately, they were so overpriced that I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. A 3 year old truck with 75k+ miles seemed to be going for $2-3000 less than brand new! Mind you, everyone knows that this specific truck is a very reliable machine but WTH! So I broadened my search to 200 miles and that didn’t help at all. I ended up searching the entire country. If it was a great price it meant rust or damage, otherwise it was same story time and time again: way too much money.
So I started by talking to “a friend of a friend” who happened to be an auto broker based here in Colorado Springs. We started looking at auctions all over the country. All the while I searched Autotrader, Blue Book, Craigslist, and everywhere else I could search. Harland and I searched high and low and we found some amazing rigs out there, but very few were even close to what I was looking for. We found trucks that either had too many mods, the wrong mods for me, or were way too much money. In the end and several months later, I found out that a small local dealer in Denver just got an ’06 Tacoma in on a trade. I called immediately. That night I drove up to take it for a test drive. When we got there I could not believe the variety on the lot: 4 door JK’s, Volvo’s, BMW’s, and even a Jeep Cheerokee SRT8. Right in front of the building was this gorgeous Indigo Blue 2006 dual cab TRD Off-Road Tacoma. We drove it around the block and I knew this was the truck I’d searched months to find. Rob at ADI Autosport made the car buying process very smooth and went out of his way to make sure I got the best deal possible. In the end, it made for an experience that I will never forget!
So, what did we figure out about the vehicle search process? It sucks, especially if you’re looking for something this specific. But if you are going to go through it, go out and find a dealer/broker that is willing to work with you and that you can trust. Do your homework. We made a couple of new friends through this search. Between Harland Baker of “Trusted Car Finder” here in Colorado Springs and Rob Reubenstein of ADI Autosport in Denver I found exactly what I was looking for. Thanks guys!!!
So, what’s next for the new Taco? New tires and rims from Discount Tire Direct are done. (See page ??). Ricochet asked us to test their new Taco skid (page ??) and Ironman has a new Tacoma suspension kit out (Page ??) (Editor note: Maybe this should be called the ‘Jim Issue”). We’re still working on a rack (or two), a tent, some lighting, and who knows what else we’ll come up with. We’re looking forward to a lot of adventures with a lot of new friends!
More Photos!
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