Ultimate Family Car = Tacoma 4 door
I talked my wife into a then brand new 2005 Tacoma quad cab (short bed) despite the fact that we had no kids and lived in an apartment in Brooklyn - the argument then being that with all my goofy hobbies (motorcycle racing, etc) it would come in handy, but it was still small enough and comfortable enough for us to take trips out of the city to go camping, hiking, biking, etc.
Plus, the 4WD gave us a lot of options when it comes to venturing off-piste or foul weather travel.
Since then, we have had two kids and, if this is possible to believe, my wife has grown to be an even bigger fan of the Taco than I am.
It is just small enough to be fine driving and parking in the cramped quarters of Brooklyn and New York City. It is just big enough that cabs politely move out of the way rather than challenge us to every turn and stop signal (you want to taste fear itself? Take a Porsche 911 for a spin in the city: not only will every pothole, raised sewer lid, swath of coolant and gravel patch knock your fillings loose, but every cab in the city will do its absolute best to sideswipe you).
It is big enough that we have taken both kids and every piece of equipment you can imagine would be necessary for camping for ten days at primitve sites 500 miles from home without issue. We have added a Thule rack over the bed so we can get a canoe / kayaks up there.
We are the most popular vehicle owners in our neighborhood - anyone heading off to Ikea, or Best Buy, or Lowe's, or the nursurey, or taking stuff to the Salvation Army, or just doing a really big trip to the grocery store, calls us to reserve the Taco.
Seriously, if I bothered charging my friends by the hour for the use of the truck it would have paid for itself by now. As it stands, the tank is always full which is good enough for me.
We have had no issues getting the kids' car seats securely placed in the back (the Taco has the latch system).
Finally, we have a lot of friends that own a pretty healthy selection of SUVs - the big BMW, the Audi, the big Mercedes, and everything from both Ford and GM.
What I find incredible about those vehicles is that almost universally, unless you get the really huge ones (Expeditions, Suburbans) they have less cargo room than there is in the trunk of a Corolla.
I have watched friends just out for a weekend trip to a cabin struggle to fit strollers, groceries, and luggage into the backs of most SUVs. Without adding some kind of cargo box on a roof rack they would be out of luck on a longer trip.
Try to fit one suitcase and one folded up stroller into the back of a BMW X5 - it is an extreme endurance event.
We simply pack our stuff into weatherproof rubbbermaid tubs in the bed and have never had a space issue. Stroller? Throw it on top of the pile and strap it down.
The truck has been dead reliable, returns ~ 17-19 MPG fully loaded, drives beautifully on the highway and the V6 makes great power.
The only weak link in my opinion is the suspension. Perhaps ironically, I opted for the TRD off-road package and am amazed at how crappy the suspension, especially the leaf pack, is. It makes a Ford Taurus look too stiffly sprung.
Now, this is a well-documented complaint, and sitting in my garage I have some custom deavers and demello shocks waiting to be installed, the only issue now is the time to do it (I have none at the moment).
Frankly, my only other complaint is our local dealer who can't seem to stop himself from doing everything he can to fleece my wife when she drops the truck off for scheudled service.
That's a separate story, but shameful - for example, the price to replace the fluid and properly bleed the brakes to her is $250, and when I bring the truck in it is magically $150 (as I specify DOT 4 fluid, so the service guys know I know at least a little about brakes). We had a major service bill that for her was $2000 suddenly become $1000 once I got on the phone and offered to drop by the shop and show the mechanics how to change the fluid in the differentials in 15 minutes or less, since they were charging me two hours of labor (for each diff!) to do the same job.
However, the solution there is simple - we will never use that dealer again and make the longer trek to another dealer that has been scrupulously honest with us.
Long reply, but I can't tell you how much we enjoy the truck, and I have to say that I love knowing that the same vehicle we drive around town to run errands in is perfectly capable of taking the four of us to Panama and back.
As I say, I have no shortage of friends who have very nice SUVs that cost multiples of what the Taco cost us and even if money were no object, there isn't a single one of those vehicles I would trade it for.
Well, actually... I'm lying. I would probably figure out a way to make a certain Cayenne Turbo work for us.
But other than that, we're going to hang on to the Taco until the floor rusts out - I suspect I'll be taking the girls to college in it 15 years from now.
