Nissan Frontier
If you are looking at Tacomas, you should also look at the Nissan Frontier. They are very similar trucks, but the Frontiers are way cheaper. I traded in my 2000 Outback for a 2013 Frontier crew cab and have been very happy with it. I get around 20 mpg with the manual transmission, but I have a higher-than-the-cab topper (leer 180) which probably robs 1 mpg.
The 2nd gen Frontiers (2005+) have more room than the previous generation, just be careful for the SMOD in pre 2009 automatics. In those it is possible for the transmission fluid to be contaminated and ruin the transmission. There are lots of posts about SMOD in frontier forums and how to avoid/fix it.
If you are looking at Tacomas, you should also look at the Nissan Frontier. They are very similar trucks, but the Frontiers are way cheaper. I traded in my 2000 Outback for a 2013 Frontier crew cab and have been very happy with it. I get around 20 mpg with the manual transmission, but I have a higher-than-the-cab topper (leer 180) which probably robs 1 mpg.
The 2nd gen Frontiers (2005+) have more room than the previous generation, just be careful for the SMOD in pre 2009 automatics. In those it is possible for the transmission fluid to be contaminated and ruin the transmission. There are lots of posts about SMOD in frontier forums and how to avoid/fix it.
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