Toyota Stalking, er...um, SPOTTING with Charlie™ (Cars, vans, SUVs, Lexus, Scion, and brochures)!

It has 181 horsepower which is respectable and more powerful than my Taco, but in trucks and SUVs, displacement is your best friend along with sheer naturally aspirated power; The issue with these small-displacement turbocharged engines is not general reliability and certainly not fuel economy; The latter is whole reason for this madness! The issue is that the tiny engines are overworked from day one, even with a turbo, and they just don't last. I am aware of a guy in New Hampshire who had to put a new engine in his 2015 Chevy Trax at 70K miles because the head gasket blew or something. My Tacoma has a cast iron block 2.7L 4-banger that gets absolutely atrocious gas mileage unless I'm on the highway, but it is a solid motor and puts out enough power to scoot the truck along without overworking itself; My truck also has more than double the miles that the aforementioned Chevy Trax had on it at the time the engine was replaced.

My best friend bought a CPO 2019 Hyundai Santa Fe at the end of 2019, and went out of his way to buy one with the larger displacement non-turbo engine because he drives A LOT for work and does not trust the smaller-displacement turbocharged engines!

 

This was at a Toyota dealer in Florida? High-volume dealers down South and in the Midwest tend to give better deals than dealers of any size in my area (Southeast Pennsylvania), regardless of market conditions. Back in 2003, my grandpa's friend bought a brand new Tacoma regular cab 2WD from a dealer in Tennessee. It was a no-frills Tacoma, white in color with crank windows and no tilt wheel, CD player, etc; It had A/C, an automatic transmission, and a cassette player, but no other options. He paid some obscenely low price for this truck (like $9K) and bought it outright rather than finance it. He drove this Tacoma for four years (even let me drive it a few times when I got my learner's permit and was just learning how to drive), then gave it to his son and bought a new 2007 GMC Sierra 1500 Classic with automatic and A/C but no other options; He still has this GMC almost 15 years later and he bought it for an obscenely low price at a dealership in, you guessed it, Tennessee!

 

Based on what you said about the GR, I would not mind having one as a daily driver!

 

I want to buy a house before the end of this decade, and I don't that'll happen if I tried to own two vehicles juggle the expenses associated with that...

 

In a way, I hit the lottery; My Tacoma was at a stage in its service life where most people would have bitten the bullet and bought a new vehicle, but Toyota gave me a new frame for free!

 

My truck passed the required annual Pennsylvania safety inspection in August 2021, and also passed the emissions test with flying colors; My mechanic Pete found a "concerning area" on the left side of the frame where it was started to delaminate (that's the best word I can use to describe it) and rust. It did not cause my truck to fail inspection, but my truck was purchased new on September 30th, 2009 and I would have been SOL in about a month and half. The dealer where I used to get my truck serviced is like half a mile from my mechanic, so I immediately drove my truck there; They immediately put it up on the lift and inspected it, but found nothing.

The service writer told me to bring it back a week before my truck would be out of warranty, and I believe I brought it in on September 24th, 2021; I was not expecting them to find anything and by pure coincidence a friend I hadn't seen in months happened to be in the area and we hung out and chatted while the dealer looked at my truck. I was sitting in the shotgun seat of my friend's brand new Subaru Outback about an hour after leaving my truck at the dealer, when I got a call from the same service writer I'd been dealing with since August, and he said he had some good news. I immediately asked "I'm getting a new frame?!?!" He's like "Yup!"

They found perforation on the passenger side next to the catalytic converter. Several people I know have had to get frames replaced on 2nd Gens, and there were in a loaner vehicle for a month or two because Toyota "quarantined" their truck and kept it on the dealer property until the frame came in. The hole in my frame was really not that bad, and the truck was deemed safe for me to drive until the frame came in, but I think this was partially due to the fact that we were (and still are, as of this post) in the middle of a global pandemic and there was a shortage of rental cars. Thompson Toyota put frame replacement recipients in one of their loaner Camrys or Corollas rather than a rental from a third party; My friend got a Chevy Colorado from enterprise when his 2010 DCSB got a new frame about 5 or 6 years ago. My friend also got his frame replaced at Thompson, like me, but he requested a pickup truck so Toyota corporate agreed to pay for a pickup truck. In today's market, no way in hell I was getting an "equivalent" vehicle and I ended up with a 2021 Camry LE that I actually liked.

My frame was not expected to arrive at the dealer until after Christmas, but it ended up getting delivered a little over a week before Thanksgiving, and my truck was back on the road three days before the turkey went into the oven!

 

Don't know if you've seen any "current" pictures of my truck recently; Here are some pictures I took in the parking lot at work a short time ago...

 

My local small town Toyota dealer doesn't have any Toyotas on the lot. It's basically a domestic used car dealer right now.

 

The irony!

 

hahaha, I’m on all three Forums as well

 

I’m glad I’m not the only one! Lol

 

Same here!

 

Current pictures of the '02 RX my dad's childhood friend bought from my grandma; Currently has about 100K miles...


January 5th, 2022:

Wilmore, Kentucky

 

January 6th, 2022:

Warrington, Pennsylvania

 

Base model 4-banger front-wheel drive Highlander; It had California plates, and aside from the dent in the side, it was mint. Looks like someone takes care of it; Also has a Pioneer Bluetooth CD stereo!



I believe it to be a 4-banger/FWD because it doesn't say "4WD" or "V6" on the liftgate...


January 7th, 2021:

Warrington, Pennsylvania

 

January 7th, 2022:

Warrington, Pennsylvania

 

January 8th, 2022:

Line Lexington, Pennsylvania

 

January 8th, 2022:

Horsham, Pennsylvania

 

My friend saw this Prius while visiting family in SoCal almost five years ago; Yes, I would drive it, especially with gas prices the way they presently are!


June 13th, 2017:

Corona Del Mar, California

 

January 13th, 2022:

Warrington, Pennsylvania

 

January 14th, 2022:

Warrington, Pennsylvania

 

My aunt lives in the Atlanta suburbs, and this is her RAV4; The snow is already starting to stick there!


January 15th, 2022:

 

The newest examples of this generation of Camry (MY1997-2001 in North America) are just four short years away from being eligible for antique tags in Pennsylvania and several other states as of this post; However, Camrys are not exactly rare or sought after like certain other Toyota vehicles of this era, and the majority of the examples I see in my area are beaten to shit.

This later example (2000-2001) that I spotted in the Home Depot parking lot while running an errand for work is far from being immaculate and bares the scars of at least 21 years on the road, but it looks to be care for; I also have a feeling that it is not originally from Pennsylvania or anywhere further north due to the the apparent lack of rust. While one of the wheel covers does not match the other three, all four are at least Toyota OEM!


January 19th, 2021:

Warrington, Pennsylvania

 

1997-1999 Camry LE, looking good with Avalon wheels!


January 20th, 2022:

Doylestown, Pennsylvania

 

Another one I saw while doing DoorDash; An early (I'm guessing 1991-1993) Previa that I saw in an apartment complex when turning around. It is not in the best shape, though it is not rusty like many I've seen; It's registered in North Carolina and the dealer logo on the lower left corner of the liftgate (Toyota of Concord) combined with the lack of rust would indicate that this van spent most of its life in the Southeast before ending up here...


January 21st, 2022:

Hatboro, Pennsylvania