Tacoma Seats

I can only advise you based on my trials & tribulations with the '98 two-wheel drive standard cab. Love the truck, hate the seat! I have raised it approx. three inches and it still feels too low. I drive with it almost all the way forward and at times still feel too far away from pedals and steering wheel. Perhaps they've received enough complaints about it that they've improved it since then but I haven't heard anything. If I had it to do over again I would have chosen one with buckets. I'm sure someone will post with more info and or a different opinion. As I said, this only my 2cents worth. gl

Not sure about the 03, but we have an 02 Tacoma, ext. cab, with bucket seats. We have driven it cross country 3 times, with a total of 25K miles, and love the seats. I weigh 200#'s Hope this helps. K

I'll second that. I've only had mine for 18K miles, but still, the buckets are fine. I'm 6'2" 175 lbs. If I'm wearing big hiking boots, I have to move the adjustable steering wheel up a notch or two to get in & out comfortably, but I also had to do that in my '92 Taurus, and in an '02 Crown Vic I rented a few weeks ago.

Tip: Before you pay for a bedliner, research whatever accessories you might add to the bed. I'm about to add a roll-top hard tonneau cover, and both brands I've researched require notching the bedliner over the wheel wells. Even a spray in bedliner can add enough thickness to be troublesome.

Thank You for your feedback, are there any other tips that you have before I buy this truck? Right now I plan to get a 2wd xtracab 4 cyl with the SR5 Chrome package and the convience package. I can't find one that has the factory bucket seats.

Thanks

- Don't fall for the rustproofing scam. I had a 1982 Tercel that went

230,000 miles, and the only rust on it was where I drilled an antenna hole near the trunk, and didn't paint the area correctly. The car had no rustproofing and lived its entire life in upstate NY, bathed in road salt for 5-6 months per year. The only reason the car died was because some a-hole slammed into it from behind at 70 mph while I was doing 20 in heavy traffic. Otherwise, it would've gone ANOTHER 100k.

- Don't buy a case of oil, unless you plan on doing oil changes yourself. You won't need much just for checking oil levels. My Tacoma's a year old. It uses ZERO oil between changes, unless I'm towing my boat in the mountains, in which case it uses maybe 1/2 a cup on a 500 mile trip. Amazing.

- You didn't say whether you'd be towing anything regularly. If so, you might think about a 6 cyl. I pull a 14' boat which, fully loaded with fishing crap and fuel, weighs maybe 1200 lbs. I towed it a couple of times with a friend's 4 cyl Toyota pickup and although the suspension was stiff enough to keep the trailer stable, the truck struggled on steep hills.

Other than that, not much advice to offer. They're great trucks.