Here is my list of trucks since ohhhh, 1982
1975 GMC Sierra Classic - My first truck. 350 Automatic, 4bbl carbs, full load - my early contribution to global warming 1977 Toyota Long Box - put about a 300k kms on that one 1983 Toyota SR5 Mojave (Damn I loved that truck - best truck till now - put 260k kms on that bad boy). It had awesome seats and cruise control. It was just a great truck. 1990 Toyota Long Box - Very utilitarian - I tried to soup it up with a sunroof, cool stereo and bucket seats, but it never really changed it into the chick-magnet I lusted after. 1998 Ford Ranger 4WD Long Box. See, here I took a sabbatical from Toyota. They priced themselves badly out of the market with the underpowered POS 1995-2004 Taco. I really loved the Ranger styling in '98. Man what a piece of crap that truck was. Thank God I realized it after owning it for a year and traded it off for a nice... 1998 Mazda 2WD ext cab. Oddly, the same chassis and components as the Ford, but a world away in reliability. Too bad that no matter how much I tried to deny it, it was still a Mazda. 1998 Nissan 4WD ext cab. Very nice fancy truck (Leather seats! My dog loved those!). Too bad it burned oil and went through fuel like a 747. 2005 Taco. There is the truck that a thinking-man dreamed up. Wide cab, comfy seats, biiiig rear seating area, 4 doors, reasonably priced, awesome fuel economy, gads of power, great fold-down passenger seat that doubles as a desk, cool 110V power outlet in the box (I've never used it, wish they put it in the cab - but man its cool to know its there) all around an awesome truck. The downsides? The turning radius of the Exxon Valdez, crappy hard-to-upgrade stereo and gearing that gets confused at times.Take it from a humble expert who has been around trucks a while. Go get yourself a post 2004 Taco. I bought my 05 Tacoma in Feb of 2005. It is the SR5 Taco Extended cab 2.7l 2WD. Without a doubt, this is by far the best pickup truck I have owned - ever - no sh*t. btw, I also have been involved in purchasing / leasing and renting of small trucks for 25 years - I am in engineering and that's all we use.
Bob