It is a bittersweet time in the Fanaselle household. The rumors are true.... our Xterra is soon to be no more, and we have acquired a "different brand" of vehicle to replace it. To say that my emotions are mixed would be an understatement. The excitement of a new vehicle is definitely overshadowed by the sudden demise of what has been our adventure machine for the past 7 years. But unfortunately, all good things must come to an end, and this is actually just the start of the next chapter.
The X had recently started giving me a lot of problems... coolant leaks, transmission operating very hot, stuttering during acceleration, differential leak... the list goes on. And with 120k miles and 10.5 years of service time, the catalytic converters are basically on borrowed time at this point. I've been trying to keep up with new issues as they arose, but the list of stuff that needed to be done was growing faster than the list of things that were completed.
At the same time, my employer made an announcement that I won't be commuting to the office for at least another 6 months, and it left the Mrs. and I with some serious decisions to make about our vehicle ownership situation. The X is just our "fun" car, and I drive (drove?) a 2014 Honda Civic to and from the office 4 days a week, because the payment/maintenance/insurance on that Honda was even less than the fuel costs in the Xterra.
So we decided to make a change, and combine the "commute" car and the "fun" car into single vehicle. We decided that we wanted a pickup, because the idea of a mid-height bed rack to lower the RTT is very appealing for us (the setup and tear down is so challenging when it's 7 feet up in the air, especially for Jessica). We didn't want a full size, because I'll probably be driving it to the office at least a couple of days per week at some point, and we don't need that big of a truck. So we evaluated all of the options within the mid-size space - the Canyon/Colorado, Ranger, Gladiator, Tacoma, Ridgeline and the Frontier. Advantages and disadvantages of each were weighed (for our specific needs/situation), and we ultimately decided that a Tacoma would fit us best. I started the search for one, and holy crap was I surprised to see what has happened to the 4x4 market in the past few months. If you are in need of a new 4 wheel drive vehicle anytime soon, I will pray for mercy for you, because it's slim pickings and the prices are insane.
It took me about two weeks to find the deal that I was looking for. That included multiple visits and emails to several different dealerships (and sometimes dealing with several different salespeople at the same dealership), and countless hours scouring CarMax, Carvana, and AutoTrader for the right truck at the right price. In the end, we finally started working with a salesperson who was eager to earn our business, and he met the terms that we demanded.
So say hello to our new 2020 Tacoma Dual Cab Short Bed 4x4 TRD with the Off Road package. This is actually a used truck, with 8,000 on the odometer, and we picked it up on Saturday. As part of the deal, I sold my Honda to CarMax (for $1500 more than I was expecting), and I traded in the Xterra to the Toyota dealership. As expected, they weren't offering anything for the aftermarket equipment, but they graciously gave me a couple of days to hang on to the Xterra and remove as many items as I could (as long as I had the stock stuff to put back on).
Thankfully, I kept my stock front bumper, rear bumper and roof rack components. I'm also pulling off the skid plates, the rock sliders, and the cargo organizer in the back. The suspension is all staying on the rig, along with the snorkel. I've spent more time wrenching on the X in the past 2.5 days than I ever expected to, and I'm downright exhausted. It's going back to the dealership this afternoon, and no lie... I'll probably cry when I drop it off. I know it sounds dumb, but this Xterra literally changed our lives. It introduced us to a whole new lifestyle that we never knew we'd love so much. It took us to places we never dreamed we'd see, or even knew existed. And it helped us form friendships with all of you... friendships that will no doubt last a lifetime. In fact, we were laughing the other day about the fact that we barely even have friends outside of this group anymore.
But I'm excited to start a new chapter with our new vehicle, and looking forward to getting it ready for the trails. We are going to keep the mods modest (remember, I'll be driving it to work), but it needs a few things pretty quickly. I need a bed rack and some sliders, skid plates, and nicer tires. Suspension stuff is TBD, but I'll probably end up with a 1" to 2" lift and nothing more. I might even just stick with 32s this time around, to preserve some fuel economy. Keep an eye on the for sale thread, as I'll get some stuff posted up soon.
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