Topic: What was your first........

[jeff94runner]

What was your first experiance with Toyota's that hooked you?

My uncle Steve had a blue 1st gen that I just fell in love with when I was like 9 or 10.  I've never been the same since.

[bigarms23]

i was 7yrs old my dad picked me up from school in his brand new 4runner and packed our stuff and headed to tahoe to go snow wheeling been hooked ever since in fact dad still wheels his 4runner today but it has a few battle scars from the years

[junya92toy]

My uncle has a toyota truck, I was like 16 at the time. Went fishing and hunting with him. Whats funny is when I got mine, its the exact truck as his but different colors and I have ac. Same year, ex cab, v6 etc

[CrazyYota]

my dads first toyota a 82 first gen back in 93.

[kletzenklueffer]

My dad bought my 82 Toyota new. In 87, I was 17 and started driving it full time. IT was indestructible. I tried, and couldn't break it. Once I was supposed to be looking for a job but saw a mud hole. I had to try. I told my friend that was with me that fatal statement... Watch this, this thing can get through anything! Turned out to be about 80 yard of clay. I was chuggin through fine with the factory 235 Dunlop Snow tires until I decided to stop in the middle and bog out the rest of the way. I didn't know I was buried to the axles. After a couple hours, a kid came by and said there was some pallets and stuff over the hill side, so we went and got some boards and a couple pallets and used the jack as a hammer to bust the pallets up. Lifted the truck by putting the jack on boards to distribute the weight, stuck some stuff under each tire and got back in and put it in first, 4 low and stomped it, shhifted to second in a millisecond and chugged through the rest and out we were. total time stuck was 5 hours- no job applications that day! We scraped up some change for the car wash and cleaned the hunks out of the tires (couldn't drive over 35 because they was so unbalanced by the clay).

That was the start of a passion for the truck that is still there.

[Stocker]

My sister was first to get a Toyota back in the sixties. One of my brothers has had at least a couple.

Both of my sons are diehard believers.

I am admittedly the slow one in my family.   

After years of hearing about the virtues of ownership, we finally bought our Tacoma in 2005.   

[germ]

Found an old 72 landcruiser sitting on the side of the road, covered with leaves and cob-webs, with a faded "for sale" sign. Looked like it had been forgotten there for quite a while. I'd been wheeling a 72 Blazer, and while it was a beast and could go most places, it was more brawn than graceful wheeling. Anyway, they wanted 2 grand for the thing. I tentatively knocked on the door, hoping I wouldn't get shot. The old woman answering the door said it was her husbands, who had died a few years ago. She put it out there, and promptly forgot about it. We chatted for a while, and by the time I was leaving, it was mine for $1,100. She wanted it gone, and I prolly could have talked her down to just about nothing, but she needed some cash for something.

Always loved the body style of the old FJ40's, and this was a good opportunity to pick one up. Took another several grand to get to a reliable rig, but man that thing could wheel. ended up rolling it about 14 years ago, but have been hooked on yotas since. I now own 4 vehicles and a trailer, all are Yota. 4 wheel drives.

Erik

[kneedownnate]

I wanted a toyota or jeep for my first rig, but stocker said toyotas were too expensive and jeeps were too labor intensive, so I got an 84 nissan 4by.  I quickly got tired of the utter lack of power and began test driving both nissan and toyota 2wd pickups.  The toyotas always owned the nissans power-wise, even the toy I drove with a slipping clutch felt stronger than a nissan of the same year.  Another year went by and I finally found a cheap 81 2wd toy, test drove it and realized I had to buy it when it spun both tires without trying while leaving the stop sign.  That was in 95, and to date I've owned several road worthy toys and quite a few more parts rigs, usually having 4-6 at a time 

[Richmondo]

Toyota trucks are all I've known (although I owned a Dodge for about 2 years). My dad bought an 87 4Runner new right  after my first birthday. And, owned it until about a year ago.

That truck was put through hell. My dad was always traveling for work and that truck was his transportation of choice. I drove it, and beat the living out of it, my brother drove it and did the same thing. It had it's issues but it came down to it that thing never quit. I mean the thing that finally did it in was a T-Bone collision with an Expedition going 45 mph...

[Cheesemaker]

It was this truck, which happens to be 88pathy's truck now. 



It was July 2006, and on the Strawberry/Red/Coyote Lake trails!




I've always been around Toyotas, but it wasn't until Dean took me crawling in his for me to get bit.  I wasted alot of time with other rigs, when I could have been driving a toyota! 

[Tallchevy]

My cousin bought his 1st gen new in 83. I was 13 then & started hanging out with him. Put a 4" Rancho lift & a 2" body lift with 36's. He taught me who to drive it so when he got plastered at parties I could drive him home. He did the removable hard top conversion (popular back then) & had 26 different candy colors painted on then added 40's with a tilt bed. It won best paint at a car show.  

[Yota-Freak]

Tony's (Solar86yota) love for them wore off on me...he wanted one ever since he as a kid...and on the day he bought his 1st yota....i was just as happy as him. plus all the time we worked on that thing it grew on me even more...then i brought home mine...which was twice as big as his 

[Rocksurfer]

I loved my 72 Celica, that one didn't hook me to the brand that came later in my 84 pickup.

[WHITE_TRASH]

My brothers best friend had a 81 sitting on WAY too much lift and 35's when they were in high school in the early 80's.  I thought it was a sweet truck and I liked how it looked and they said it wheeled well.  My brothers were into hot rods so when it came time for me to buy a rig I bought a yota with a small block chevy in it and the rest is busted part history.

[Toymin8r]

I got a job at a Toyota Dealership washing cars.   I had had a couple of Big Chevy's prior to that.  One of the mechanics got a deal on a newer (like an 88 at the time) truck with a bad engine and sold me his 83 lifted with 33's and 4.37 gears for $800.   It was spray painted Zebra stiped bit it wheeled great and didn't break.

[jeff94runner [OP]]

Outstanding stories! Lets hear some more.

[BUDDERS]

I inherited my older brother's '85 sr5 for my first vehicle and once I took it wheeling around for deer hunting, I was amazed at how well it did.  I put 33's and a 3" lift on it from my freinds rolled '84 and when the headgasket blew, I sold it.  I wish I would have kept it now, since I now know how to rebuild those engines.  I've had 5 toyota trucks total (3 right now) with a couple cars in the mix.

[BigMike]

This will probably shock many. When I was 18 Marlin bought me my first Toyota...........
























.......a 1987 MR2





I modified that car to the tilt for nearly 6 years strong and finally had to put it down in 2004.
I still have it and in fact I was just sitting in it YESTERDAY. It is up in Coarsegold right now just waiting for me to revive it.



As far as I know I was the first person in the U.S. to adapt a SC14 Supercharger to a 4A-GE engine. It put out just over 1.2 bar (17.5+ PSI), I just never had the $$$ to get it dyno tuned and I ran the engine into the ground.

I sure learned a Looooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooot about engine building and tuning!









Good times Some day I'll be enjoying those times again

BigMike

[Yoat Goat]

1st gen pickup my brothers friend had when I was 10, thought it was the coolest.

[Toymin8r]

This will probably shock many. When I was 18 Marlin bought me my first Toyota...........

   You don't count.

[BLACKDOG]

Dad bought an '84 FJ60 around 1990.  I was about 6, and I remember hitting a ton of old fire roads and stuff around the Air Force Academy, where we lived at the time.  Had some great camping trips and a lot of good memories of getting to steer the cruiser when we were offroad.  Dad sold it in 1994, and we didn't have another toyota in the family until 2003, when I bought my '91.  Since then, I've owned 2 roadworthy rigs, and a couple parts trucks.

[87pickup]

My current truck is the first toyota i have ever owned. I can say that i am hooked because i now want to build another.

[BigMike]

   You don't count.

[Kurlee Daddee]

I had a 94 4Runner 4x4 with a 3slow as my first Toyota. Thing was sweet even though it was IFS. I went camping one year with my best friend who had a 96' Blazer. We had a pretty simple but steep hill climb by our camp. He tried to climb it about 6 times in the Blazer. Every time he would dig in the back tires and lose traction and fail to climb it. Thing looked like a friggin tank every time it tried to climb the hill. I told him to get in my 4Runner. Put it in 4 Lo and climbed it not once, not twice, but 5 times. Up and down. He was soooooooo pissed. Truck ran great until the headgasket went and warped the head. Then I got into 4 cylinder turbo cars. But now I am on my second Toyota and these 22RE motors seem to last forever. I love my truck and will never part with it if I have anything to do with it.