Count me in as one that doesn't understand the emotional attachment to 25 year old $10k truck that fits in a very small niche. (Fills that niche very, very well.)
Hope you get 200k trouble free mi. out of it Jesse.
if you have 10k to spend, and need a small pickup, the options are pretty slim.... i was just in that situation not long ago. for me, small pickups aren't niche, a full size pickup is niche.... only want to drive a full size pickup if i'm towing something too heavy for my little pickup.
around here, if you only have one rig, and it's a full size, it's very limiting to where you can go, and it's going to get dinged up and scratched up pretty fast, and there are places that i just don't want to drive our tundra even when it's not choked out in brush. a spot i fish a lot in the winter, i can shave a lot of miles and time by going over the mountain.... it's the way i have always accessed it, but i just stay on pavement with the tundra... it's several miles of windy gravel with tons of pot holes, and it seems like that pickup pretty much is the perfect size to hit every one.
this winter i traded in my ZR2 for a new tundra.... was shopping used, but with used vehicle prices right now, new made more sense. it took me a week or 2 before i decided i needed a beater woods rig, thought i would just get by with the tundra, but they suck in the woods around here.... i wanted to keep the woods rig below 10k for the application, so the obvious starting point is a tacoma, or an 89'-95' pre tacoma pickup, preferably a standard cab... i was also considering a samurai, or a tracker, or a sidekick, or possibly an S-10 zr2, but it would have to be the right one... those 4.3 vortecs were a cool motor for small pickups, they had their issues, and i don't play mechanic.
i couldn't believe how much people wanted for old beat up pickups... i would have bought the right one, but shopping for a month, the only one i even checked out was a nice little samurai that i would have bought if it wasn't for a bunch of janky wiring.... nothing else was realistic.... i would have bought the OP's pickup if i had come across a similar one, because what else is there for a small reliable woods rig? i'm not getting an older ford ranger, because a little research puts up red flags, and i don't know anything about them.... an S-10? unless it's a ZR2, it's not an option, the S-10's were the hardest small pickup to make a good woods rig.
nissan is the last option, i have owned 3 of them over the years, and they just aren't as reliable as a Toyota... had coils go out on all of them i owned, and 2 of them got to where they had bad exhaust leaks that couldn't be fixed without spending more than the pickup was worth... they were just rattle traps too, lots of rattles and pops.... they just felt cheap, and the prices weren't that much lower than an equivalent toyota.
they are way over priced, they aren't anything super special, but they are the best option for the niche they fill. they are the lowest maintenance vehicles i have had, that's why they are grossly over priced and popular. of course they aren't without issues, and there are lemons in every type of vehicle, but big picture, they are solid pickups for the most part, and have been very consistent in that regard (of course they have had their epic fails over the years, like the years with frame issues, and i think there were some bad leaf springs some years) but overall, they have been very consistent..... great in the woods, and not bad on pavement, and easy to modify.
the used toyota pickup market was so bad when i was shopping, that ended up working in my favor.... my wife likes driving the tundra, i really don't, so i talked her into making it her daily driver and i got another colorado zr2... everybody wins
i will say, those pickups are in a different league than any stock toyota, when i traded in my 18' TRD for my first Colorado ZR2 i had a "holy ****!" moment, i don't think tacomas are the best midsize option currently (depending on what you actually do with a pickup) but their reputation follows them, and most won't consider a different small pickup. if the tacos are marginally too small, you wouldn't like the zr2, it feels a little smaller, but i like small pickups, so it doesn't bother me.... still bigger inside than most cars, but it's capability is crazy for a stock pickup, and the fun factor is way up there.
