92 MurderedOut

my dad is buying is outright, its 3,000 so i will eventually pay it off.

iamsuperbleeder

aw shoot man, if he's paying, honestly, take what everyone else is saying, and take what you can get. say he buys you a Honda Civic; good on gas, proven relatively safe for their size, and fairly reliable, assuming you don't rice it out work a job for a while, save money, and buy a 4x4 Toy YOURSELF, with your OWN MONEY; your father can't tell you what truck you can or can't buy with your own money; you'll be 18 by then then just keep the Honda for a daily driver, and build that Toy up for the trails


sucks for you though; I just lost my 91 Pickup to $3,000

dropzone

iTrader: (6)

don't count on a toyota 4x4 to be any mileage champ.

coops2k

there are many other things to go with the airbags, newer trucks, like newer cars, have crash zones that work with the airbag to be safer. There will always be things that we can not control and will miss something and an accident will happen.

I am guessing your dad will not go off of this, unless you can show him that YOU will be responsible enough to be safe in the truck or car of your choice.

All trucks and cars are as safe as the person behind the wheel, find a good truck and find a good driving school, car control school or DD school and learn what to do. There are many things that you can do to make any truck safe, like do not text, drink and drive, drive pass the limit of the car or truck or what you can handle. You want to learn what the truck can do, find a safe place to do it and learn. I learned to control a skid in an empty parking lot in the middle of winter in the snow, a requirement my dad put on me before I could get my license.

camo31_10.50

that sounded like it would have been major fun to do before you had your license lol...i've learned to control sliding around corners, drifting around parking lots...even drifted around a corner going 75mph......but that one was an accident....and i also had to change my pants after that one.

sb5walker

x2

The Tacoma series were better in that regard.

92 MurderedOut

I dont understand what you two mean?

iamsuperbleeder

the Tacomas get better MPG than the ealier Pickups or 4Runners

sb5 just agree's

vwfastg60

I hit a jeep in the snow. I was moving 45 and he was maybe moving 5mph tops. I drove home and drove the truck for weeks while waiting for repair parts. Tell your dad my truck has been hit this hard or harder 3 times. I have never had frame damage and never replaced the inner fenders or radsupport. I got the truck when i was 13 and pulled the front clip after the PO hit someone doing 55+ My mom then smashed it after i fixed it and then i hit that guy.





After pulling it and some new body parts.



And how bad the body was after 3 wrecks all totaling the truck.



you can also let your dad know this is after it had been on its side 3 times and sunk in a river for 3 hours...Still drove great before i did a frame off on it.

Doors all still worked and seals were ok for the most part.
The roof after being flopped off the waterfall at boulder carnage




And after all that abuse i rebuilt it from the frame up and plan on having nothing but problem free use for the rest of my life.


I will agree with the people posting above. I swapped in a 3rz from a 00 tacoma and im getting about 25-27mpg in my truck and have WAY more power then the 22r

Hope you can get a rig!

Good luck
Russell

scuba

hahah, NATE !!

ozziesironmanoffroad

any vehicle is only as safe as you drive it. and my old yota rolled with me and someone else in the cab at 85mph, and we walked away without a scratch, and is still on the road to this day. ..well, will be when i replace the badly rebuilt 22re. so take that with a grain of salt...

WatsonToyota

I have been in a high speed rollover in a buddies 92 pickup, hit a tree head on, been in an end over end rollover, and another friend flipped his into a hemlock tree, all in older Yota trucks witout airbags....in none of these instances was anyone SERIOUSLY injured besides the steering wheel/face factor.....the trucks were messed up and took the brunt of the impact(s).

ozziesironmanoffroad

watson, exactly. u hear about something like that with a newer vehicle, the occupants are typically turned into frappes, unfortunately. i dont trust newer vehicles, hence why the oldest ill buy is a 2001, which i bought a 01 F150, already lifted and on 35s, so if anything hits me, the tires and suspension/frame will take most of the impact. and i dont drive like an idiot like most lifted F150 owners do, so im not worried about wrapping it around a pole.
again depends on how u drive em.. driving to vegas in my toyota with the stock motor going on 270,000 miles, i was getting around 27mpg at 65mph. laugh if you will, im dead serious.

Swimmerboy2112

iTrader: (2)

That's what i did! I bought my own Civic, then bought a sports car and now i have a truck! And i'm happy to report no rice here!

beck85

Safe is an elusive thing. You cant replace airbags for a head on collision. But if your riding mud, rolling is more of a problem. Get a rollbar, good bumper, 4 point seat belt, helmet and giv r what for......As a Father I dont think I would want my son to use one as a daily driver at 16 years old, but then again I let his mother make the car payments. IF your Father lets you get one, make him proud by being a smart driver, the safety value will increase dramatically.

slacker

iTrader: (1)

my buds truck .. with a http://toyotafiberglass.com box on it .. (just for referance)







rolled on the hi-way in winter ...

he was wearing his seat belt , but his dog wasnt ..

they both walked away with just some bruses ..



.

yayfortrees

This is a very interesting thread. All in all, I agree with what everyone else has said so far. They're kind of safe, and they become much safer with a responsible driver. Unfortunately, it can be hard to prevent getting t-boned from some a-hole running a red light. And these trucks don't have much side impact protection.

I'm surprised by all the posts talking about how strong the front end was in a collision. My experience was completely different. Several years ago, driving my first toy ('87 2WD, standard cab, no lift) I rear ended an Audi (don't remember what the car was specifically). It was a very low speed collision, maybe 15 - 20 MPH. The front end of the truck was basically destroyed. The Audi... literally not even a scratch. Literally!

I had to replace the front bumper and grill, patch the radiator, pull out the front clip the best I could, and hammered on the hood until it was close to straight again. Since I did the work myself, the body work was very shoddy, but it ran just fine after that.

With all that said, I was of course without a scratch or bruise, so I guess that earns half a point for safety. All of the truck body parts absorbed the energy very well, which in my opinion helps makes it safe, but not incredibly strong. As badly as I want to say these are super-trucks, it's just not the case. They do have some faults, and the importance of airbags shouldn't be dismissed.

In a somewhat related note, did anyone else see the recent episode where the Mythbusters proved that two similar vehicles, involved in a head-on collision, both traveling 50 MPH, does NOT equal one vehicle colliding at 100 MPH? In fact, the head-on collision was exactly the same as one vehicle colliding at 50 MPH. While this gave me a little piece of mind, I still would not ever want to be in a collision at 50 MPH, and certainly not any faster than that.

However, while this proved true with two identical vehicles, I don't think it would work with a much larger vehicle, say an 18 wheeler. At that point, I don't think even airbags are going to save you.

sb5walker

I think there are so many significant differences between the 2WD & 4WD trucks that they should be considered different vehicles. What is true about one, very well may not be true of the other.

Don't assume old & strong = safe. More often, the newer vehicles are safer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=joMK1WZjP7g

I found this interesting, apparently the new Hilux trucks ARE tippy:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZF8N9NItHI

And it definitely makes a difference what you collide with:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=5WZCweaakOg






.

PismoJoe

Just tell your parents "at least I don't want a first gen VW Bug"

You should have a yota in no time then

SwampThing

Lol. I'm still here and I've had quite a few "accidents" in my yoters...