Anxiously awaiting the pics Johnboy! You said it's a short bed, so I assume you got the double cab? I have no use for 4 doors and always get the access cab with the long bed, but I usually order the persact truck I want because it's so hard to find a non-double cab on the lot these days. (I tend to buck trends I guess) I figure, if I need to haul more than one passenger, we can use Lynn's car. I'll admit, the back "seats" in an access cab are pretty much useless (unless you have a couple kids) so it's simply extra cargo space for me.

My problem is, the one I'm driving now is a 2016 model (only has 13,000 miles on it) and I've had the "itch" for about a year now. I'm avoiding the dealer like the plague lately because I have a goal to be totally debt free by the end of this year (we've been paying off old medical bills for what seems like a bazillion years now). I paid off the mortgage last August. BUT ... I'm a total sucker for that "new car smell" and my salesman knows me too well (he's been suckering me in for over 30 years now). I can sometimes go in for service and he'll throw me a set of keys to a new truck on the lot and tell me to go to lunch instead of hanging around the dealership waiting. One year, he dropped by the house, I answered the door and he dropped a set of keys in my hand, then told me the shiny new truck in the driveway was "mine for the weekend"! He's slick as goose snot! But seriously, I really like him and we've actually become personal friends over the years. In fact, one of my trade-ins went to his nephew as a h/s graduation gift years ago.

You mentioned problems with your dealer previously. That can really suck and be a turn-off. It's times like that, I get the factory reps involved. Dealers depend on CSI and Toyota keeps a close eye on that sort of thing. I know everyone in the dealership from the GM on down. I've met the owner a few times, but he has about 30 dealerships and wouldn't know me from Adam. Years ago, I had Lynn's car in for an oil change and the owner drove into the lot in a 2-year old Corvette (I figured it was his personal car). I walked out as he parked it and asked him why he was driving "my" car. He told me it had just been traded in late the previous evening and he simply decided to drive it home that night. A woman had just gone through a divorce and that car was one of her ex-husband's prize possessions, so she traded it on a Land Cruiser! He threw me the keys, I took it for a spin, returned to the dealer and ended up owning that Corvette! (Like I said, I have "sucker" written across my forehead)