Toyota Pickup Reliability?

Question

Is this plan totally crazy?

My wife and I have been wanting to make a road trip through California for a couple years now.  

Ive also been wanting purchase a beater pickup to poke around town with...

Wife and I have 1 way tickets booked.

My plan is to purchase a 1988 Toyota pickup outside of San Fran...  Truck is a 4x4, v6, 5sp with 200K miles...  Photos look mint inside and out for the age and mileage...  Seller said it recently had the timing belt replaced and full service...  

I'm hoping to purchase the truck for about 3,000+/-.

Spend a week driving around Cali Coast along hwy 1 and then Head back East to Mississippi...

All told I'm looking at about 2,500 miles of road tripping in a truck that 1 year younger than myself...

I'm paying cash and am not really worried about the money..   My biggest concern is just breaking down out in the Desert on I-10 coming back east.....  The Hills have eyes movie ruined that part of the country for me....


Other than the obvious concern of whether the truck will make it, I'm totally psyched about the trip... ..

I would greatly appreciate any input on what I should be looking for prior to purchasing the vehicle...

Any route recommendations would be appreciated also... My goal is to avoid the Rockies as much as possible, while also trying to avoid the no mans land desert.

roger · Accepted Answer

your putting way too much faith and not enough money into a pickup that may or may not be ready for a road trip. I would not take anything on that long of trip unless I had about three weeks to run the pee out of it in town around home first and make sure I checked and had any minor issues taken car of. and that v6 motor is a bit hard on gas the 4 cylinder is the one you want it will go 300 thousand to 400 thousand miles on tune ups and oil changes. I would not expect any used beater pick up to be ready for a road trip sight unseen thats complete idiocy in my opinion.
 Keep in mind redneck cops profile cars too and some beater looking truck is a perfect target. you would be better off renting a new car for unlimited mileage and make the trip.The savings in fuel alone is well worth the cost and you can get some great rental car deals online when renting for a month.Its not the cali coast highway its california highway one and it is a fairly slow and windy and lengthy process to go down  once past pacifica.

C7S · Answer

Just make sure all maintenance is done and change the engine and transmission oil before the trip. Drive 50 miles with new oil before the trip to make sure there are no leaks. 

Give it a complete tune up.

Toyota Pickup Reliability?

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