IT IS FOR YOUR PROTECTION
This cyber-stalking is a little known practice by the general public, the average person like you or your loved ones, know nothing about. Many businesses in the automotive industries including those from service providers to dealers and many aspects in between are involved in this scheme. How they get away with collecting and distributing your information without your knowledge is that you were never informed that your personal information was being bought-and-sold on such a mass scale. What is more, you were never given the opportunity to opt-out. Your information was being collected and sold from the very second you made a purchase from the provider/dealer. Nearly everywhere you have received service is being collected, tracked, sold, distributed, and shared without your consent or knowledge.
Think about how this affects you if you are a victim of a crime who is trying to escape the perpetrator? Are you having an private meeting with your doctor, lawyer, or maybe a lover and happen to stop for vehicle service during your travels? Are you a disabled person simply trying to safely tend to your health or wellness? Do you have children that you think are safe? It may be time to reconsider! Although you may be innocently going about your day-to-day business, there are nefarious people who target others for nefarious reasons.
The only protection is afforded is to those collecting the data and who are involved in the distribution. That would be insurance companies, marketing companies, and other greedy capitalist mega corporations interested in targeting your bank account and wallet.
WHEN DID CARFAX BECOME YOUR SPOKES PERSON
With the information provided to CARFAX, there are absolutely zero safe-guards in place. Any person who has your VIN can log onto CARFAX and see the data associated with your Vehicle Identification Number (VIN). There is no process required to prove you own the vehicle. ANYBODY can review the information.
Check the cyber stalking laws in your state and also review the recent suit waged against Google. Facebook and several other corporations. Read on the Daily beast about how Carla Franklin resolved cyber stalking. For an explanation of Cyber Stalking, read Wikipedia HERE. For a larger perspective read THIS.
We urge you to conduct an “open records” request in your state to see what information the DMV shares, sells, or distributes without your knowledge and what is permitted by the state in which your vehicle is registered. In case you are traveling to other states with different laws to protect your data, it is important to know this prior to conducting business in that state. We urge you to contact the attorney’s general office in your state and file a consumer complaint.
Watch THIS VIDEO that recently became available on YouTube.
OUR PERSONAL EXPERIENCES
First of all, had we known this truck sends data to Toyota for ANY reason, there would have no purchase. Walking out of the dealership empty handed would have been the ONLY alternative, and we are perfectly fine with that. It is absolutely insane to voluntarily provide endless data flow to a car manufacturer for any reason and, specifically, without knowledge, consent nor compensation.
Corporations pay big money for data, and, under the US law, a “person” is a corporation. The large corporations want your data! Everything about you is bought, sold and traded without your knowledge nor fully aware consent. There is only one thing that this truck has that is even remotely admirable and I will discuss that at the end of this article. First things first.
MEANINGLESS SHORT TERM RELATIONSHIP
We literally have no love for this truck. It was a decision made while briefly enamored, unlike pitching a tent in the remote wilderness field near a stream and enjoying the wildlife.
THE LIST
There is an entire list, other than it transmits data without our awareness nor consent. The DCM and the EDR will be disabled and probably removed as soon a possible.
TINY PORTALS
The next thing about this truck that makes it undesirable is the extremely low door openings. Being a short person, merely 69″ tall, each time I enter the passengers compartment my head gets banged on the door frame. The door frames are way too small. The interior of the passengers compartment is not only small, but it looks and feels small. It is very narrow. The tilt wheel barely raises enough for leg clearance and the steering wheel too close to the knees. When moving the right foot from the accelerator to the brake, there is the constant reminder how small the area is when the knee hits the steering wheel regardless of seat is placement.
IGNITION SWITCH
The start button, 4 wheel drive switch, heater switch and temperature control switch are in very illogical places. We have been searching for ways to remove the push button ignition switch and convert it to a “keyed” ignition switch. If you have any insight on how to do this, please let us know.
Why anybody would place the twist for on 4×4 switch next to the twist for on heater fan control is beyond me. I cannot tell you how many times the wrong dial was grabbed and turned while freezing traveling at 55 mph and instead of getting a nice blast of warm air, the 4 wheel drive kicks in. Not that this has happen to me, however it wouldn’t be surprising if it had for some unsuspecting operator.
OVERHEAD SWITCHES
Speaking of four wheel drive, take a look at the over head lighting and control panel. Same thing there. The switches are in a very poor place and when attempting to click on a light while keeping the road in view often end up activating another four wheel drive option. Very poor design.
BLINDING BACKUP DISPLAY
The back up camera display is another thorn. The display is bright (even on the dimmest setting) and blinding at night. Backing into a semi-truck at night because your blinded by a backup camera display is expensive.
OVER STIMULATION AND IMPAIRMENT
DEFECTIVE OEM EQUIPMENT
The biggest thing that really made me love this truck in the way that I do, is this truck had the water pump explode at 87,000 miles only one week after having the 90k mile service at Desert Toyota of Tucson. I am not saying they did something nefarious, but nearly 500 miles later the water pump explodes on the highway leaving us stranded while on our way to Sedona for a sound healing presentation. Fortunately we had two vehicles and were able to transport the digeridoos, crystal bowls, gongs and an assortment of instruments to the destination.
There were no indications anything was wrong, no overheating, no noises, nothing. Just a KA-BOOM, then water and aluminum water pump pieces, pulleys and belts flying everywhere. After getting a flat-bed from the shop and trailer it 66 miles I repaired it myself. It took about 3 days to determine all the components that needed to be replaced and cost me slightly more than $1,800 in parts to start repairing it. Luckily we had access to a friend’s machine and automotive shop. It took about 3 days to get repairs completed once the parts began arriving. During the process the other standard maintenance routines including the transmission fluid check were performed. Surprisingly, the transmission fluid was low. This was supposed to be part of the routine maintenance at Desert Toyota the week before when it was brought in for service. Being two quarts (yes, quarts, not pints) low is astronomical to the operation of a transmission.
For those who have others perform maintenance on your Tacoma (and other vehicles), It takes crawling up under the truck and removing a plug on the top of the transmission then pumping fluid into the transmission service port. This is done “blind” unless you have a hoist, bright lights and mirrors or a scope. There is NO fill port under the engine compartment. Luckily we have flatbed trailers, hoists, tools and unlimited access to everything needed for repairs. For everybody else who is held at the mercy of the dealership or repair shop, we feel your pain.
SERPENTINE DOES NOT APPLY ONLY TO THE BELTS
Serpents slither and slide. Serpents crawl on their bellies. Generally undetected, the serpent can slither about unnoticed until it strikes its prey. This is the modus operandi of the nefarious manufacturers and all those participating in data collection and distribution.
There are four tension/serpentine belt pulleys on the engine. I could only find three and according to my initial research there were only three in every document I saw. 20,000 miles later a pulley on the very bottom front began making noise, squealing. I was on the road and stopped at Minot Toyota in North Dakota to have the service technician replace the squeaking pulley. I had informed him that all the pulley/tensioners had recently been replaced and wanted to know which one it was. His suggestion was to replace all four of them instead of troubleshoot and determine the offending pulley. It would be only $2,400 for the four replacements. That is retarded. He wanted to argue with me because he was a trained service specialist with 15 years of experience. I expressed that although his resume was impressive, I had 15 minutes to see through the facade. Our truck was taken to a family member’s garage and determined that the squeaking pulley was coming from the very bottom directly next to the water pump that had been replaced earlier. That pulley had gone unrecognized the entire time while under the hood previously and would have been replaced.
How do we know this? Because the wrench to get at the bolt is a special wrench designed to fit in the gap between an oil cooler mounted directly in font of the pulley next to the crankshaft pulley and cannot be removed with the assembly in place. I bought the special wrench and attempted to remove the pulley, but it only slipped off the head. That pulley was not coming off. Actually the correct term is idle. as the wheels are not truly pulleys. The serpentine belt runs along them. It is a terrible design.
COMPARTMENTS AND CONSOLES
The next thing on the list is the center console. The cover on it does not open far enough back to comfortably place a hand inside and get an item out or plugged into the accessory port. It is in a terrible location and we cannot tell you how many times we wanted to forcefully relocate the door which opens from front to rear and up.
The back seat is super tiny. Unless the people occupying the front seat are less than 5′ 4″ tall, don’t expect any leg room in the back seat. I am five feet nine inches tall and the passengers compartment is far too small for comfort, at all.
BLIND LIGHTING
The interior lighting in the Toyota Tacoma is beyond terrible. If the dashboard or head unit lighting were applied to the remainder of the passenger compartment, it may be of some use. However, there are poorly illuminated areas and consist of only two interior locations. One is in the overhead control unit and the other is directly above the center console. There is no lighting in the back seat passengers compartment that is of any use during low or no light periods. Instead, the overhead lighting provides peripheral interference any where in the passenger’s compartment and is, essentially, useless. The best resolution is to use a flashlight or head lamp and develop zero dependency or expectation of the interior lighting to of any use.
HUNTING, FISHING AND TOWING
Finally, the very most significant reason why the relationship between this Taco and us is the transmission gear ratio and constant “hunting and fishing”. The insane gear ratios between second and third, and more specifically third and fourth gear make the truck nearly useless for towing and off-road. The final drive gear being sixth gear in this truck, is fat beyond useful. From first to third gear the ratios are acceptable and the transmission seems to smoothly utilize the three lower gears. However, when it comes to third and fourth gear, the ratio then skips from 1:1 to 1:1.52 which is more than one half an entire jump. The rest of the gears, specifically second to third is 1:1.28 and similarly from fourth to fifth. What this does is it causes too much drag and the truck continuously “hunts” for third and fourth gear at a relatively reasonable RPM and speed. It cannot choose what gear is best and bounces in and out of third and fourth.
Forget about towing anything. With a small 4’x8′ flatbed trailer with a motorcycle the Toyota Tacoma struggles to tow. The transmission constantly shifts in-and-out of gears, hunting-and-fishing for one that will be effective, sadly failing with every attempt. Granted, a manual would most certainly been better, and a Ford or a Dodge would have been a far better choice. Even with the Electronically Control Transmission (ECT) the transmission is completely lost in its logic. What this means is running hotter and burning up an additional 6 miles per gallon. The MPG is terrible already as it is (17.2 mpg), let alone the flawed designs making for more consumption which equals waste.