Locate an Auto Repair Shop in Tacoma, Washington

I have a Tacoma 2001 V6 4x4 5spd. Two wheeled drive may be nice on the flat ground and highway but if you run into a situation where you have to climb a small grade on gravel you'll appreciate having 4 wheel drive. I'm have watched at times where vehicles could not climb a grade on gravel because of wheel spin. I tow a Trial-lite B19 travel trailer with my Tacoma and have found it to have plenty of power for climbing hills at 50 mph. My travel trailer weighs around 3,000 lbs loaded. I've been as high ast 9 to 10,000 feet on some of the highways here in Colorado and I haven't had any problems. My gas mileage is about 14 to 15 mpg in the mountains and higher at lower altitudes. I also have over 200,000 miles on my truck and it still pulls the travel trailer without any problems.

According to Petersen's 4 Wheel and Off Road Magazine, the BEST tire for snow is the chain tread design such as the BF Goodrich All Terrain KO. I have run these on my old Jeep CJ-5, Cherokee, Toyota Tacoma, and Suburban with great success. I have also run some of the cheaper, knock off brands that have done just as well in the snow, but the knock offs didn't handle as well on dry pavement ( I feel that the rubber was a little stiffer). ">http://www.bfgoodrichtires.com/images/tire-selector/tires/all-terrain-t-a-ko.jpg-

Call them in as suspected drunks...it's happened before in Bellingham Oh yeah, driving in a random rain shower this morning on 5 north of Tacoma. About half the cars hit their brakes! It wasn't a downpour, and they were lucky to be going the limit to begin with. What is it with people here, it rains 300 days a year and they still freak out.

The thing is, that 170HP or so I4s, because of their compression and how hard they have to rev to get that power get a consistent 30-35mpg, tops. Less in a heavier vehicle like Camry or a Tacoma. It's entirely possible to tune a big engine to operate at lower revs. That's the whole "trick" behind a diesel. It's not the fuel so much as the fact that the engine runs at significantly lower RPMs. It can get away with it due to better torque, but there's no reason a similar designed gasoline powered engine couldn't pull off most of the same trick with 1-2 more cylinders and the same displacement. The real issue is that everyone is worshiping HP in a race not too dissimilar to CPU speeds a few years back. All while completely ignoring the fact that normal drivers don't need 300+hp in their cars to just get around town.

In the waiting room, they showed me a photo of one of the holes in the frame of my 2001 & strongly advised me to take the loaner. Maybe there are degrees of damage, some being dangerous & others needing fixing, but aren't to the level of being unsafe. I also think different dealerships operate differently. I had subsequent problems related to the frame replacement, which they resolved (on my dime!), but would not give me a loaner at that time, saying they had only a few vehicles for that purpose. They also told me I needed a new cat, which I was suspicious about & did not replace. I'm glad I didn't, I got through inspection fine & have had no problems. Saved myself quite a few bucks.