Two years ago, on a whim, I bought a very gently used 2018 Toyota Tundra Limited Crewmax pickup: 41,000 miles and Toyota Certified with a warranty until practically forever or 100,000 miles, whichever comes first. I say forever because the chances of me owning any car for more than a few years (aside from my wife’s wagon which I am strictly forbidden from selling) are essentially nil, so 2027 (I think it is) may as well be forever . Now here I sit, twenty thousand miles and two years since I bought it, pondering my Tundra’s future.

We’d had a Tundra in the family before: my Dad’s 2004 double cab SR5 that we sold in 2016 because it had been used about twice a year for the three years from his passing, the battery kept dying, and it was just taking up space. Someone got a screaming deal on it, because at 12 years old it had just 34,000 miles on it and had been garaged from day one. I considered keeping it, but since I was commuting daily into Washington, D.C. at the time it really wasn’t the most practical of vehicles, getting about 16mpg highway, and about 12 around town. Besides, every time I parked in a parking garage I felt like I was going to rip the roof off like one of those low bridge videos you see on the interwebs. It was a great truck, but without a purpose.

Once I started working from home in late-2017, I kicked myself for letting the 2004 go because it really was very handy to have around, and being a Toyota it would’ve proven a reliable partner in addition to whatever dumb old car(s) adorned the fleet at the time. Ah, well.

Fast forward to 2022, on the tail end of a year with a Subaru WRX followed by a 2008 BMW X5 – that we subsequently decided would be a good car for our daughter to use – I got the wild hair to go look at newer Tundras. While I liked the looks of the earlier model, the 2007-2021 Tundras have a decidedly “American” look and feel to them. They’re a little meatier, more powerful (with the 5.7 liter engine), and bigger than the 2004 – a detail confirmed by the fact that I could get the 2004 into a 8 foot wide garage and most definitely could not do the same with the 2018. This is a proper channel-your-inner-cowboy pickup! I also wanted a car with a warranty and that could haul the whole family and a decent amount of stuff on a road trip. With Thing #1 nearing college graduation, I knew that a U-Haul or at a minimum a trailer would be in my not-too-distant future.

Another thing I prefer about the newer Tundra over the older one was the console-mounted shifter. The 2004 had a column shifter, and while perfectly usable and functional, it always gave me a little bit of that 1984 Buick feeling. The pistol-ish grip of the subsequent model falls to hand easily, and even has a tiptronic-esque auto/manual shift for those so inclined. I admit, I do use it for compression braking from time to time…

While the 2004 had a perfectly normal-sized rear seat, the 2018’s rear compartment is frankly cavernous. I mean, the crew they are counting on riding in this truck are all about 6’4″ and 275lbs – minimum. The sacrifice, in turn, is that the bed in the newer truck is about a foot shorter.  That said, you still get plenty of length for just about anything you want to do when you have the accessory bed extender or a wad of bungee cords.

After about three weeks of searching, I came across this Toyota Certified 2018 at a dealer about 45 minutes west of our D.C. suburb near the Shenandoah river valley. It was a one-owner trade-in originally sold at this dealer, had been garaged, was nearly showroom-clean, had all of the service records for its 41,000 miles, and despite COVID markups nearly everywhere was priced where it should be. My wife and I took an extended test drive, and decided to go for it. I mean, a truck is a great thing to have when you need it, and it makes you very popular with your friends and family.

So just a month after buying the truck, unexpectedly, we made the decision to move a little further out into the country. We’d have more space, more property to take care of, and 20 years of accumulation in the house we lived in to 1) move; 2) donate; or 3) dump. Yay, Tundra!! We also had all sorts of stuff to buy: paint, fenceposts, ladders, furniture, and, well, all the things you need when you move into a house in need of a little TLC. As expected, we also moved our eldest daughter into her first official adulting apartment via truck bed and a U-Haul trailer. The Tundra handled it all with ease – and continues to do so.

In “Limited” form, the Tundra comes equipped with all of the luxury appointments that a fiftysomething accustomed to driving mostly German cars is used to, like heated seats, automatic climate control, leather, and power everything. You just sit up higher and the ride is a little more, well, truck-like. That is to say, on imperfect roads you do get a bit of bouncing and bucking – surface and speed depending. The four wheel drive system works a treat, and has been super useful on the two or three times in the past couple of years that we actually got any snow. I will say, a heated steering wheel would have been appreciated. At this writing, of all the cars in our family, only my younger daughter has a car with a heated steering wheel. Because of course she does.

And that all leads me to today. I really like my Tundra, but I’ve got the itch. BAD. This truck is one of the most reliable Toyotas you can buy, and as it sits has just over 60,000 miles. These 5.7s have timing chains – with basic maintenance they will easily go over 500K miles. They also seem to be somewhat more reliable (if you believe the FB groups) than the newer V6 turbocharged 2022+ Tundras, although those probably see more than 20mpg…  In any case, I’d be an idiot to sell it.

At the same time, it gets abysmal gas mileage, and now that I live in the country surrounded by some of the best hilly, twisty, winding roads there are I’d really like to have something small, fast, and fun. Besides, anyone in need of a truck can get one for a relative pittance from U-Haul or Home Depot for a few hours. If I didn’t already have a few older cars (read: decidedly NOT daily drivers) laying around I’d probably just hold the Tundra and buy something else – A 911/Boxster/Cayman? Another Miata (don’t ask)? What about one of those new Supras? I’d like something that won’t require constant and expensive attention –  kind of like the Tundra – but I’d also like a manual transmission, rear-wheel drive,  and two doors. My kids have flown the nest, and we have a wagon for when visitors come to town.

What to do, what to do, what to do….? Admittedly, this is a first world dilemma. The Tundra is just such a good truck. Adulting, as my recent college-grad daughter is learning, is hard.