Greetings! New Member, prospective Trailhunter buyer. TFS interest rates.

[SilverSurfer]

If you are putting down that much, you are basically reducing the cost of the interest rate difference. If that’s the case, then the rate doesn’t matter nearly as much. Plenty of “have to have it now” folks would pay the high rates on full price. You seem much smarter than that and you’ll likely pay it off well ahead of schedule, further reducing the cost of interest. That’s what I would be willing to do if I wanted the TH. You should also consider that value over time, the TH will hold it’s value better over time than a limited or OR model.

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[SilverSurfer]

Pre purchase Credit pulls should be soft checks, which shouldn’t affect your credit. When you buy, it’s a hard check, which will.

If that’s corolla is your only transport, I would reconsider. You have much more leverage buying when you don’t actually need the vehicle.

 

[Sleddogg]

Pre purchase Credit pulls should be soft checks, which shouldn’t affect your credit. When you buy, it’s a hard check, which will.

If that’s corolla is your only transport, I would reconsider. You have much more leverage buying when you don’t actually need the vehicle.

This is good to know about the soft pull. I was unaware of this. Like I said, I have only purchased new twice before and it has been awhile, with significantly less money on the line. I am not trading in the corolla. It will go to a family member or one of the cooks at work. It is just frustrating to be so close in price but so far away on interest rates.

Given this new info, however, I will be contacting a few lenders myself. I signed up for credit monitoring with Experian and about 3 minutes after submitting my online application with a dealership, I got an alert that they were pulling my credit and that came with warnings about it impacting my score, so that kind of shook me, since I am on the cusp between tiers.

Thanks for this bit of info, I will be sure to check with my local CU as to the impacts of shopping around for loans.

 

[maxx075]

Just an FYI, but generally if you want to shop around for rates, you have something like 30 days to have credit pulled from different places (for the same type of loan) and it will only show as one hard hit.

 

[Trailhunter Taco Supreme]

I’m not local to you, but I purchased a Trailhunter in southern Massachusetts on 11/19/24. I was not in the market for a new car now, but the day after the election I decided to test drive a few different trims of the Tacomas & a Tundra 1794. I originally planned to buy something in 2025/2026 but understanding how tariffs affect all prices, I moved immediately and accelerated my purchase of a Trailhunter, completing the purchase in about a week.

I was in the highest credit score tier and Toyota Financial Services quoted me 7.14% for 24 - 48 months, or 7.64% for 60 - 72 months. I would’ve considered financing if the rates on the trailhunter was the advertised 3.99% at the time on Tacoma’s, but Trailhunter did not qualify.

I ended up paying cash instead.

 

[Sleddogg]

I’m not local to you, but I purchased a Trailhunter in southern Massachusetts on 11/19/24. I was not in the market for a new car now, but the day after the election I decided to test drive a few different trims of the Tacomas & a Tundra 1794. I originally planned to buy something in 2025/2026 but understanding how tariffs affect all prices, I moved immediately and accelerated my purchase of a Trailhunter, completing the purchase in about a week.

I was in the highest credit score tier and Toyota Financial Services quoted me 7.14% for 24 - 48 months, or 7.64% for 60 - 72 months. I would’ve considered financing if the rates on the trailhunter was the advertised 3.99% at the time on Tacoma’s, but Trailhunter did not qualify.

I ended up paying cash instead.

Congratulations on your new Trailhunter. And same goes to all of you with new Tacomas. I can imagine you all being very pleased with your purchases, these are really quite nice vehicles. I have never owned a truck and hope this to be (potentially) a final vehicle purchase.

I am pleased to become a part of this community, regardless of how my purchase experience goes. There is a wealth of knowledge here and it helps greatly in learning more about the Tacoma lineup.

Thank you all for the input so far. I am sure I will have many questions as time moves on. Finding trails in Wisconsin being one of them, LOL. It could be awhile before I can afford to go for a proper (off)road trip.

 

[SilverSurfer]

Just clarifying On credit, if you are in the dealer applying for a loan, that is a hard pull. Pre-qualifying isn’t, or at least shouldn’t me, but as someone else pointed out, you do have 30 days of hard pulls, so you’re good if you are purchasing soon.

Something else to consider, use your account and freeze your credit. Do the same at the other two credit bureaus. When you want credit, unfreeze for a day, or better yet, just for the credit pull, and refreeze it when you are done.

Also, put a fraud alert on as well. This way, anyone trying to get credit in your name should be denied. If they aren’t then you are in a very good position to tell a creditor who didn’t run a credit check and see the fraud alert, to pound sand.

 

[MT-Taco]

Be prepared for a bump in insurance cost as well..

 

[Sleddogg]

Be prepared for a bump in insurance cost as well..

Knew Dat

 

[maxx075]

Don't forget the absurd amount you'll also spend modifying/customizing/upgrading.

 

[Sleddogg]

Don't forget the absurd amount you'll also spend modifying/customizing/upgrading.

56 year old man with an expensive “hobby” - - who ever heard of such a thing.

 

[maxx075]

56 year old man with an expensive “hobby” - - who ever heard of such a thing.

I seem to have a penchant for expensive hobbies. Mountain biking, skydiving, base jumping, a wife, now a tacoma.

 

[Trailhunter Taco Supreme]

Be prepared for a bump in insurance cost as well..

Insurance bump was negligible. My 2018 Lexus RX 450H cost $1,135 per year and the 2024 Tacoma Trailhunter is $1,375 a year. Only a $20 per month increase on a new vehicle with a ~$40K higher replacement cost.

 

[MT-Taco]

Insurance bump was negligible. My 2018 Lexus RX 450H cost $1,135 per year and the 2024 Tacoma Trailhunter is $1,375 a year. Only a $20 per month increase on a new vehicle with a ~$40K higher replacement cost.

Yeah mine was a $55/6 month bump from a Tundra, he’ll see a noticeable bump from a 2010 Corolla.

 

[Sleddogg]

Well, I picked up an Ice Cap White Trailhunter in 5 ft bed yesterday locally. Had a hiccup at delivery Saturday afternoon, due to the battery going dead while sitting in it programming the Toyota app inside the showroom. I didn’t want to start it being inside, but then they jumped it and ran it for like 20 minutes, so I should have started it. End result was it producing 3 codes, so they didn’t feel comfortable letting me take delivery that evening until Monday’s techs could reset the codes.

Pulled away Monday afternoon with 4 miles on it. Loving it so far. Have been on a mega errand run since and have already burned through the complimentary (lol) tank of gas. Variable driving including some interstate yesterday resulted in over half of the tank gone and showing 16.4 MPG on the dash. Today, using a lot more adaptive cruise control, I got it to 17.6 MPG and after filling up and taking a 16 mile run home on rural highway i hit 20 MPG.

Truck rode pretty rough compared to an IforceMax Off Road that I had previously test driven, but soon noticed the tires were at 49 and 50 PSI. Now they are at 35 PSI and a much more supple ride, albeit the Old Man Emu are stiffer than the experience in the off road.

Tomorrow I will try the Drive Modes out a bit and will do some light 4hi and 4Lo straight line engagements just to test the mechanisms, as well as the SDM. We are supposed to get some light snow later this week and if I am at or above 500 miles by then, I will drive it in 4hi just a bit.

Lot’s to discover, lot’s to learn about the functionality. Today I realized that using Apple car play and receiving a call or using Siri to text while listening to music causes the steering wheel volume and the center dash volume controls to separate into separate duties with the wheel controlling call/Siri volume while the center knob controls media, so that is handy to create a balance between them. That and the Siri seems left front biased so easy to hear.

Also got a good test of the adaptive cruise and safety sense when a plow that was laying down salt brine made a rapid maneuver to do a highway U-turn and my Trailhunter immediately responded with a firm but not abrupt brake application. As soon as he was out of the way, my truck appropriately sped back up to set point.

Love the smooth power delivery and the ride comfort. Controls are intuitive and accessible. Light bar on rural roads with auto high beam is awesome, just remember to turn all that off when in neighborhoods or someone will think there’s someone lurking in their yard with a bright light.

Great experience so far.

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