Were you signed up for the BaT Daily Email 10 years ago? We wish we could have bought every low mile pre-1995 Toyota pickup for the $12k that this one sold for back in 2010.

From 7/12/2010:

This 1988 Toyota 4×4 pick-up is being offered by the son of the original owner and has been garaged its whole life and driven only 8289 miles. The documentation backs up the story, and an unfortunate series of health events are the only reason the owner wants to part with it. The truck has the right options and is from the heyday of Toyota 4×4’s, back when the X-tra cab was a recent addition, the FJ62 had just replaced the FJ60, and a new 1st-gen 4Runner was at the top of our wish-list. Almost all have been beaten to death and are still happy to take more punishment, but this is almost like finding one new at the dealer in 1988. Get it here on the YotaTech Forum in Albuquerque, New Mexico for $12,500 OBO.

The tailgate letters were removed when new at the dealer and that is one of the only alterations from stock. Check out this link for the seller’s complete hi-res photo gallery.

The interiors are often the deal-breakers on buying a 20+ year old Japanese truck. Most that have had regular use have collapsed seat bottoms, broken plastic controls, and cracked dashboards. This one had a dash mat installed at the dealer so the dash is near perfect, and the seats and carpets are nearly perfect.

The 22R-E engine features fuel injection and looks stock overall but could use a cleaning. The seller claims that his father was OCD in a good way, so we suspect some maintenance was done but we’d want to ask to be sure. The yellow-top Optima battery is a good upgrade and we would check beneath it for any corrosion from previous batteries.

We’ve found similar models with good paint but more wear and 150k+ miles for around $5k. So this one isn’t cheap, but it is cheaper than trying to bring a worn-out model up to this shape. Even so, just the wear in the interior controls, doors, and drivetrain will never be brought back to this new. If this is a model you like, we’d say make an offer. The seller seems like a cool dude (he contacted us) and the truck will easily go another 20 years as it looks better and better compared to the bug-eyed new Tacomas.