Best 5th gen year

The BSM works pretty well. The rear cross-traffic and pedestrian alert is nice. It detects things much faster than is possible manually unless you have two heads. Of course I wouldn't go without looking, but if it lights up unexpectedly when I'm in reverse, I'll stop immediately. It's usually an idiot driving fast in a parking lot. I've never experienced a false alarm, unless you count being close to a static obstacle.

 

There are people who refuse to buy Toyotas newer than 2008 to avoid what they consider nannies like VSC and Trac. There are people who swear by pre-1996 vehicles because they don't want OBD2. There are luddites from every generation.

 

BSM has been incredibly accurate. I think if you are next to them it won’t show, only if you’re in their blind spot (unless they disabled it in the settings, then obviously it’ll never show).
As someone who rides a motorcycle as well, I see an insane difference on people with older vehicles who merge into my lane because they didn’t see me and those with BSM, who do not. I feel instantly safer when I’m next to a car and see the mirror light up.
Of course, it doesn’t fix stupid, so there will still be some people that can’t drive and will merge into oncoming traffic even if they have BSM, while others that drive older cars without BSM will never do that because they physically turn their head to check the blind spot. Overall though, BSM has been very useful in my experience, both as a driver and a rider.

ps: when I had a car without BSM, I never thought I would care about having this feature. Happy to admit I was wrong

 

What’s up everyone! I am currently in the market for a 5th gen, found one at a local dealer. 2014 SR5 base with 80k miles for $24,888. Is this a good deal? It looks really clean and completely bone stock. Any advice would be appreciated.