If your looking at Tacoma's specifically they've only had 1 recall since 1996, thats for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd gen bodystyles.
About 2-3 years ago there was a recall for 1st and 2nd gen body styles due to corrosion, some trucks were suffering from corrosion perforated frame rails that made them a possible failure hazard.
Toyota offered to buy back trucks that were suffering from this problem.
The affected truck had to have perferations due to corrosion in the frame rails, Toyota offered to buy them back for fair market value at around $7000, keep in mind the oldest of these trucks in this recall were 13 yrs old and the newest were 5 yrs old.
When looking at Tacoma's there are no bad years, all trucks 98 and up are prefered because these trucks were available with the TRD package, 96/97 standard cab trucks with the 3.4ltr engine option are also prefered and hard to find.