Should I fear the 1st Gen?

Hey all, I'm considering selling my 2nd Gen and going back to a 1st Gen. I love my truck, but I don't need this much money tied up in a vehicle right now and I do really like the 1st Gens. I have had two 1995.5's and one 1999, all 4wd with manual transmissions. I'm now looking at 2002-2004 models and the auto seems to be more common in the ones I'm seeing. I know these are great trucks, but this frame thing has me concerned. We didn't know about frame issues back when I had my older Tacomas. I've read about the frame replacement and I know where to check for weak spots before I buy. I live in Florida and will only buy a Florida truck (no road salt). My local dealer has replaced the frame on several here though surprisingly, mainly on northern vehicles that moved down here and on trucks that backed into the salt water a lot for fishing.

My question to other 1st Gen owners, knowing what you know now about rust on these older trucks, would you steer others away from them? I'm still trying to figure out if they are still replacing frames or not also.

Thanks!

 

My truck has spent 12 winters outside in PA and my frame is fine. If the thing is rusted out don't get it, this applies to ANY vehicle not just 1st gens.

 

My 18 year old truck is fine as well. The frames with holes should be feared, a bit of surface rust shouldn't be too bad, just have it inspected. Also I'll add that there are clean ones out there, my frame doesn't have a single spot of rust.

 

Yes, fear the 1st gen

But no, dont worry about the frame. Just make sure you check it out and run the vin number through your local Toyota shop to make sure its covered under the frame warranty.

There was a member on here not long ago that bought a Tacoma with a very shity frame. I believe he bought it for $500 and was able to get Toyota to buy it back for something like $13k.

Also heard story where a guy found a Tundra (V8 4x4 with 90k miles) from a used car lot with a frame so bad the rear leaf hangers were litterally falling off. He checked with Toyota and it was covered under the frame warranty.

The dealer wanted $11k but when the frame was brought into question, he sold it for $1k (I guess he didn't know of the recal ). Guy had a tow truck bring it into Toyota and got the frame replaced and a free rental car to boot.

 

My 10 year old 2004 has zero rust. The frame doesn't even have surface rust. Here in NC we don't get a lot of winter weather, so not to may problems from road salt, and my truck does spend every night in a nice garage.

 

Mine is 14 years old, lived in the salt-air of coastal northern CA for it's whole life, no rust at all.

 

Excellent feedback. I was hoping for such responses. I agree, I should be able to look and get a good idea of how good the frame is. The great thing is, it's on a Toyota lot so I made them confirm with the Service Department that this truck would qualify for frame replacement if it fails inspection. Plus, she "claims" they can still get this truck Toyota certified. I'll believe that when I see it though.

 

If the truck has not been inspected yet, no, you cannot get it covered by the recall. You need to check with Toyota to insure the vin is covered.

Also, if it has something welded to the frame (sliders, frame reinforcements, etc...) it most likely not be covered by Toyota.

 

The only rust on my '03 is on the bottom corners of the tailgate and when I went in for the frame inspection/coating 3 years ago they said it was flawless. Its been an Ohio truck all its life. Also good point about the recall. IIRC when I took mine in there was a cutoff date for the inspection and as long as the truck was inspected by that date, it was covered by the frame replacement warranty and that warranty transfers with ownership of the truck so yeah, you'll want to make sure Toyota has record of it being inspected.

 

I bought my truck of my dad (1995 single cab) and i regularly check the frame, had to have it welded w/ new metal because it had a little rotten whole on it, and that was 10 years ago!
If your 1 gen doesn't have rust on your frame when you buy it, just put some rihno line or something over it so it doesn't rust.
Toyota didn't really do well with the frames, our engines will go forever though haha

 

Well that truck wasn't the one. I guess it could've been, but I'll never know since they sold it yesterday morning and still welcomed me to drive an hour and a half to check it out last night. What happened to customer service?

 

18 yrs and running strong with good frame! It's a va. truck that was taken care of. If frame is good,so is truck. Usually if frame looks good, the truck was well maintained. At least in va. GL and keep searching.