1998 Tacoma

Hey all, new guy here. Got an opportunity to buy a 98 Tacoma ext. cab 4x4 with 71k miles. It is the v6 auto. It looks to be in awesome shape...spent most of its life in S. Carolina, and kept inside. I've been looking for a year now and most are priced ridiculous if they have under 150k miles it seems like. I got to reading up on this particular year and it looks like they had bad frame rusting issues. My question is would you be hesitant to purchase this pickup due to those problems, or is it safe to assume this particular one is ok? I went and drove it, etc. and it seems great, but I did not know to check out the frame for rust until I got home and started reading more about them. Thanks in advance.

 

Price and picture would help!!
Sounds good-what does it look like-shift good?
tires? Leaks?
PRICE??????

 

Take a hanmmer and hit the frame-You will know IF the frame is bad when you hit it. RUST?????
bad frames NORMALLy are OBVIOUS

 

No leaks, tires are good. Zero rust on the outside visible parts. We agreed on $8500. Drove nice. Looks like its sat in a garage every night of its life. Really nice pickup. I'll definitely be crawling under to check the frame out before any money changes hands.

 

that is NOT MANY MILES for a 98!!!!!
Could be the buy of a lifetime!
Be sure to check the maintenance records.
Tranny auto fluid -be sure to check-RED=GOOD
BLACK and burt smell=Not good

 

Is that the area price for a that year. check auto trader and EDMUNDS

 

He actually had it listed in auto trader. I saved a couple of the pics he had on auto trader into my pic library, but am now not sure how to get them on here lol...

 

that price according to edmunds is a little HIGH- be sure to check for your area--"apraise your vehicle".
I was thinking in my area--about $6K- trade in value is less.

 

have a link??

 

8500 Seem like a good price, especially cause of the low miles. I had a 97 regular cab SX for 12 years and recently sold it for 5500. It had about 135K on it and I had it in michigan for four years. Frame was solid with no real visible rust. From what I understand the issue was that some frames had insufficent coatings. It will be quite obvious if there are rust issues. I would jump on that deal quickly, as I had about a dozen calls within a day of posting on CL.

 

I checked it in KBB and it was high there too, but I figured they are so hard to find with low mileage like that for under $15-20k, I might be wise to jump on it lol..who knows.

 

I checked auto trader--some were very high mileage-and the price was 6k+(as high as 9K) they did not have any listed with under 100K miles.
Have a mechanic check the truck-OR someone that knows about used cars,
If there is NOTHING to HIDE-the owner will not mind if you have it checked.

 

Keep us posted--be sure you have someone check it over before you buy.
just a little advice from an OLDER GUY!
Took me over a year to find my current truck-be picky-get what you WANT.-its YOUR MONEY!!

 

Thanks for your help. I got the pics transferred to photobucket for a url, but still can't get them over to here. Any advice? Thanks again.

 

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Finally! lol

 

Check the front hanger of the leaf springs. That's where the frames were most vulnerable.

 

Something I did notice while driving it was the lack of power....I currently drive a pretty sassy duramax so that could be it, and could really care less..as long as the tacoma has enough power to make it through deep snow/sand. I don't do a lot of off roading, but while hunting, I usually end up in some pretty deep snow. Have any of you had problems with the power in deep snow, and if so, is there any reasonably easy options to power it up?

 

I have a '96 with the 3.4 V6. The tires are Michelin LTX's. These trucks handle snow just fine. We just got through the 3rd snowiest winter on record up here.
I drive a Dump truck at work that has a plow in front and a salt/sand spreader in the rear. When we have a snowstorm I'm the first to be called and of course drive to work in my Tacoma on unplowed roads. Never had any problems. Busted through some pretty big drifts, had plenty of power.

http://mix108.com/duluth-inching-toward-the-top-10-snowiest-winters-on-record/