What to look at when buying a used Tacoma?

Hey guys. I have always been interested in Tacomas. I eyed a good looking 2001 4x4 Tacoma for sale around town today. Now that I am getting the financial means to buy one, what should I check before purchasing?

 

frame water pump and timing belt


rust is your enemy too

 

Always carfax it. If your buying it from a dealer they should print one for you for free.

If you are PP it spend the money yourself to have it.

Take a look at the undercarriage to see if it was wheeled much. Look for dinged up skid plates.

BTW welcome to the forum!

 

be absolutely to check the frame for rust....there is a recall on some first gens where the frames were rotting thru. and to add.........carfax reports will help.......but some things dont show up on carfax, no matter what, especially when someone knows someone and gets them to fix whatever damage may have occured.

 

Dealers are inspecting 01 to 04 frames and replacing them free of charge if rusted...milage not an issue..My nephew has 130000 on his 01 and is getting a new frame and a loaner vehicle while the work is being done..fwiw

 

I'll definitely look for rust next time I look at it. I think it has definitely be off-roaded the paint is kinda scratched up and there is dirt clumps on all underneath the truck. Then there is the kicker is 212,000 miles to much? I'll post some pics of it when I go by again.

 

Here are the pics I had taken earlier. They are not much but its a start.



The window tag said 212,000 miles



I'll take more when I go by it again.

 

Way to high... I didnt know much about the truck but heres what kbb came up with

http://www.kbb.com/KBB/UsedCars/Pri...47|true&Condition=Fair&QuizConditions=#survey

 

Burnmaster. If you put 80000 miles in KBB it brings you to 9000. I would recommend looking for a truck with less miles.

http://www.kbb.com/KBB/UsedCars/Pri...9408|true|199412|true|199425|true|199484|true

 

Yeah if I go for this one I would definitely try to talk him down to around 5000. As soon as I got back I looked at kbb and saw it was over priced. If I were to seriously look at this truck what kind of wear should I look at/ any parts that may need to be replaced soon? I did notice it is a manual tranny. How long could I expect the engine to last?

 

I'd watch for the following issues which seem to been common on the boards:

Frame Rust - 1995.5-2001 between cab and box
Rear Leaf Springs - sag, wear out, I think there is a TSB
Lower Ball Joints - wear out prematurely - even fail
Steering Wheel Looseness - column slide joint has too much slop
Automatic Transmission - thunk/clunk when taking off or stopping
Idle Quality - dirty IAC, other

Most important when I buy a vehicle is getting to know the seller...a lot can be learned about how the vehicle was treated by knowingthe personality of the seller.

Hope this helps, and you can find most of the answers/repairs on here, TW has been very helpful for me anyway.

 

Too many miles. Not too many miles for a Toyota, but too many for one you haven't owned for it's lifetime. You'd always like to know what kind of mileage and maintenance has been done on the truck since it was new. With that many miles on it and not knowing how well the previous owner(s) took care of regular maintenance on the truck, it's kinda hard to feel secure in buying one with that many miles on it even thought it "looks" really good. I bought mine when it was 4 years old with 44K miles that used to be a lease vehicle. I know the correct mileage and that all the maintenance was done by the dealershp . It's now 8 years old with 67K miles and I know exactly what has been done to it since I've owned it. I wouldn't be scared at all to drive it for over 200k miles, but I know how well it's been taken care of.
It took me over 6 months to find the "perfect truck" that I was looking for. I wanted an '01-'04 Tacoma DoubleCab 4x4 in silver or black. I finally found one and got a great deal on it, so keep looking for exactly what you want and you'll be happier in the end for getting exactly what you want.