Should I stay away from this frame?

Hey TacomaWorld,

Looking at a 2004 tacoma with <70K miles. It's at a price I'm ok with, however, it is out of state.

I don't have the luxury to fly out there and check it out and decide that I don't want to buy it.

Here are pictures of the underside:

http://imgur.com/a/sNsA1

The car spent about 6 years in South Carolina, one year in Mississippi, and the rest of its life in Nebraska...

 

you can't really see the frame in the pic. all i see is a leaf spring

 

Hard to tell as you are really not showing any of the undercarriage to make a decision on.

 

Sorry guys, I uploaded a new imgur album. These were the only 4 photos the dealer sent me.

 

The dealer sent you some terrible pictures and normally there is a reason for that

 

that doesn't look bad to me. but none of the pics are of the trouble spots of the frame

 

Haha I suppose you are right.

What area should I specifically ask him to take a photo of?

 

Be careful of dealers sending you pictures. Before I drove 7 hours away I had the salesman FaceTime me and he crawled under the truck and I got to see the frame real time. Every one has smart phones, at least send you videos of the frame in the trouble spots.

 

try to see if he will do this.

where the leaf spring attaches to the frame. and pretty much the whole frame rail from there to the engine bay

 

cant see frame but everything else looks alright

 

Also be aware of trickery. I definitely had a dealer from out of state send me photos of a frame (took a couple days to get them), and they had freshly painted the whole frame black.

Check the pics in this:

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/iso-a-quality-1st-gen-need-opinion.389688/

 

How does it work if they are an actual Toyota dealer? I asked if they could inspect the frame and they said it passed their "50 point inspection"

I looked up the VIN and no recalls we're associated with it.

 

I'd definitely try to do some "real time" inspection since you can't get there in person right now. The photos that the dealer sent, would make me very suspicious. I'm sure he actually knows what you're looking for, but is hoping that you don't know what you're looking for!!!
Just my opinion...

 

See if there's a member local to you on TW that would be willing to check it out in person. Though, a first gen with under 70k miles won't be on the lot for very long if it's in good shape...tough spot to be in but don't make any decisions until you know for sure that the frame is good, and hasn't been painted over.

 

Yeah I posted in the regional forum the truck is located. Hopefully a member can help out. Man these trucks are so hard to find in low mileage.

 

Found mine with 24k on the clock last year, about 3 hours from me was looking petty hard for a few months.

 

Wow, I haven't seen one yet with that low of miles.

Did you restrict yourself to only local? Where I live I have yet to find a local first gen that meets my criteria. I have good budget ($15K), it's just most of the trucks that fit my criteria are out of state :\

thing is, I need the truck by August!

 

I got lucky to be honest, one night I was just browsing listings and an Autotrader ad popped up with this truck on it. Called the Toyota dealership where it was being advertised 5 min before they closed, told them I'd be there before they opened the next morning 3 hours away, and I was. Got lucky I was browsing that night I guess.

 

Where did the Truck Live ??

Where do you live ??

My Truck came from Central Texas never saw Winter till I drove it North to Pa

I had a long Day so I can`t recall if it was 2 or 3 winters till The Frame needed some TLC

 

I live in Dallas. The truck lived in South Carolina, Mississippi, and Nebraska.