2005 Tacoma V6 SR5 Access Cab Worth it?

I never found those seat rests blocking the view on my ‘10.

In ‘09 Toyota added more airbags. There are side impact bags in these and newer trucks. Having been in a wreck where side airbags were deployed, I can attest to the safety they add.

I think in ‘12 Toyota added some type of secondary air injection that deteriorates and is expensive to fix at the dealer. There are discussions on here about this and there may even be a cheap workaround.

 

That seems a tad high for an 05 but prices for Tacoma's seem to vary quite a bit region to region. I'm in Canada where we typically expect to pay more for everything compared to the US and I picked up my 07 AC MT with ~110k Miles for $10,500 CND which translates to 7800 USD. It needed tires, left bank knock sensor, I had the dealer replace both sensors when they swapped the frame ($1K with parts, vs $2k just for labor to get to the sensors). All in I'd say it cost me around 10,500 USD.

Another thing is if you need to minimize the possibility of expensive repairs go MT over Auto, the automatic if it's starts going there are no cheap options. MT is bulletproof and if it's shot can tell on the test drive. Another advantage of an MT is the built in theft prevention.

 

Having an MT, this makes me laugh every time. There was a post I just read that showed a bumper sticker stating "millennial theft protection" and showing a stick shift.

 

The thing that sucks is its just about impossible to find Tacomas for sale around here. Within 300 miles there are only a few hundred used Toyota Tacomas for sale under 20 Grand. Add that to needing a 4 wheel drive, an access cab, and something in the 2007-2018 range and you get about 15 trucks for sale within 300 miles of my Zip code. The cheapest being 14,000 dollars for a 2012 4 Cylinder with 165 Thousand miles on it, The fewest mileage truck being a 2012 6 Cylinder with Supposedly 95,000 miles on that has been Totaled in a car accident and rebuilt that they are asking $19,900 for. The next lowest Mileage being a 2011 6 Cylinder with 104,000 on it for 20 Grand. Basically, beat up high mileage trucks for High prices with a long drive to even see it in person, or Not so beat up, lower mileage trucks for Really High prices also with a long drive to see it in person.


I guess I'll talk to the local dealer about this 05 and see if I can work out an inspection to check for HG leaks, regardless of the result I'll see if I can talk him down closer to $10,000. If I can it seems like it could be worth a shot at for that price. If not I'll probably have to just start dumping money into this Old 2 Wheel drive 1989 Ford F250 and keep it running for another couple of years while I save up more money.........

 

if youre dead set on getting the truck then definitely get the price down. thats too much imo. back in 09 when i grabbed my first tacoma i got impatient and settled for a trd sport prerunner, wanted a 4x4. the next 2 months 6 of them were on craigslist. its all about timing also

 

I'm definitely not dead set on getting it. I like it, I like pretty much everything about it and it fits all my base criteria for what I need in a truck. But I don't like the potential problems it could have. If I can get it for a fair price and know that later I may end up putting some money into it fixing some things I could live with that. The big question I guess then is, what is a fair price for this truck, this year, this Engine, these potential problems?

KBB for this truck in my area is 9.5-11.5 from a dealer or 8-10 private party. Not that I always believe those numbers but there they are anyway.

 

Try to get it closer to $10K. If they won’t do it, walk away. It will just take time, but the right truck is out there.

 

There's a boat load of Tacomas for sale in the valley (think you're near Stockton?) in your price range, just not 4x4. If you have to have 4x4 then it is slim pickings out here...

 

I appreciate all the advice and information from you guys so far. I'm definitely in a much better position to make a better decision now then before this thread started.

I'm about 70miles from Stockton, not to far. 4x4 is pretty much a must have though. Between the snow we have here, the dirt and gravel roads, and having better access behind, on and around properties when doing landscaping it seems a waste to not get a 4x4. It would have to be a super great deal to justify the lose in utility.

 

It is slim pickens'.... I was told by three separate "dealers" the same thing, Tacoma 4x4's usually do not even hit the lot prior to sale. They are purchased beforehand because salesman have people on speed dial that are on a wait list for these mid-size 4x4 trucks. Case in point I found mine still on the lift in the service bay going thru inspection two days after it was traded in. Test drove it with the previous owners crap still in it and I purchased it on the spot. I drove alot of trucks that needed alot of repairs and the price the dealers were asking did not make sense for the repairs they needed.

 

North or south (I'm in Sac)? If north, look into truckee, tahoe or Reno.

 

East. I'm up in the foothills east of Stockton. Truckee is about 180 miles from here. I'll keep an eye out for deals up that way, haven't seen anything worth mentioning as of yet.

 

I've got relatives in Angels Camp and Arnold. Not much big population centers close to there... Good luck.

 

Yup I'm in Sonora, so pretty much the biggest population center around tell you get down to the valley. This black 05 is literally the only used Tacoma for sale in this county that i have been able to find.

 

I have a 2006, bought brand new, love my truck, will never sell her. Been through alot together... Changed just about every part on her. Cost really isn't an issue Now. Today, considering possible problems, would I buy a 2005 or 2006 today to start a project/daily driver... no. To many other better years to buy Now.

Just my $0.02 worth

 

Thanks for all the responses thus far. Figured I'd give an update on whats going on with this truck and with my thought processes.

I'm going to keep shopping around and looking for something in the range for 2007-2009 for the price that I can afford but in the mean time I am going to see if I can't get this 05 here locally to work out in my favor. From what I have seen while shopping around thus far the truck that I need/want just doesn't come up for sale very often and when they do they are either very expensive (Far more then I can afford) or they are very beat up. I've talked to the dealership here locally that has this 05 Tacoma and they are currently going through the process of getting the open recalls taken care of, having it detailed, and oil change and other such stuff. My sales guy says it won't be ready for the Lot until this coming Monday.

In the mean time I have an old boss that runs a very reputable 4x4/rear end/Smog shop in town who is very knowledgeable about these things and trusted by me to know his stuff. I talked to him about this truck, gave him the run down on its year, mileage, and the potential for headgasket problems that I have heard about on here and he basically told me that in the 20 something years hes had his shop hes never seen any come in for Headgasket work or diagnosis in our area. I also talked to the owner and the other very popular mechanic in town (He does the Smog work for this dealership and smogged this truck in fact) and he basically echoed the same thing. In all his years working with Toyota trucks (Of which our town has tons of because everyone around here wants one) he's never seen many problems, and the ones he has seen/worked on have been trucks with double or more the miles this truck has.

Now I realize that none of this means that these trucks don't have these problems, or that you folks here are wrong about the issues you are pointing out, (In fact I put more weight towards your experience then these 2 mechanics experience because you are so invested in learning about Tacomas) but it is another data point to look at and something to factor in when considering that most of these reported problems on line do involve some bias towards more people pointing out problems then they do pointing out not having problems.


All this said, my old boss said to go ahead and bring the truck in to his shop next week after the holidays and he'll do a buyers inspection on it for me for a very reasonable price of $40. I've talked to the dealership and scheduled to take the truck up there Wednesday afternoon to have that done. Once I get that report back and see what kind of work it needs to have done and what general shape its in barring anything major being found I'll go ahead and see if I can't negotiate with the dealership for a better more reasonable price, and see if I can't work in some kind of limited time warranty on the headgasket at the very least.

If I can get them to come down to a more reasonable price and perhaps throw in a warranty and maybe some free maintenance work for me I feel pretty comfortable getting involved in this truck. If they are not willing to work with me however I'll just walk away and plan to keep saving some more money while looking for a better buy. Regardless of the outcome the next step is taking it out for an inspection Wednesday afternoon. I'll let you guys know how things go from there.

Thanks again.

 

That sounds good. I hope things work out for you the way you want.

 

x2, I hope it works out for you. A couple of facts though. The 4Runner guys have been keeping track of 1GR-FE head gasket failures. Almost all have been 2004 to 2006. Which is equivalent to 2005 to 2006 Tacoma's. Almost all fail in the exact same spot. Between cylinders 5 and 6 the coolant starts seeping causing pitting on the head and eventually head gasket failure. 2007+ the problem is about non exstistant. Usually occurs between 135,000 to 160,000 miles.

As far as your buddy who said he has never seen this happen... I brought mine to a trusted dealership, my guy said the same thing, then ran a leak down all day. He said he detected no problems. I told him that a leak down test on the coolant side will not show a bad head gasket in these model 1GR-FE. He said, well how did you test it? I said, 175 psi through the spark plug hole, turned the crank to close the valves. He tried it....

Bubble city in coolant jug.

I wish you the best bro but have your buddy pull the spark plugs, scope the cylinders especially 5 and 6, look for them being abnormally cleaner than the other cylinders. I'd run pressure test through the spark plug hole.

**** If it idles remotely rough or you hear water swishing sound on cold start from under the dash, 100% do not buy it. **** At first start of failure, even though all the test say everything is good, if you have either of those symptoms, you have about 1 year Max before you start getting error code, misfire cylinder 6.

Not trying to scare you bro, this might be one of the good ones, just check it out thoroughly.

Best of luck, if you do buy it please post some pics and let's start the modding

 

Hey. Thanks for the info. I super appreciate it.

I dropped by the dealer today to give the truck a better once over with some of the things I've learned to look for and so far it seems to be very a very clean truck in good shape. I took it for a serious drive today giving it a good run for its money up and down the grade, 4x4, 4x4 low, the whole shebang. I also let it idle for a few mins both with the coolant cap off first and then putting it on and letting it warm up a hair and taking it off the check for any pressure. No bubbles or pressure that was noticeable. On startup and idle the engine idles clean and quite, no rattle, no shake, no ticking, hood closed you can barely hear anything. While driving pretty much the same thing, nice and quite and smooth. Not that any of this is very concrete on there being no issues, just my own semi-informed observations at the time.


As far as the info on the testing for leaks and that goes. Bring it on, glad to have somebody with experience with this stuff chiming in. I super appreciate the specifics on how the leaks start and how to test for them. I will definitely pass that on and see what I can find out.

Is it fairly common for these failures to happen slowly? By that I mean, do they begin slowly leaking a small amount for a period before failing? Or is it pretty common for them to go from absolutely no signs of any problem even when tested and then boom done?

 

Symptoms start very slowly. From very first minor symptoms, where you can't quite put your figure on it, but it just sounds/drives a little off, to where it gets bad enough to test for and/or throw error code, takes about a year. The leak, even at full blown, is almost undetectable. Like I said, I literally argued with a Toyota Master Tech, he said it was fine. Did pressure test, saw the bubbles. When the heads were pulled, leak was. EXACTLY where I said it was.