A 2008 Tacoma for $3K

Not a car guy at all. I've driven a 2015 Mazda3 since I bought it new 5 years ago. I had the dealership do all my maintenance. But after remodeling two homes, maaaaan, I started to need a truck real bad. I couldn't keep asking to borrow my brother's all the time.

So there I was shopping for used Silverados. I was looking $5,000 and under because this would be a second vehicle to haul stuff. Complete crap out there, let me tell ya.

Then my bro calls me up about a Tacoma. He's always wheelin' and dealin' (he's 28 and has had over 50 vehicles since he started driving). He had a friend who had parked his 2008 Tacoma a few weeks ago after something wonky happened with the fuel gauge. He said it smelled of gas bad and lost a quarter tank in the 12 miles home.

I'd thought about Tacomas. They were just out of my price range! But this guy was willing to give my bro the friends and family discount. He'd take between $3,000-$4,000 he said. It's a 2008 Tacoma regular cab all stock 2.7L 4-cylinder 4x2 with no mods. Two owners with 140,000 miles. The first 110,000 miles it was used as a meter reader truck. No problems with it whatsoever aside from the fuel. I ended up getting it for $3,000 because he didn't have time to fix it and wanted it gone ASAP. What a steal for a little reliable gas saver.

I leaked half a tank of gas driving 11.3 miles home. I had to leave the windows down in the freezing cold. I had a gas can with me but the empty light came on five minutes out and we made it.

Now I don't know much about cars but I figured I'd take a look before heading to the mechanic. I opened it up the next day in the daylight and under the hood, right there heading into the fuel injectors, one of the two fuel lines was totally dry rotted, torn in two, and spewing fuel everywhere in the engine bay and underneath. My dad was surprised I didn't go up in flames on the way over.

$15, five minutes, and a 1ft length of hose later, it was fixed.

I don't know much about Tacomas, but I'm pretty sure it doesn't get cheaper than $3,000 for a 2008 with 140K miles. So I thought I'd share my story.

Looking forward to tinkering with this little truck. My wife has big plans for me, the truck, and Facebook Marketplace's furniture section.

I'd like to put some taller tires on it, replace the stock steels, add seat covers, upgrade the lights, maybe some mods in the dash, idk yet. If you want to give me some ideas I'd appreciate any inspiration! From what I can tell from this forum, people call it a 5-lug if that helps.

 

Welcome to TacomaWorld

 

jump on that deal. the only "issue" I have with regular cabs is the seat doesnt tilt back far enough for my comfort on trips longer than an hour...

 

Welcome. And great deal

 

Nice find, buy and fix.

Suggest to run all the high mileage maintenance. Fluid changes, sparkplugs, serp belt, MAF, throttle body........ While doing this work, keep your eyes open for additional maintenance that is needed. Get the truck to a state of KNOWN maintenance.

If the PO wasn't able to diagnose and repair an obvious problem, then what else is needing attention.

 

Great tip! I'm wired the same way. I want to KNOW the cheaper maint was done so I can keep this thing running 300K+

 

Welcome to TW

 

Welcome to TW!

 

Welcome to TW!

 

Welcome to TW!

My first investment would be to give every rubber item a good look. Every fuel line, brake line, coolant hose, belts, etc. Would also take the time to look at your suspension bushings for play. Hopefully that ruptured fuel line was just an isolated failure. That dry rotted fuel line would scare me into looking at absolutely everything.

It goes without saying, but I would change all of the fluids and filters, tune up items, etc. Reset all of the maintenance to "zero."