Fair price?

Hi Folks,

Sadly, my '96 Taco has seen its last mile. At least with me. It has a blown head gasket at 260K miles, and with a commute to get to work it's time to look at something newer. My mechanic offered to buy it for $700. Does anyone have an idea whether or not this is a fair price? KBB for fair condition is between $1200-1300. But with it not running, I'm not sure what's fair.

Thanks,
Starr

 

yes I think that is fair for an engine with blown head gasket and the uncertainty if the head is even still good and with those miles I wouldn't put any money into it.

$700 isn't bad for it assuming you don't have to pay him for the time he spent finding the problem and in that case the $700 is very fair figuring he "would have" charged you about $200 for finding the bad head gasket so in reality your getting $900 for it.

if it were me I would just keep it and put a salvage yard running engine in it which you could do for under $1000 but I love first gen Tacoma and it depends on the condition of the truck being very nice.

 

With no engine it's worth more than $1200. Think why you never see these in pick-a-parts. What it is worth depends a lot on your location.

 

If you have a mechanic enough said sell them the truck and be done.

If you could do your own engine swap and not need to pay labor it is a different story.

Time to move on to something newer .

 

Seems a little low, but not far. I'd think 1k if the rest is in decent shape. However if you like the truck enough it's probably cheaper to put in a rebuilt engine. I have an uncle with an old Dakota that's on its third engine. Not the same as a tacoma but for him its still cheaper than getting something new(er).