Maybe found a new Taco

Looking at this gen 2, but something is off on it. Truck was in an accident which carfax, wants to indicate was minor, and was rear end.

I won't go into depth on what all I checked, but the frame looked great, nothing unusual there. Suspension was all good, drove straight, braked straight, etc.

There's a few things that both me. There's some DIY work, but doesn't look like very much, I dislike buying anything that isn't shop serviced.

Here's the goofy things. Is a 2006, short bed, seems like the gap between the bed and cab is a lot larger than it should be. I'm going off memory from my gen 2 ACLB. Does anyone know what the gap should be?

Muffer / resonator in the middle is split at the seam, and upon startup (and before I noticed this, I heard valve noise, this was a COLD start up in winter though) it looks like oil, maybe coolant, dribbling out. 100% I would check the valves and HG before buying if I did. I see gasket maker on the valve covers, but looks like its just on the corners, not one of those egregious amount jobs where its half dripping down, maybe someone just put some on the bolt hole areas for extra luck. Not sure what factory recommends, some vehicles you are supposed to, some not. This is the v6.

It's 6 speed. Are manuals 6? I always thought they were 5?

Here's the oddity... front end, bumper is a bad repaint of a used bumper, grill, china sorta fit it's not OE, Now maybe.... the grill just broke (come to think of it, the hood latch cable was routed wrong, maybe someone broke the grill to pop the hood). Dunno, maybe it was in more of an accident.

I can find anything out about any car, so I'm starting on that now. I guess, whats the gap supposed to be between the bed and cab? I can search this too, but would a short bed fit on a long bed frame or vice versa? And yeah, 6 speed? I guess my last and only Taco was an auto, so I've never been in or driven a manual taco, I could just be wrong and assumed they were all 5s.

 

Look up the VIN. It will tell you a lot about the original configuration.

 

06? coolant possibly leaking, I'd get the head gasket pressure checked and coolant tested before I'd touch it. You don't want to dump another 5-10 grand into it right after you buy it for an engine or a head gasket job. If you even THINK it was slightly missing on a cold start up I'd be VERY leery.

 

In 2006, if a Tacoma came packed with a fat V6 under the hood, she was either gonna be 5 speed auto or 6 speed manual. The four bangers came with 5 speed manual.

 

Ah, maybe that's why I kept thinking it was weird, everything I would read on manual would have been in relation to a 4 banger.

Anyways, not buying the truck. It's been totaled at minimum twice, who knows what the real miles are on it. Went back to the dealer with the report I can get easily (I can get the real gritty stuff only auction and dealers get access to) and said it's been totaled at least two times, has been in multiple accidents, has multiple rebuild titles from different states, looks like this thing has just been getting passed around and around. However, it did run and drive well, I told them if they got sick of it sitting on their lot (red flag #1 was the first thing the guy said is it's been on the lot for weeks, and they are asking $14,500) I would be interested in buying it, but no where remotely close to 14.5

! Salvage--Damage or Not Specified 07/11/2017 NEBRASKA
! Rebuilt 10/13/2017 INDIANA
! Rebuilt 03/12/2018 ILLINOIS
! Rebuilt 11/15/2019 MINNESOTA

Look at the mileages on the PDF

Edit: Nvm I thought the odo changed from what they had listed on their site, I was wrong.



Edit: Sorry for the lots of edits, trying to format it better. I have several reports minus carfax (which I saw, and that indicated a rear end that was not at the time of the NE front end damage, I have another report somewhere showing yet another accident, but I can't find it and have head out now)

 

I would've of pass just from your lengthy initial post even without the autocheck report.

 

Price is too high for a vehicle with so many issues.

 

It drove fine, if someone offered to sell it to me for like $5k, I'd buy it. No way would I pay 14.5. Would be kind of a dick thing to do, maybe, but I felt like posting that on their facebook. Manager basically shut me down saying how carfax is what they go off, and if it's not on that report then it didn't happen or something to that extent.

Edit: I actually did. Since pre-totalling my Tacoma I had been car shopping, and the amount of literal blatant fraud is horrible. There's no way "it could have been missed". Every time I have brought up an issue to any sales person at a dealer I am always met with an excuse usually along the lines of how they don't have the time to basically check anything on the cars because that's a lot of work. Was literally told that after I bought a car, found each wheel was missing a lug bolt (was pretty snowy out, and silly me to assume a dealer of all places would put all the lug bolts back on), and only called to not even complain but just mention it since it would seem to me that could be some big liability if someone was to get into an accident because a wheel fell off or something (I know it wouldn't from missing one, but maybe next time one wheel is just hand tight, etc, is my train of thought). Oddly though, they aren't on the hook for anything.

 

They pulled the truck. Page is 404 now

https://www.rochesterford.com/used-Rochester-2006-Toyota-Tacoma-Base+V6+TRD+Sport-5TELU42N86Z260169