Buyer Beware:Bad Deal from Tacoma World Member

@DonkeyWork, are you mad at high truck repair costs or mad at the seller "salesmanship" or what he said and did during the "look over the truck" process.
this is a learning moment for sure. I hope you come out of this with a positive outlook and enjoy you Tacoma. There good trucks but far from perfect.

 

Shit, if I really got screwed..........I'd throw the seller under the bus and hoped it backed up

 

The mechanic I paid for the pre-sale inspection must've done a lousy job:He said, "It only has 50,000 miles on it. What could be wrong?"

 

Throwout bearing is a crazy common issue in manual Tacomas in 1st and 2nd gens. I don't think it's the seller's fault at all. Anyone that does even 2 minutes of research will see how common it is.
That had to be the bulk of that $7500 dealer bill because they have to drop the transmission to replace the bearing. And it will still make noise.

The rest sounds like normal wear and tear for an older truck despite the low mileage

 

Expect a PM in.....

 

@DonkeyWork per our PM, I'll reserve your right to keep that message private. But to respond, we have posts like this daily. If you feel the member in question is truly someone to be avoided, there's no legal reprimand for using another members username, even in a "bash thread". If its warranted, and you can provide evidence to support your claims against the member, I'll eat every word I said publicly, retract my statements about siding with them, and join forces with you and the rest of TW to ensure the member never scams again. Mods take REAL issues seriously around here, and many can testify to REAL SCAMS being rectified through threads like this. BUT, if you can't support the claims, the thread will turn into a dumpster fire, be locked and deleted, and nothing will ever come of it. So if you truly want to protect others, we're asking for details. There's also a "contact us" feature at the bottom of the site, and a thread to message mods directly if you feel more comfortable doing that. Otherwise, we wait and enjoy while we can

 

All normal stuff. The seller likely didn't know the lower control arms were bad or that the throwout bearing needed to be replaced. You couldn't feel those issues on the test drive??

 

I went on Reddit and found a recommendation for two local Toyota shops, and they are great. I would never go to a dealership for that money when a local shop can do the job, probably for less.

 

I'm squarely in camp "its a 14 year old truck, you roll the dice and get what you get."

 

Who takes Vehicles out of warranty to a dealer? On my first gen I had a local shop do a clutch/throwout bearing for under $500 bucks.

 

A 14 year old truck is a 14 year old truck. Those issues are extremely common. While I wouldn't recommend the dealership if repair costs are a concern, I certainly wouldn't recommend that mechanic who basically let you go into this blind by not doing their job. Ball joints are extremely easy to test for play and very common to need replacement on this truck, throwout bearing issue is common and easy to detect and very common to need replacement on this truck. That mechanic should've told you. That pre-purchase inspection was worthless, and "what could a 50k truck possibly need" is a terrible answer. It's not the seller's job to tell you about wear items, that's on you when you're shopping for a used vehicle. If the seller told you that these issues had already been corrected, or if they're hiding major problems, or if the dealership found something like a crankcase full of Lucas Oil, that's something else different entirely.

To your last question, these are very reliable and you just happened to hit the two most common issues. Check for frame rust especially where the rear shocks mount to the frame. That's pretty much the gamut for 2nd gen Tacoma issues lol

Also, I'd be just as concerned with a truck that has abnormally low miles. Check the fuel system, lines/hoses, engine/transmission leaks, see if the tires are dry rotted, check the brake lines. A good thorough tuneup might be in order because even though it may have been serviced not too many miles ago, if so many years have passed it's a good idea to do it again.

 

Well it's a good thing the OP didn't buy a used Ford because then he would have something to really moan about.

 

At least it would've been cheap!

 

14 year old truck needs maintenance despite low mileage?

 

hahaha

 

yup. If he'd found out the truck had been run hard while overheating or went 20,000+ miles on one oil change and now needed major repair then I could definitely understand feeling cheated. But as it is this just sounds like normal age-related maintenance combined with a well-known manual trans Tacoma issue.