TRUCK SCAM, ANY HELP OR ADVICE!!!????

I would agree that you should consult a lawyer. I think it's Total Garbage that you paid a garage to look at the vehicle and they told you it was OK. What did they put in writing? IMO I wouldn't buy a vehicle without using an escrow service.

Sorry OP

 

I am going to have to agree 100% here. He is 100% correct. A glued together grill, couple dents are not "major damage" by any means. Cheap and shoddy repairs, sure. But not major damage. Major damage would be bent frame resulting in driveablilty issues, majorly tweaked components, etc. If you take it to a dealership body shop or nice body shop, it doesn't take much to add up to $4000 in repairs. Even just replacing a front bumper cover on a car, painting, and blending with the fenders and hood can be about a thousand dollars for a simple "oops" in a parking lot. A headlight for some cars (sienna or avalon for example) can be over $1000, plus labor. Add this to the bumper cover, and we're at 2k right off the bat.

Now if you have a dent like you say, the body shop is going to grind it, weld a tab to it to pull the dent, make it straight, and then have to refinish the panel to cover the dent removal. Depending on the dent, this can be a thousand dollars on its own.

For your truck a new grille is about $250. As he said above, a buy-here, pay-here place probably bought it from an auction and saw the broken grille upon arrival. Figured, 250 for a grill, or free to glue it back together. They want to keep things as cheap as humanly possible, so you know their solution.

Body work is not cheap. For 12k if it runs good and has no major mechanical issues, you got a hell of a deal. It wouldn't pass a Toyota Certified inspection due to any kind of body work being done, however at our dealership, as it sits with a basic mechanical inspection, would easily sell for 17-18k as it sits.

I work at a dealership, and fortunately do have enough experience to know what I would need to look for. However, I would have to chalk this one up to a "lesson learned" category. I would NEVER buy a vehicle without looking at it first, unless it were some kind of $500 daily driver beater car that you really don't care about, so long as it runs from point a to point b. And at that point, for $500 who cares. A junkyard would pay close to that in scrap metal if it were a total pile...

I really think you are nitpicking every little thing. If you want to nitpick like that, then spend the $30k that truck costs new, and buy a new one. We make a ton of money off people like you that complain about little squeaks, rattles, and other silly adjustments. If you buy a brand new truck, you have more of a reason to be "particular". But get real here, this is 4 years old, and obviously a HARD 4 years (with over 90k miles)... that's almost 25,000 miles per year, and who knows how long it sat on various used car lots during those 4 years. And you got a good deal on it. Even after the body work you claim, you're about breaking even with what it's worth.

Stop being so picky and either drive it like it is and enjoy the deal you got, or fix it and enjoy not getting totally screwed. but rather breaking even.