97 6cyl4x4 w/ 300k miles

Coworker is selling this truck for $4,000. It is clean and has a cattleguard, aftermarket tires, and bigger off road tires which look new. little over 300k miles. says he has done all the maintenance since he bought it in 2001. wouldn't be posting this if it was a 5spd manual, but it is an auto. Do you guys thing this is a fair price? I really wanted a 4cyl 5spd, but I expected to pay 4k for that and I'm getting a 6cyl 4x4 for the same price.

it is an extended cab green which is exactly how I wanted it. didn't care about a v6 4x4, but here it is... I'm in the south so no rust.

 

how much bigger are those tires and when did he put those on...he might have more than 300k on it because of that

 

if hes selling it for 4, waive 3500 infront of his face, and i would do it.

for what its worth, i got a 97 tacoma 4 cyl 5spd manual 4x4 with a camper shell 134k miles for 4.5k. i feel i got a good deal on it.

 

I would pay no more than 3K for that truck.

 

If I saw a truck like that I would've snagged it at that price as well. Pretty much any 4cy 5spd 4x4 in Texas is going to sell for $6k regardless of mileage. With miles like that closer to 8k. I bought my 4cy 5spd 2wd with 70k for $5400.

 

alright. I went and test drove it.

Pros:
Paint is in good shape
Tires are practically new and carry a warranty
Both front c/v joints are new and are under warranty (along w/ tie rods and what not)
Shocks are aftermarket and fairly new
Newer radio and speakers all around
Aftermarket Viper keyless entry/alarm
4WD works and he put new royal purple gear oil in the xfer case.
new exhaust was installed in the last 3 years (it is really loud...)
New coil packs all around (one went bad and he replaced them all)
Mostly highway miles (he lives about 50 miles from where we work and he goes out of town a lot).

Cons:
A/c isn't cold
Windshield has a crack on the passenger side
He put a bead of sealant across the top of windshield due to a leak and it looks tacky
Valve cover gasket is shot
Transmission takes about 2-3 seconds to go into gear (this seems normal for older toyotas from my experience?)
Tach doesn't read RPMs, but mileage is fairly accurate (although the needle bobs up and down a little)
CEL reading o2 sensor or oxygen sensor, maybe due to the excessive oil on the heat shield?
spare tire is the ORIGINAL from 1997. It is starting to dry rot. Holds air still surprisingly.

I told him the most I'd pay is $3000 and he said that was fine. Not sure if I want to buy it or not. Is it worth it to fix up at this point? The body is great and the paint is still good except on the hood where the engine gets hot. I can live without a/c until next summer. At least the power windows work good. The valve cover gasket is a must fix and I am confident I can do that in an hour or two.

 

I would do it if you can do the repairs yourself, but then again I enjoy projects

 

Btw I have 250k miles and it runs amazing, but I'm putting a new motor in just because I'm putting a sc in

 

So you think even with an auto trans at 300k i should pull the trigger at 3k? I have 4k so I have about 1k to put into repairs.

 

Ohhhh thought I read it was a 5spd ..whoops....umm idk I love my 5spd and could never give it up for the auto

 

with all of the things wrong that you said..... 2500.... no more.

 

I'll see what I can do, but I may go ahead and do $3000 for it. I'm going to test drive it again on sunday and make the decision.

Here is the AutoCheck mileage history:

97 - 25 miles
00 - 24k (repo'd first owner)
02 - 54k (bought by current owner?)
03 - 62k
04 - 91k
05 - 116k
06 - 153k
07 - 183k
08 - 208k
09 - 234k
10 - 252k
11 - 267k
12 - 285k
13 - 298k
15 - 309k

 

300k, with that list of repairs, especially no cold a/c in Texas, i wouldnt go over $3k

 

Tranny not shifting quickly would be a red flag for me. That tells you that there is definitely something wrong and if the transmission is going out, that will double your investment.

 

So is this not normal? I recall my other tacoma taking a second or two before it would start moving when you shifted into drive as well so I figured it wasn't an issue. seems to drive fine

 

I don't have any experience with a tacoma taking longer to shift into drive. I did own a ford ranger that developed a delay when going from park to drive. Eventually it got to the point where it would not shift at all, which resulting in a complete transmission rebuild ($3k). I think any delay in shifting for an auto transmission is bad news.

 

Buy a used tranny for a couple hundred

 

that'll probably be the route I go if it does crap out. Thankfully this is just a side car for home improvement and maybe going fishing or helping friends move. don't plan to daily drive it any time soon.

 

Wanna Trade? LOL!