Got my first Tacoma... but did I make a mistake?

I just posted elsewhere about a cruise control issue I'm having, but have a more general question.

I bought my truck from a small used-car lot, which CarFax shows they recently purchased from a bigger Toyota dealership not far away after they had it for a very brief time (which seems odd to me, as they had another one for sale that sold off their lot immediately).

The truck drove fine and looked pretty good (I've seen some Tacomas with horrible frame rot), and I've been looking for this specific version (less than 10 years old, low miles, Access Cab TRD Off-Road) for awhile so I jumped on it without having it looked at first by a mechanic. It's been fine for the month or so I've had it, except for some creaking at stops that I can feel coming up through the driver's side floorboard.

But the longer I have it, the more I notice one annoying quirk: a lot of fasteners on the truck are missing.

The first ones I noticed were the fasteners that are supposed to hold one of the front protective panels to the underside of the body, immediately below the bumper.

Then I noticed that the fasteners that are supposed to come up through the carpet and secure the floormats to the carpet, to prevent them from moving around, aren't there.

Then yesterday I noticed that the screws on the underside of the dashboard, just above the speedo/tach, aren't there either.

Now I can't help but wonder if this vehicle was in some major trouble at some point and poorly reassembled.

FWIW, it had only one owner before the two dealerships, and they bought it in Quebec. The manual and stickers are all in French. There's some surface rust on the frame, but overall the vehicle looks like it has fewer than the 88,000 miles shown on the odometer.

I assume the best answer to this is, "Take it to a dealer to have it inspected," but I was wondering if anyone else has had similar experience. I've heard horror stories about CarFax-clean vehicles that were in a bad state and put back together under the radar. The only other car I've had with so many missing fasteners was a salvage vehicle that I knew was in less-than-prime condition when I bought it. Just hoping I didn't get screwed on this one.

 

1. Front skid comes off to drain oil and do all kinds of routine stuff etc so very common people lose those bolts.

2. The floor mat fasteners just pop in and come lose really easy.

3. That dash panel comes off to do just about anything IE: alarm, stereo, run power for accessories or swictches etc

All super common things you should not worry about, just replace them.

 

Thanks for your quick, helpful reply! That all makes sense. On my last vehicle, the floormat fasteners seemed solidly stuck to the frame, so this is good to hear.