Help judging a Tacoma frame to buy it

Hello!

I am a new member and so happy to find your forum! My 1996 Tacoma just died (according to my mechanics) and I am looking for another one. I have very little money and can manage $12,000 or a little more.

I have located one in a nearby state which is a 2010 with 57,000 miles on it for $12,000. That sounds promising to me. I am not an auto mechanic but I m somewhat mechanical. Can I prepare myself to go there and look at it and make my own decision whether to buy it on that day? They will put it on a lift for me to look under it.

The lot owner will not let me take the truck to another shop to be examined by a pro. I would have to be able to decide for myself and also have the money ($2000 down and $10,000 loan) that day, take the rental car in and drive the Tacoma home with me. The boss of this lot says they did a bunch of work on it, including a "frame fabrication." I know frame rust is maybe the major threat that I have to look at. Is it reasonable that he did this? Does that mean he replaced the entire frame? What do I look at in particular?

Am I crazy to think I can do this?

I do have a related problem. In order to have the money that day I would have to start the process of pre-qualifying now or tomorrow. I was hoping to go there and do all this on Friday, but I think it might take a whole day to get the loan. I understand starting this process this dings your credit score badly. I would rather wait to start this until I was sure I was buying the truck, but the owner might sell it out from under me. He has the right to. I offered him earnest money to hold it for me but he won't do that.

So: 1) could I judge this truck thoroughly enough by myself to justify buying it? I am focusing on the frame; I figure if I can get a good frame the rest can be handled.

And: 2) am I handling the finances properly or is there something I am missing? Is it even possible for me to do this rapidly so as not to spend two days there or to lose the truck?

I appreciate any answers you can give me, and I definitely appreciate having this powerful forum to learn from.

 

That should tell you all you need to know.

Stay away. Far away from that dealer and that truck.

 

When I questioned that he justified it by saying he had let someone take one to another shop and the lugs had not been tightened sufficiently and the wheel got wrecked.

Thank you for this reply. This was my wife's first reaction but I didn't know if this was common in the industry. Your answer helps.

So I guess this answers my main question, which was whether I can prepare to make the decision about a frame without professional help. Looks like I must get help, as I am inexperienced.

 

Ok....

The best spots to look for rust are on the inner side of the frame right below the convertors.
The up over the passenger side rear wheel by the exhaust.
And also the cab mount corners in the front.

Anyways.....I'd stay away from any truck that had "frame fabrication" done to it.

 

Actually I am a bit dubious about the stats of this truck. A 2010 with only 57,000 miles on it but requires a frame fabrication? And then you are not allowed to take it to a professional? Sounds a bit strange to me.

 

Thank you for that enlightening contribution! This forum is doing what I hoped it would do!

 

Don’t walk run away from that, I would never trust someone that would not let a third party look it over. This guy found a good excuse and he’s using it, don’t fall for it.

 

To be specific he would not let me take the truck to another shop. He did not say if I brought someone they could not look at it.

 

It's a waste of time even playing devil's advocate that it might be a hidden gem. Forget about it and the search goes on...

 

Yes 100 percent move on
Guaranteed frame fabrication / is fixing a rust situation
Also 12 k for a truck with 57 k miles seems sketchy. Usually that low mileage and being a Tacoma ( if truly a clean truck is too inexpensive. One thing to look at also a suggestion , if your willing to take out a loan maybe a newer truck is the way to go . Sometimes the interest rates are better and a longer term the monthly payment could be closer than you think

 

I would walk away. The fact that they don’t want anyone else looking at it is enough for me. The really low mileage makes me nervous too. Both my nephews have really clean mid 2000s Toyota Tundras that picked up in Northern California for well under 10k each.

 

what is the issue with your '96 Taco
what happened?

 

the 96 is sitting in my driveway. my mechanics, who have done me pretty well for over 5 years, tell me the frame is shot, that i would be wasting my time to work on it. it also needs body work -- a new grill and new back bumper. has rust elsewhere on body. the spare tire rack had rotted out so the spare is in the bed of the truck. just months ago they had said the truck was strong, but they had not looked at the frame. recently i was hearing a bad rubbing sound and feeling a vibration at 60+ mph and took it to them for this. that's when they told me about the frame and told me not to waste money working on it.

 

but i am still troubling over the question of getting another. there are a number near here for under $16,000 which would give me a monthly payment that i could afford. i can't take all of these to another shop. any suggestions how to narrow down the possibilities? one way might be to eliminate any which had been used for business (not personal) uses, and to concentrate to any that had only one owner. but some of the decent-sounding ones had multiple owners. i am trying to get as low a mileage as i can, but realistic figures, not unbelievably low. but at this point i get foggy. there is a dealer of chevies and caddies in ann arbor near here that has several possibilities. should i just go there and start getting under them and trying to assess their frames? the people there are quite pushy, calling me day and night. i assume they would let me take their trucks to another shop or dealership, but i can't be taking 4 of them, me without a vehicle to drive and this lot being 40 miles away and my wife working daily during the week, using the car. i'm not sure how to eliminate some of the candidates. as i said i am eliminating any that have been used for business purposes. i will eliminate any that have a tow hitch that is badly worn. i wonder about eliminate any that have had accidents (tho most seem to have had some). and i also wonder if i should eliminate any that have been driven for years is areas that use salt on the roads (tho that will eliminate any from this area). anyone got any suggestions?

 

Things like this are daunting sometimes. The place that has a few of them maybe go there and see how they look on the outside . Look at the frame ( one or all could have been treated ) , which means they could be in good shape . Look for glaring leaks . Then Look at the interior and how beat up it is . That’s a sign of how it was taken care of . When I say look I mean door panel scratches , brake pedal rubber , steering wheel , console compartment, glove box . Then open the hood. I hate to say it here but mostly stock is good. Is the power steering fluid filthy , is the brake fluid filthy , air filter . This will tell you if it was neglected usually . Look at the tires and see how they are wearing , if they are fairly even in the front that’s good . While down there glance at the rear shocks for no leaks on them , and front units also . Mileage is important , but not a game changer . I assume based on price you said you are looking at maybe a 2010- 2015 model ? If so both motors are very stout and can easily run to 3-400 k . As far as accidents all you can do is get a fax report , most vehicles that age will have had something along the way , but as long as it wasn’t anything major you should be ok . Again really look around on the outside to see if something don’t look right, and not to beat a dead horse Frame ,Frame , frame. There will be some rust bit it needs to be solid .

 

Thanks much. Am going to the lot today.

 

i visited a dealership today and am going back on monday. their truck was not there, but it sounds very attractive: they had just gotten it, i can't remember the year but it had 72,000 miles on it for $11,000, had been owned by a man and sold to his daughter, they claim it is in very good shape. will see it monday. it is a single cab, stick shift (which i love). i have to see it but it sounds very good.

then i went to see a 2003, single cab, stick shift at another dealer closer to here. 102,000 miles, $9,000, single owner, no history of accidents, personal use only. i got to see it, could find only a speck of rust on outside. it has an open bed and i could not see the steel under the bed cover, but the heads of the bolts holding it down were rusting slightly. engine compartment all looked good, no leaks anywhere, power steering fluid low. very nice inside the cab, little wear except a broken button on the right side of the dash, ac blowing warm air. little wear on seats and floor. generally quite good. the tires were very good and worn evenly. no tow hitch at all.

i got under it and saw no leaks whatsoever of any fluids. the leaf springs had double clasps, they were not rusted. saw little rust EXCEPT the rails had a lot of rust along the area between the front and back wheels. i was peeling it off and scraping it so it fell off. aside from the holes that came with the rails there were three others made by the rust, one on the left side about two feet in front of the rear wheel which was the size of a 50 cent piece, and two other very small ones the size of peas. i banged a hammer on the outside of the rails all the way from bend to bend with a hammer and the sounds were firm dings. but there were a lot of flakes and i could knock a lot loose with my finger nails. there were no leaks of anything from the shocks nor were they rusted. there was little other rust along the sides of the bottom of the vehicle. i did not go under the front or back.

we took it for a drive. it was very, very smooth over the bumps and the shift was smooth. my wife and i are accustomed to my old 96 and this was a dreamy glide in comparison. it started quickly. i can't comment on the kind of sound it made as i don't know what is good or bad, but there was no whine. our drive was on city streets so we did not accelerate hard but i could feel some pep even there. no bad wear on brake pedal or clutch pedal or accelerator pedal. little wear on cab floors. found only maybe a fleck of rust on the back lower edge of the cab where the door opens by the driver; none on the passenger side. there were some scuffs on the paint on the left front fender and a couple of tiny gashes in the paint (without rust) but otherwise the exterior was perfect.

i have been sort of approved for a $20,000 loan from chase, my bank, but i think it is dependent on a high assessment of my house, which i will not get even tho my house is well worth over $100,00, were it not for blighted houses nearby selling for almost nothing. so i am worried about getting enough to buy either of these.

if the first one proves to have less rust than the second and if i get enough $$$ i will get it.

if chase does not give me enough $$$ maybe one of these dealers will finance me.

it the number one does not work out, can anyone give me an opinion on the rust on the second? should i be scared to even buy it, or does it sound like it will give me a lot of years?

the first one sounds really good, the second is quite good but i am worried about the rust.

thank you all for the help you have given me so far. i just hope i can settle down with something solid. i got lucky to run up on two stick shift trucks. i hope my luck holds.

 

california is not ann arbor. this is like comparing america to north korea.

a $10k california truck is easily worth $25k in michigan. same with arizona.

i would genuinely suggest looking beyond toyota's. ford rangers are just as durable, but don't have any of the prestige that toyota's carry, so their general price points reflect that. most can be had for under $6k, more typically closer to $3k.

i also don't like the situation you're in, being an ann arbor. most of what us in the snow belt call 'good' for vehicles, is far from good for the starry-eyed non-snow-belt people on the forum. but that's the snow belt. either buy newer and be more in debt, or buy older, and deal with more problems with less immediate debt, but also lesser reliability.

not really. the main goal should be to locate something with proper maintenance. not who or how many owned it. single owner vehicles are unicorns, and i don't get the impression that you have the time to be chasing unicorns... also, business-owned really doesn't mean anything. in my area, the only companies that run tacoma's are the utility marking outfits, and pest control companies. neither of which are heavy use.

as i'm sure you know, a truck that only has 40,000 miles, but sits around in this area, will end up having the same rot problems as a truck that has 250k miles. the focus should be on how the previous owners maintained it, not how many. service records are a huge plus, but crawling under and looking for shinier parts is just the same as well. any dealer isn't going to do much with passing on service records, i also don't particularly trust their stories of vehicles pasts. i believe most of those are made up to reassure potential buyers to buy now.

basically.

are you also checking facebook marketplace? if you've got the finances worked out, buying from a private seller can get you slightly more truck for the money, and also has the benefit of getting to judge the previous owner. plenty of good people just trying to offload vehicles that have been well-taken care of with lots of service records.

but that said, i generally don't give dealers my contact information, specifically for the reasons you found. if a dealer has a vehicle i'm interested in, i take the time(i don't have) and show up in person, and no information outside of their business card, and a greeting with first names, changes hands until i'm comfortable purchasing the vehicle, most of which, i'm not.

i think this is a distraction. the tacoma is not a 1-ton, so it's not set up for long distance corporate towing. anyone that has one, at best, can use it to haul light duty lawn equipment or similar. your focus should be less how the previous owner used it, and more how they kept up on keeping it running correctly. either by replacing parts that failed, or maintained it to the owners manual service recommendations.

with vehicles this age, accident history is a coin-flip. i've now owned two different vehicles now that i specifically bought because the accident history was clean, but taking it to a body shop for other accessory work, the techs were able to easily identify previous undocumented body work on both. fortunately, both received a clean bill of health from the techs, that both repairs were done correctly, but a lot of undocumented work is done by people that really shouldn't be doing it.

in a lot of ways, i'd prefer to look at a vehicle that has a documented accident than to make my same mistake again and look only for vehicles that are 'accident free' but with undocumented damage that weren't repaired correctly.

just ask your wife-- if she had been looking for a problem-free husband, would she still have picked you?!? sometimes the problems we're willing to deal with would be considered problematic for anyone else! i don't know a single human that's made it more than 30 years without a bump or scratch, and i don't think it's fair to only assume that our vehicles will make it just as long without similar effects.

the main thing about accident history is to use that information to know where the damage effected, and to be sure to look that area over for signs of a problem repair-- bad/different colors, welds that resemble bubble gum, or parts that clearly don't fit correctly, or have wear signs of moving when they shouldn't(rings from bolts fastening down, or oval holes from the bolts banging against things and re-shaping the metal). if everything was repaired correctly, and the damage was minor, accident history shouldn't matter, and as a buyer, you're overall better for it, with getting slightly newer parts for 'free'.

the age old problem. my last truck, i got fixated on the low mileage as well. ended up buying a lower mileage ranger off marketplace from a guy that it mostly sat around his yard, evident by the moss growing on the rear window. one minute he told me he never towed, the next, he only used it to tow snow mobiles up to wisconsin. a tow ball was stuck in the receiver. i never had a single mechanical-related issue with the truck in my time outside of normal maintenance items, but the bed from sitting in illinois turned into this


the options really are, either expand your search area to area's without snow, raise your price point, or be willing to accept something that doesn't meet another parameter.

 

thanks for the above. but you were commenting on an earlier post of mine. since then i have been dealing with two tacomas, and my latest-above post raises the question of whether my examination of the frame of the last one that i have seen says anything significant. (obviously i am not a mechanic.)

i have stopped trying to find something from a no-salt area. i am not in ann arbor but in inner city detroit (where, strangely, the driving is more restful than in ann arbor, where you spend what seems like hours waiting for red lights to change). i see your points about accident history (i thought of the unreported angle myself) and use for business purposes (good point) and about how rust works whether or not the vehicle is moving. also about the question of one owner. my last post above, i think, shows some attention to how that vehicle was treated and maintained.

right now, today if possible, i need to get a good idea of whether to abandon the second truck mentioned above, at lafontaine in dearborn, due to a certain amount of rust on the frame. is that rust a deal-breaker, or am i likely to get that no matter what tacoma i find?

i like your recommendation of a ranger, as i am fearing that i will face a problem getting the money i am "pre-qualified" for and need for a tacoma. i am attached to tacomas for durability, but your point about the ford's durability is eye-opening for me.

if anyone is able to comment today, i would appreciate a view on my inspection of the second tacoma in my last previous post above.

and thank you, soundman, for spending the time to help me. you guys are great!

 

so a really quick summary for my own reference.

a truck you haven't laid eye's on is $11k with 72k miles. it's a stickshift, that you'd like, but condition is only salesman-verbal-nice (it reminds me of that scene in transformers when bernie mac was a used car lot salesperson), which could go either way...

second truck is $9k, with 109k miles, but automatic, and sounds like it has typical rust for a vehicle of that age/mileage for the area.

for me, it would really hinge on how far better the $11k is. is it $2k better? it sounds like it has the transmission you'd prefer, which is a plus, but it's condition is largely unknown at the moment. assuming the dealer isn't lying, it might be worth holding out for.

and being that you're going through a dealer, they generally don't like outside financing-- be open to using their financing options, but be aware of the numbers being moved around. in many cases, they'll be more willing to haggle the up front vehicle price for the anticipated interest they'd get from the loan. but that only works if your finances are in a spot to pay it off fast later on--running the loan out to it's end date would mean paying the full interest terms, and they'd make back the price reduction. important here is that we're still talking about 15-20 year old trucks. they're all going to break--absolutely no one repairs/maintains a vehicle only to sell it. any of the vehicles
discussed here will likely need a battery/brakes/tires in the first 2 years.

some of it just plain comes down to your financial situation. i'd much rather owe $7k to anyone than $9k, and all things considered you need 4 wheels pretty quickly. but it also doesn't pay to jump on the $9k deal if it's less reliable than the $11k deal.

but then there's the counterpoint: $2k, no financing, single cab, stick shift, 130k miles. it's the flareside, so least desirable bed, but generally cheaper because of it.

there's also this automatic truck with a standard bed, and looks like a grandpa's truck that's been well maintained for the same price/mileage, but an issue with overdrive when hot(mostly going to be an issue with highway driving, though ford says to tow with overdrive off, and the transmission is a little peppier with it off, just a decrease in the already-poor mpg). or this for $1800, no speedo, engine replacement, automatic, but mostly clean there's a few others as well, just depends on your personal tolerance for used vehicles and dealing with people.

this being a dealer, you might even be able to haggle down some--the extended cab gives a lot more leg room, which i tend to prefer over the single cabs: personally speaking, the picture i posted above of the rotted out bed was from my old ranger. i originally wanted a tacoma as well in 2017. but general life in 2017 meant that finances had to be dedicated to more mature things than a shiny new pickup. i ran the ranger for a few years, repaired what was needed as i needed to, and set myself up for the tacoma later on, then sold off the ranger during the pandemic price spike, and used that money as the down payment. long term, it put me in a lot better financial situation than i could've been if i had forced the vehicle loan in 2017 with a lesser down payment, higher truck cost, but what i really wanted.

fortunately, rangers are hitting the bottom of their depreciation curve, so as long as they can be maintained to the same level of functionality they're purchased for, they can be resold for almost difference in price.

so it's worth considering trying to use a $2k ranger for a few years, stack some savings away, and when you're ready, pull the trigger on what you really want instead.