Need help with buying a first gen

Found a first gen that meets all the criteria I want…but it leaves me with questions. Past 2018 there is 0 zilch nothing on carfax, not even registration. Milage in 2018 was only 100 miles off what it currently is. Has standard 20yo truck issues. Has cobwebs under the dash and what looks like where mice had stuffed grass in various places and mud daubers nests on the engine.

has three pending evap codes and not enough miles to set off the cel yet so the dealer is letting me add some road time to it tomorrow

but it leaves me pondering…why did it just sit for 6 years?? Any insight? Vin is
2004 TOYOTA TACOMA V6
VIN: 5TEWN72N54Z346953

 

I don't think anyone on here is going to be able to read the owner's mind and tell you what went on with the truck since 2018. The 35k mile gap between oil changes jumps out to me (but maybe he had them done at a shop that doesn't bother with Carfax or DIY'ed them in between).

It clearly sat for years based on all the info you have shared. Now you're just gonna have to thoroughly inspect, road test, question the owner and then weigh out if you think it's worth the risk.

If you're not super-mechanically inclined this might be a truck that really is worth getting professionally inspected, given the huge litany of issues sitting for years can cause.

 

Before that jump it was about every 6k miles, and that jump coincided with him moving to a new area.

I ran it by my mechanic. What jumped out to him was typical things, rusty calipers, timing belt and valve cover leak were the two biggies, shifts great, didn’t overheat. Looked to be a scum line in the bed, but checking other areas it didn’t appear to be a flood vehicle.

I guess it throws me off how someone can just let a truck sit for so long and do nothing to it

 

Did your mechanic speak to the evap codes at all? Wondering if those or some other gremlin (that's yet to rear it's ugly head) caused the owner to let it sit. Sometimes tricky to diagnose items cause people to let things sit

 

He said they were pending, so he couldn’t yet pull them. I have a 80 mile round trip excursion I need to take tomorrow that’s mostly highway. I’m going to do it in this truck so maybe any issues will rear its head. I also noticed the exhaust looks new from the headers to the muffler (and I can tell where someone cut off one of the bolts and nicked it) and it’s had “half a tune up” because the plug wires don’t match, so it could have been someone chasing a code now that you mention it

 

When a vehicle get's parked for an extended period it's typically 1 of 2 reasons:

1: It had a problem that needed to be addressed but they didn't want to, couldn't, and/or couldn't afford to fix it or the repairs would have exceeded the value of the vehicle.

2: It belonged to someone that became disabled/could no longer drive or passed and it was parked/forgotten about.

 

Well best of luck. At least the owner seems to be reasonable. Hope the drive is uneventful and you score a good truck out of the deal

 

Surprised again it worked

fireturk
Google that vin#
Sold 5/24/24 for $5950

 

Yea you can often find out alot about a vehicle's history just by dropping the VIN into google.

 

And here I bought my truck without even caring about a carfax. Still running great after all the abuse I've given it.

@OP did you ever consider that the owner(s) have decided to do the work themselves? All home maintenance and repairs will never appear on a carfax.

 

It only has 100 miles put on it since 2018 was the red flag

also sounds a lil rough in the video from auction but is quiet now…
https://youtube.com/shorts/6zdcGq8kVk0?si=a6qAil2ax8YH3dwj

 

Depends on the price and how much effort you want to put into it. You could pay $15k for a truck that's all sorted and nice, or you could pay $6k for a bunch of unknowns. Only you can make that decision for your wallet and your time.

 

Good point, this one is priced kind of in the middle. I am going to ask what work they had put into it, if any and try to factor it in my price. Also the long highway commute today will hopefully expose any issues

 

So I bought the truck and think I found why it may have been parked for so long. No records past 2018, at auction the truck sounded like it ran like crap. Tore into the timing belt and found it’s been changed in 2020. So I suspect the motor may have been replaced by the dealer I bought it from. Is there any way to cross reference engine serial number with a vin to see how many miles the engine has to it?

 

I would do compression test.....leak down test
and maybe even test the coolant with a combustion tester

that way you'd get a round robin of the most important life indicators

valves/rings/head gasket



probably no.1 reason these sit for months/years is failing head gasket.
When they price that job they put it off...

If they continue to drive it....it scores that cylinder....
IF they park it for too long like that.....it rusts the block and metal gaskets