Need opinions on rust

I'm looking at a Tacoma located a few states away. The pictures the Toyota dealership sent me include these two pictures of the under carriage. I am concerned about the overspray seen in picture 1. I'm wondering if a rusty frame has been covered with a coating and not properly treated. I'm interested in people's thoughts on the overall amount of rust and the possibility of the frame being coated in something. The exterior and interior are in great shape from what I have seen and it only has 55K miles. I would have to fly to see it in person.

What are your thoughts on this amount of rust? Would you fly to see it based on the pictures?

 

Those look like the most carefully taken shots of the least rusty spots of the undercarriage

 

Only thing see is the after market stuff.

 

If those are the only pics they are sending you, they have good reason. I’d pass on on that.

 

You want to see the frame where the front & rear shocks mount and near the catalytic converters.

 

have someone look for you personally , remuneration is in order definitely

 

Did the sellers camera run out of film? Ask for more pictures.

 

These are the only pictures they (Toyota dealership) sent of the undercarriage. I live in Texas so I'm not familiar with under coatings used in snowy climates. What stood out to me in the first picture is what looks like over spray on the bracket of the side step. It appears that the top half of the bracket is black and the bottom half is covered in rust.

 

Recent undercoating, done poorly. Easy call.......

 

I drove south 2 states to find one without a rusty frame.

But even then, I drove there to look at it and was fully prepared to drive back home without the truck if there was rust.

IIWY I'd try to find a private seller. You'll be able to talk to someone that knows more about the truck, perhaps having driven it for the last several years, AND you'll get a better price.

 

If thats a thick waxy / oily coating Id say thats good. If thats a "Linex" type coating Id be worried

The bottoms of the rockers look very good from what I can make out in those terrible pics

 

Idk...i think you need more pictures then decide if its something "fixable" vs just looking for something better. I agree with a private seller; there's a bit more wiggle room with conversation

 

Truck is located in Kentucky. I'm torn because it is a clean carfax, 1 owner, with 55K miles, and appears very clean inside and out. Its listed at $15K.

 

Low miles doesn't mean well kept, keep that in mind. I bought mine with 68k miles when it was 15 years old and had a plethora of issues almost immediately.

I x2 the private party sale. Why pay dealer markup on a 20 year old truck

 

55k single owner.

 

I just wanna echo the sentiment others have stated, why pay so much for a truck that almost certainly sat for prolonged periods (to have such low mileage)? I'd pass on this one OP

 

Right, 4x4 and manual transmission? If 2WD definite pass, auto tranny no thank you (for me) but a lot of people like them.

Mine is almost that truck but red, 4WD, manual. Same bug guard, had a tonneau too, but the tonneau cover was the first thing to go. Sold it in 3 days on Craigslist, don't like 'em (what's the point of a pickup bed? LOL)

If it were me, I'd just go and look myself, 15K is a lot of money. Mine was 14K in 2018, 63K miles, I know I paid too much for it but it was love at first sight. It has rust, they always have f'n rust, the question is if it's that inside-out frame destroying rust or surface rust with no deep damage. That paintover looks "smoothish", if you've ever seen serious rust damage it looks a lot more rough.

Mine had crappy sprayover paint too, so sloppy the overspray was on some of the black plastic parts . . . and look here at the hack job they did on the rims. This is what dealers do, it's how it is.

All said and done, I still love this truck. Because it's old and needs work now and then gives me something to wrench on and no regrets. You just have to decide if that's what you want, I can almost guarantee it won't be a simple buy it and drive it.