Purchased a 3rd Gen From Copart...It had the original owners info. So I called him.

I ended up picking up a 2021 Toyota Tacoma TRD Off Road w/ Technology Package. It had slight roof damage but I could not determine what happened. Once the car arrived home, it was not turning over. After two manual cranks, I gave it another shot. It started but was blowing white smoke. I looked at the air filter and it was full of oil. Interesting... Took off the intake, throttle body and started inspecting the end of the manifold and noticed a lot of oil. Cleaned everything up and it starts just fine!

I somehow found the phone number registered to a device in the registered phone settings. I ended up calling the fella and explaining the situation. He told me exactly what happened AND even showed me photos. Apparently he flipped the car, completely over at low speeds BUT only the roof got damaged. The fender popped back out. I think its a win in my books.

Strange, but I'll take it!

Auction Listing: https://en.bidfax.info/toyota/tacom...ab-2021-gray-35l-6-vin-3tmdz5bnxmm120713.html

AMA.

 

how much? clean title?

 

$26250, salvaged unfortunately. Makes 0 sense.

 

That's an amazing deal. You scored big time. Congratulations! Enjoy your practically new truck!

 

Considering the owner paid 40k for the truck without the camper, makes me question if I should have had just bought a brand new one... It only has 5k miles now.

 

You're right. The numbers just don't add up. You'd think they would have repaired it.

 

I wouldve passed, its a salvage title. Gremlins down the road no thabk you. Thats too much for a salvaged tacoma

 

Reminds me of this:

 

I agree with #7 I wouldn’t buy a salvage title. In some states it is difficult to register and resale could also be a problem, it’s a risk I wouldn’t have taken BUT if you’re happy with it and it meets your needs congratulations and good luck

 

Damn!! That’s a steal, good for you. Pretty crazy that he rolled it and it just looks like a fat bird took a dump on the roof lol

 

Wow. You lucky bastard lol. You absolutely win this one. A new airbag then your good to go. Congratulations on you new taco. Lucky lucky

 

Good deal!
Providing the salvage title isn't an issue with registration don't worry about it.

I'm assuming you purchased this to drive, not for resale - you have a rust free truck with 5K miles. Fix whatever is wrong, keep on top of the service and you should be good for an easy 250,000 miles.
Good score and congratulations!

Speculation:
From what we read here body shops can be months out on work, the insurance company may have decided to total it rather than having the claim open with the truck stored and the owner in a rental for a long time.

 

Win win either way. You could drive the thing into the ground for 30k and win all day long, or you could part the thing out and probably make some money....

 

Stick a Prinsu or other type of roof rack on it and you'll never see the roof damage.

Good score, don't worry about the title issue.

 

you didn't mention that the side curtain airbags were also deployed.

i'm not at all surprised insurance totaled it. too much risk/liability in the repairs

 

I’m not telling you to break the law but let’s just say a friend of a friend has purchased “salvage” titled vehicles like this that are perfectly fine from companies like copart in FL then registered them in GA and received a clean title. Then went back to FL and reregistered it in FL with a clean title with zero issues, all they do is come out and look at the vehicle and inspect multiple VIN stamps.

Overall if it’s going to exclusively be a personal vehicle and plan to keep it for awhile as just a truck to do truck things with. I think the price you paid is an absolute steal if it includes all fees, tax, and delivery. Good Luck.

 

No engine damage? Air bag components can get expensive. Will need the blown bags, plus module, plus sensors, and maybe some seat belts/buckles.

 

I actually looked into doing this myself. I work in auto restoration and the owner of the shop has bought several vehicles from Copart and he fixed them on the weekends. All his kids cars, his wife's mercedes... all salvage titles. Granted if you don't have cash (like me) financing one can be a little trickier. But almost all of them I looked at were so expensive it just wasn't worth the hassle. However in your case... SCORE! I paid a LOT more for mine with 88k on it and it's a 2017.

Sometimes you do get burned though. My boss bought I believe a 2016 GMC 3/4 ton last year from Copart. Listed as running and driving with some minor damage to the nose. It was CHEAP... The ford dealer he got his F350 from wanted to buy it back for about 10 grand more than he paid for it new. And it has 40k miles! So the plan was to fix the GMC, sell the ford back to the dealer, and drive the GMC for the company tow rig. Yeah it runs and drives but after numerous module replacements and lots of wiring it still won't get out of limp mode. Basically every module in the truck has to be coded to match and almost all of them were missing. And half the wiring from the interior is missing. We think it might have been on fire at one point. He's giving up and bringing it back to Copart.

 

No engine damage. Runs smooth. Cleaned out the air filter, the box, intake, throttle body and little bit of the manifold (as much as I can get my hand in there) to wipe the oil. Smoked for a little bit but runs fine now.

Two curtain airbags were 1k, need driver seatbelt ($ idk), srs module (idk) and it'll be fine.

 

Yeah I wouldn't do it on finance because there's always a surprise with Copart/IAAI. Always little things that turn out to be somewhat expensive.