Should i buy?

Hello ive been looking at tacomas for a while. and mainly wanting to mod and use for work as a contractor and camping and SOME off roading. i found a tacoma and drove it and also think it drives good just needs an alignment. but it has 245,000 Miles and its priced for $13,999 i did my research and its just 2,000 over priced (Dealership Profit) if you think i shouldnt buy it please explain why.

 

Don't buy a used truck older than 10 years if your livelihood depends on it.

 

I don't know much about rust living here in the desert of Arizona but it looks rusty to me. Some might say it's fine though. One question you might want to ask yourself is how long do you plan on keeping the truck?

 

Nope

Pics don’t show everything, but they do show someone attempted to paint over the rust to hide it

 

250k miles for 14k?! Too expensive, too many miles. Can’t really give an opinion on the frame rust as the failure prone areas (near the catalytic converters) and the laminated sections by the front perch on the rear springs can’t be seen. It needs an exhaust system as the tail pipe is rotted at the rusty muffler. Pass. Better with less miles are out there.

 

Fairly rusty, exhaust is rusted out, high miles and old for that price.

There is a lift on the rear. None(?) on the front? Why is that? What was used for the lift? If blocks were used that's big points off. Unfortunately I can't tell by the pics.

I'd pass.

 

For that price I would pass. Lot of rust on the exhaust, both at the muffler and the cat, the hitch has a lot of rust. Looking at the front suspension it looks like it may be pretty worn out seeing how close the bump stops are to the LCA. And I can't tell but the one shot of the rear end looks like it may have been hit. It looks like the rear bumper is angled down at the rear, at least in the picture.

 

If it will make you happier in life, sure go ahead and buy it. Assuming that it's your money, do what you want with it.

 

Pass. Just the frame gives me enough reason to say that, especially if someone painted over the rust.

 

Run Forrest run !

 

Your truck looks a lot like mine did when I first bought it from a rust perspective, and my frame is just fine. The tow hitch is toast (mine was a little better, but had some scale), you would need to replace it to reliably tow a trailer. The rest of the frame looks pretty good; I do not see any attempt to paint over rust as was mentioned by another member. It would be best to look at the frame next to the catalytic converters as that's where holes will develop first in most cases. Repairs on the vehicle will be more of a pain due to rusty fasteners, but it hasn't been a deal breaker for me and I've touched a lot of stuff. You would need to plan on replacing at least some of the exhaust components, for example the pipe connection to the muffler is rusted through.

The '06 (and '05) were more prone to having head gasket issues than later models, so keep that in mind. If you knew they had already been replaced, that would perhaps ease your mind a bit on that score. The white paint is shot as a single stage (paint and clear combined) and it's prone to peeling.

Regarding the 245K miles, it will all come down to the maintenance. If the oil and coolant have been regularly changed, then the engine might have a lot of life left in it. If you can get a Carfax report you may get some good info on its service history; you can also get dealer maintenance info at toyota.com if you plug in the VIN there.

Personally, if I was looking again, I'd do like I did and get a '07-'15 (maybe not a '12) with 100-150K miles on it. Maybe a bit more if purchased private party and I could talk to the seller and get some service history. I wouldn't want to buy a vehicle with that high of mileage from a dealer without that info, especially if it was going to be my primary/only vehicle.

Good luck on your search!

 

Why does that look rusted like shit when my truck that has more miles and spent time in snow and ice down to 0 degrees does not

 

Road salt will devour these. Do they use it where you are?

 

where I was they used magnesium chloride which does the same thing with less corrosion, that I rinsed and fluid filmed.

 

Mine rotted in 11.5 yrs..Massachusetts