Thinking of buying

me1234

New Member
So, I'm thinking of buying a 1st gen 4x4 2 door ext. cab. Tacoma as a daily driver. I'm not new to Toyotas, my family has had 2 1989s and a 2004. The 89s were great(well one has no power steering or AC but what it came with was great). The 2004 died at 299,000 miles and had mega frame rust issues. One fist sized hole in the frame. We got it after the "campaign" for reimbursement ended, so that pretty much doomed that truck but someone still bought it for $3k.

My current truck is a 2001 F-150 with 108,000 miles which is having torque convertor issues. I can't blame Ford on this one, the truck sat in a barn for 8 years and in a parking deck 2 years before that. No wonder things aren't too happy moving...

Anyways, I'm thinking of jumping back on the Tacoma ship. I'm a picky guy though and live in a city now with much tighter parking. I want a compact truck, not a midsize. That limits me to the 04 model year.

My main concern is the frame rust. How hard are these trucks to find that have new frames from the recall? I'm located in Virginia. My thoughts are, if I get one of these trucks that had the frame replaced in 2013, for all practical purposes I'm buying a 2013 vehicle. Thoughts?
 
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Welcome to the forum. Good luck in your searching. I’ve been looking for a couple months for a clean 2001-2004 Tacoma 4x4 V6. They are either $$$$ or high miles.
 
All the frames were not replaced. Some of them were first threaded at the Dealer. If the corrosion did not spread then it was good and no frame replacement like mine.

Some owners neglected to follow up if the frame got corrosion after the treatment and the deadline expired so they were SOL.

Best thing to do is get the VIN and call Toyota. Also they have a website that tracks service done by any Toyota dealer.
 
My main concern is the frame rust. How hard are these trucks to find that have new frames from the recall? I'm located in Virginia. My thoughts are, if I get one of these trucks that had the frame replaced in 2013, for all practical purposes I'm buying a 2013 vehicle. Thoughts?
 
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