I just bought a 98 taco. 6 years in florida 2 in kentucky and 2 in buffalo. It looks clean from a 15 minute inspection.

Should i just bring it into toyota and see what they say? Im kinda paranoid now after my 94 has some frame rot.

 

My buddie just took his '98 Taco to the dealer. They gave him $13,500 for it! It had 199k and a frame that was completely rotted in half, he had to have it towed to the dealer. If I didn't tell him about this extended warranty it would have just continued to rot behind his barn where it was parked.

 

Just spoke with the toyota rep over the phone. They are giving me $12,757 for mine, which is great since that's more than what I paid for it 5 years ago and I put 60k on it.

This came around just in time I was getting ready to sell it for like $4000.

Anyone want to buy an ARB, racerunner adjustable coilovers, some American Racing rims, a MTX sub/enclosure, kenwood amp/headunit, a diamond plate tool box, perfect condition tailgate, swaybar.... I think that's all the stuff I am taking off.


edit: the worst area on my frame was mainly where the front leaf spring hanger attaches to the frame.

 

Here is the real kicker. The frames were built in the US bu Dana corp, seems they cheated on Toyota's specifications. The above mentioned article is true. In fact, if you have a heavily rusted Tacoma from this era, they will buy it back at $1000 more then the highest Kelly blue book, and if you trade it in on another Toyota, you will get an additional $1000 towards the new vehicle. (now I'm not certain of this, but I heard they were paying 1 and a half times what high blue book was, so a 10K Tacoma is now 15K, and 16K if you buy a new one). Now areas where the roads are not salted, I doubt you will have an issue. These will be destined for the crusher, once they buy them back, they will never see a road legally again. Now I assume there will be engines and the like removed first. This can and will create a surplus of nice 3.4's for those guys who would liek to replace a 3.0.

Engineers came over to our store, directly from Japan and wanted donor vehicles. I donated mine for inspection (98 Tacoma TRD V6 4WD) and of course, with 56K miles, always garaged, I knew it wouldn't have issues, we don't use salt on the roads either. They paid me $100 and 1.0 hours labor just to rack my truck while they inspected it.

 

they are just going to crush it if they find it is going to be bought back, so why wouldnt u take off everything u could and sell it

 

You will probably do way better than that. Better hurry, word gets out, people are going to be sucking these up like crazy.

 

OK, got some more info. It appears they will pay you 150% of dealer market value. This is the high blue book. So if it books out at $10,000, you will get $15,000 for the truck!!! If you use it to purchase a new truck, an additional $1000 towards the new truck. If you buy a car, you get an additional $500, not on top of the $1000, just $500.

 

I didn't want to take off everything before I brought it to get inspected. They didn't say anything about it, made an offer on my truck. So now I am taking off everything I can. There is a post on here with all the stuff I'm selling. Actually I'm on my way now to get the stock parts.

 

op remove the autoblog link and use the toyota one
http://blog.lexus.com/2008/03/living-up-to-ou.html

 

Any reason this is only Tacomas and not 4Runners? I thought they were the same frame? Or did they protect them differently

 

The Taco frames were made by Dana Corp in North America, the 4runner frames were made in Japan by Toyota.

 

Just heard from the dealer, mine failed. I still owe $6100 on my '98 Taco. Will they just pay my loan off or will they buy it back for 1.5X KBB?

 

They will probably give you 1.5xKBB value towards the vehicle. Then you take what you get, pay the loan and pocket the rest.

 

getting my check at 4:30 tomorrow. oh yeah.

I stripped off my wheels, flares, and toolbox today. Tomorrow out comes the stereo, sway-a-ways, and the ARB. Then its goodbye tacoma, and time to buy some #@$%!!

PS. look for future post selling above parts.

edit: need to change my signature line later! gotta get some sleep now busy day tomorrow.

 

Sweet deal for Taco owners. Too bad Toyota had it's head in the sand for so long though. There are probably thousands of pre-Taco mini-trucks that have broken in two many years ago. I remember shopping for my first 4Runner back in ~1998 and seeing bunches of Toyota's with rusted through frames (all less than 15 years old). It doesn't appear the Taco's rust any worse than the older trucks, Toyota has either just become aware of the issue or just decided to do something about it.

 

I think I'd keep the cats too.

 

Tacoma frames made in the US by Dana corp. Didnt follow Toyotas corrosion protection specs I guess. The 4Runner is Japan built.

 

new info: you must have registered the truck before the "extended warranty" was released.

please confirm.

 

i saw this on Jalopnik quite some time ago, alittle before the original post. and one guy is going to sell Toyota a bunch of those rusted Taco's for the more than what he is going to pay. not like Toyota to make such a mistake\

 

Just had mine rust inspected at Bill Kidd's Toyota in Cockeysville, MD - It failed - I was told to come back in a week when the Toyota Corporate Specialist would be there, and they'll assess what they're going to offer me then........

......I promptly walked over to the sales department and test drove an `08 SR5......kinda liked it........