Gotta love this...Toyota is buying back '95-'00 Tacomas for FRAME ROT!
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Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 1,817
From: O-Town
Someone local told conformed it. Trying to find out what his connection to the knowledge is.
How does a plant "forget" to wax dip a something? Shouldn't that be part of the line and not skipable?
yes this is true, Toyota wanted the frames to be made in the us and the plant forgot to wax dip the frame. A truck came into the dealership with a rusted through frame so Toyota came and looked at it and gave him the cost of the truck plus 150 percent. the campaign is only for 95 to 2000 Tacomas.
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Joined: Aug 2002
Posts: 420
From: Pasadena,CA,USA
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Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 954
From: Shelton, WA
Apparently, Toyota is QUIETLY sending out letters to owners of '95-'00 Tacomas (not all owners, mind you, which is where it gets confusing to me), asking them to come into their local Toyota dealer for a frame inspection of their Tacoma. IF, when inspecting the frame with a mallet, the mallet goes through the frame in any spot, then right at that moment the Toyota dealer in question will place you in a rental, courtesy of Toyota, will repossess your vehicle immediately, and will give you 140-150% of the NADA retail value of your truck, regardless of age/mileage/whether you bought it new or not.
I thought at first this was urban legend, until last Saturday when I had not one, but TWO customers come in and purchase vehicles from me, after receiving their buyouts from Toyota...one bought a Ram, another a Grand Cherokee. I thought the first was somehow a joke, until the second one showed up. I drove by our local Toyota dealer, and sure enough, there's about 20 Tacomas sitting on the side of the dealership's property...
Our ad rep, who used to represent the local Toyota dealer, owns a '98 Tacoma he bought from them years ago. He never received a letter. I knew he was having issues with it, because despite only having 80k on it, he was complaining 2 years ago that the truck was shot because the cab was literally banging on the frame when you'd hit bumps...the frame mounts were shot. I told him about this on Tuesday, and he went to the dealer and made his appointment for this past Thursday. I saw him yesterday...they are giving him $14,000 for his old Tacoma! He went through the inspection, and watched as a tech's mallet went BANG right through the frame of his truck...they repo-ed his truck, gave him a Yaris rental, and he'll be getting a check shortly.
He asked the rep why Toyota was doing this, and apparently he admitted that before one customer made a corner and had either his cab roll off his truck, or break his frame in two, Toyota was quietly buying back ANY Tacoma that had a frame issue. One lucky kid bought a '95 Tacoma for $4k a few weeks ago, heard about this, brought it in, and his frame was so bad Toyota already cut him a check for $12k!!!
This is not urban legend...this IS happening. Just wanted to spread the word on Toyota quality
How bad is this??? The awesome thing is, we're selling more cars because of it!!! I'm sure while some are buying another Toyota (because lets face it, this is pretty generous), many are taking the money and running....
Bet you won't see this on the 6 PM news...
I thought at first this was urban legend, until last Saturday when I had not one, but TWO customers come in and purchase vehicles from me, after receiving their buyouts from Toyota...one bought a Ram, another a Grand Cherokee. I thought the first was somehow a joke, until the second one showed up. I drove by our local Toyota dealer, and sure enough, there's about 20 Tacomas sitting on the side of the dealership's property...
Our ad rep, who used to represent the local Toyota dealer, owns a '98 Tacoma he bought from them years ago. He never received a letter. I knew he was having issues with it, because despite only having 80k on it, he was complaining 2 years ago that the truck was shot because the cab was literally banging on the frame when you'd hit bumps...the frame mounts were shot. I told him about this on Tuesday, and he went to the dealer and made his appointment for this past Thursday. I saw him yesterday...they are giving him $14,000 for his old Tacoma! He went through the inspection, and watched as a tech's mallet went BANG right through the frame of his truck...they repo-ed his truck, gave him a Yaris rental, and he'll be getting a check shortly.
He asked the rep why Toyota was doing this, and apparently he admitted that before one customer made a corner and had either his cab roll off his truck, or break his frame in two, Toyota was quietly buying back ANY Tacoma that had a frame issue. One lucky kid bought a '95 Tacoma for $4k a few weeks ago, heard about this, brought it in, and his frame was so bad Toyota already cut him a check for $12k!!!
This is not urban legend...this IS happening. Just wanted to spread the word on Toyota quality
How bad is this??? The awesome thing is, we're selling more cars because of it!!! I'm sure while some are buying another Toyota (because lets face it, this is pretty generous), many are taking the money and running....Bet you won't see this on the 6 PM news...
On the flip side, at least Toyota is doing something about this issue, which is way more than can be said for Ford. Just getting them to honor a warranty when the transmission goes out after 1000 miles on a brand new car is like pulling teeth.
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Joined: Mar 2007
Posts: 1,897
From: Greenville, SC
This is by NO means limited to the 95-00 Tacoma's. I've owned a couple NY 84-88 bodystyle trucks and every one of them had frame rot after about 6-10 years of use (depending on clean they were kept in the winter.) I had the front A-arm snap on my 86 2wd while I was driving it. The problem was that the frames were fully boxed (but with a fair amount of holes in the sides) and the salt/water/sand had nowhere to go to, so they literally rot from the inside out. Being a native of southwest NY I've seen this on COUNTLESS 84-88 trucks and the newer ones as well. I've also blown up 2 or 3 22R's. Toyota's have never been "bullet proof." I still own a couple of Yota's, but I know they break just like everything else... What's fun is paying to replace the timing belt in the Corolla every 60K
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Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 6,165
From: Sterling Heights, MI
There is the flip side to this, that Toyota is giving everyone who has this frame rot 150% of what the truck is worth -- and NOT in credit toward a new Tacoma. They could have easily done that instead, to keep people from switching brands.....I think it's pretty eye-popping that they would just cut checks, no questions asked.
I'm a Toyota "non-believer" as much as the next guy, but I must admit it does seem that they are trying to make things right in this case.....
I'm a Toyota "non-believer" as much as the next guy, but I must admit it does seem that they are trying to make things right in this case.....
Last edited by Z28Wilson; Apr 7, 2008 at 12:03 PM.
Registered User
Joined: Mar 2007
Posts: 1,897
From: Greenville, SC
There is the flip side to this, that Toyota is giving everyone who has this frame rot 150% of what the truck is worth -- and NOT in credit toward a new Tacoma. They could have easily done that instead, to keep people from switching brands.....I think it's pretty eye-popping that they would just cut checks, no questions asked.
I'm a Toyota "non-believer" as much as the next guy, but I must admit it does seem that they are trying to make things right in this case.....
I'm a Toyota "non-believer" as much as the next guy, but I must admit it does seem that they are trying to make things right in this case.....
Nah, I think it's just another "cover up" by Toyota. It's cheaper than all the negative publicity this could receive. The internet still doesn't quite get car buyers attention like a TV news report. Remember the firestone/explorer public embarassment for Ford?
I wonder how this affects CR's "long term" reliability ratings on the Tacoma's
Last edited by Silverado C-10; Apr 7, 2008 at 12:23 PM.
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Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 6,165
From: Sterling Heights, MI
Perhaps in the way they are notifying owners (sounds like a relatively unorganized, "random" letter campaign).
I have no doubts that if this news got to be widespread, it would hurt Toyota's reputation for some. I also have no doubts that there are plenty of apologists out there as well.
I have no doubts that if this news got to be widespread, it would hurt Toyota's reputation for some. I also have no doubts that there are plenty of apologists out there as well.
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Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 954
From: Shelton, WA
IIRC, the reliability ratings for the "body integrity" of the Tacoma is already "much worse than average"; that's the lowest score it can get.....so I don't think it will have much effect.
Thread Starter
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Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 3,376
From: Sarasota FL
FWIW, there is a customer in my showroom as I type this looking at a new Patriot with one of my salespeople...a lot of these customers are friggen mad about this. If you go through Edmunds' forums and read about this, a lot of people say "I can't imagine a Toyota would do this...I thought it would last for over 200k miles! I've had American cars last longer!"
Say what? No ****!!!!! Imagine that!!!
I'm loving this
In a small town, I already have 1 Tacoma buyback in a used Ram, one in a used Grand Cherokee, and 3 more sales pending on new and used cars...and several people have made inquiries into our inventory, as many haven't even had their cars inspected yet. Indeed, I do give Toyota credit for buying them back, but lets face it...its only to avoid the inevitable recall.
Chevy S10s rust too...just on the body, not the frame
Say what? No ****!!!!! Imagine that!!!
I'm loving this
In a small town, I already have 1 Tacoma buyback in a used Ram, one in a used Grand Cherokee, and 3 more sales pending on new and used cars...and several people have made inquiries into our inventory, as many haven't even had their cars inspected yet. Indeed, I do give Toyota credit for buying them back, but lets face it...its only to avoid the inevitable recall.Chevy S10s rust too...just on the body, not the frame
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Joined: May 2008
Posts: 3
From: Connecticut
Thanks to Toyota Motor Corp, my out of pocket money was only $2,500 for this ride... It was traded in last June by an 80 year old couple who bought it new in 2002... 35,300 miles total...
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Joined: Jun 2006
Posts: 439
From: upstate New York
Toyota/Honda/Subaru are well-designed, well built cars, no doubt. They are NOT infallible, or perfect, though. Toyota went through a big campaign about oil sluding in some of their engines, for instance. I think part of the reliability is the fact that the engines frequently don't make advertised horsepower, another 'scandal', so the drivetrains are relatively unstressed-
Too bad that their image of perfection drives the prices up so high in the market-I just have to 'settle' for a clunker american truck that will 'only' run for a couple hundred thousand miles-
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Joined: Aug 2001
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From: Michigan's left coast
