Cheap Used Cars For Sale By Owner

Q.There seems to be a common problem with Toyota trucks. I own a 99 SR5 4x4 with Extracab that has 130,000+ miles on it. The body is great. The truck runs great. It still has the original exhaust system. The frame is rotting away like you wouldn't believe. There is absolutely no reason the non-stainless steel exhaust system and body should outlive the truck's frame. The frame is 4-5 times thicker than the exhaust and is not subjected to rapid corrosion from the heat like the exhaust. If the body and exhaust can be made to last 10 years, so can the frame. This is a very sad state of affairs and speaks poorly of Toyota's attitude toward vehicle longevity. They obviously do not want your truck to last 10 years! It seems when the warranty is up, throw it away, is their attitude. I have an 89 VW Camper and 91 VW Jetta with the same mileage, driven in the same area/conditions, that are still running. Factory stock, no extra rustproofing. No major rust whatsoever. Too bad VW doesn't make a 4x4 pickup! My Tacoma frame is starting to look like swiss cheese. I jacked it up to replace the rear shocks and buckled the frame ahead of the RR spring mount. That prompted me to look closer. There are numerous plates welded on here and there by the previous owner. Rust proofing hid it all. I have been searching for a replacement frame with the idea of swapping it but this is major work. $6000 worth if you have the dealer do it for you!! I have $6500 in payments to go so I can't just throw it away, and I won't dump it on someone else, so I have to deal with it. It will be the last time I own a Toyota truck. I wonder if they are getting their frame steel from China? I think so as it is rusting from the inside-out. A sign of contaminated steel. Remember how bad the Japanese steel was 35 years ago? 1970's Honda Civic fenders rotted out in 2 years and Honda was forced to replace them under warranty. The Chinese are just now learning how to make steel.

A.There's the real problem - someone tried to repair the frame before, and hid what they did under some undercoating. They don't come from the factory with either fishplates or undercoating on the chassis - they are made and then painted. Bet you the truck was in a severe collision, and they had to heat and tweak the frame back into shape, reinforce where it bent, and then put on goop to hide the damage and the repairs. But when rustproofing is done improperly, the water and salt gets underneath and the rust is even more vicious. And you probably didn't have the truck inspected by an independent mechanic before you bought it. If it turns out that this frame was modified or repaired before you bought the truck, you really can't blame that on Toyota. And this isn't something that you want to pay full-pop dealer rates for - You can DIY this, there are two hard parts. One is locating a replacement frame. The other is documenting and registering the change of chassis VIN with the state DMV - If you don't do it the right way and they ever have a reason to look at the Chassis VIN, you could end up in jail on a stolen truck beef till it gets cleared up. The rest is all wrench-work to move all the good parts over to the new chassis, and a lot of time to do it right. And if the truck was indeed in a wreck as I suspect, you may find a few other "surprises" hidden under a layer of Bondo that need to be dealt with. Even if you have to buy a gantry crane (Harbor Freight 41188 $578 on sale) and a couple of chain-fall hoists ($50 each) to pick up the cab while you slide the old chassis out from under it and the new chassis in, you're still ahead. No, the steel was fine - they needed to learn the finer parts about undercoating and painting the internal parts of the car, and sealing those internal cavities from the outside so water and salt couldn't get in to the pinch welds and cavities and merrily rust from the inside out. Now that the unit-bodies get fully welded and then dip-tank primed and painted before final assembly, and the chassis gets powder-coated, that doesn't happen nearly as fast. Older American cars rusted out the same way in the same conditions - only difference being they used thicker steel so it took longer. The Chinese are still learning how to make a whole lot of things as cheap as possible and not get caught at it, including tires - we've had several big recalls where they left out critical layers of gum rubber at the steel belt edges, and the tires are shredding themselves from the inside out before they blow out. Then there's the toothpaste with poisonous Ethylene Glycol as a thickening agent ("Ethylene, Propylene, what's the difference?"), the wheat gluten with Melamine in it, and the new one with all the Fisher Price kiddie toys deliberately painted with lead-based paints... And yet they keep their Most Favored Nation trading status. What's up with that?

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