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Apr 7, 2008 02:45 PM
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Detroit, 10:35 PM
Tue Feb 9
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It wasn't too long ago that Toyota announced they were going to extend the rust-perforation warranty on about 813,000 model-year 1995 to 2000 Tacoma pickups due to serious issues with corrosion of the frame in certain areas. This means that you could add 15 years onto the model year and, if you had problems, take it in to a dealer to have it looked at. If there is damage, which is possible if you live in an area where salt is frequently used on roads, Toyota will either repair or offer to repurchase your vehicle. This is where it gets interesting. No matter what condition your truck is in, Toyota will buy it back at 150% the KBB "excellent condition" price.
Toyota is looking for serious rust that has perforated the frame and not rust on the outside of the car and has issued guidelines for the dealerships, i.e. they will not buy back a truck if they just have to replace a rusty bolt. That being said, if your truck does exhibit some rust they'll give you a loaner car and enter the details in their system to be evaluated by Toyota. Just to test how much value there could be, we built a non-TRD 2000 Tacoma Xtra Cab with moderate options with 120K in the Chicago area and got a value of $10,900, meaning that Toyota would have to give the owner of such a truck $16,350 if the damage was serious enough. The flipside of this is that, if you own a Tacoma without rust, the resale value of your truck could diminish due to a perception of poor quality. If you're lucky, maybe you can trade up to a 1997 Tacoma, before the sudden and unexpected acceleration investigation leads to yet another truck buyback. (Thanks to Bryan for the tip and good luck with your Taco)
[Dealer Communication (PDF), Warranty Policy (PDF), Vehicle Inspection Form (PDF)]
Send an email to Matt Hardigree, the author of this post, at matt@jalopnik.com.
Original material is licensed under a Creative Commons License permitting non-commercial sharing with attribution.
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