Looking at buying a 99 Tacoma w/ 200k miles????

Hello,

So bad news for me, my 1996 Tacoma was stolen from me Monday night

Unreal that it got stolen, only thing I can think of is it was easy to steal. Right in front of my house, and the kicker is there is so many nice cars on my block, and on the street where my Tacoma was. 2 new BMWs, a nice Benz e-series, two nice honda accords, blah blah blah. I hope whoever takes it gets what they deserve.

Anyway, I'm looking to replace my Tacoma with another Tacoma. I didn't realize how difficult it is to track a decent 4x4 one down. I've done extended searches, and as soon as I find a decent one it's been sold. So I found a 99 Tacoma, 5 speed which I want and extended cab with 200k miles on it, 2.7 Liter which is what I had. It looks like it's in good shape. Price isn't amazing, but I truthfully want another Tacoma, and this has everything I want, and I feel if I get a different pickup I'll regret the purchase, especially since I want something reliable.

So my question is am I crazy for getting a pickup with 200k miles on it? Only reason why I'm considering it, is because theres no rust at all, the paint is in good shape, and my Tacoma was going on 170k miles strong. Only problem with my Tacoma was cosmetic rust over wheel wells. Assuming this truck works good, what do you think? You think I'll have problems down the road? Looking to buy this truck for the longhaul, not to sell, I kinda wanna drive it to the wheels fall off.

Let me know what you guys think. I kinda need to get something sooner rather than later.

Thank you for advice and opinions in advance.

 

I dont know where you are located, but check the frame for rust, and look inside the rear unboxed part of the frame.

 

Wait for lower mileage

 

Dang 200,000 miles. Mine is a 1995 and only has 180,000 miles. Keep looking.

 

i have seen a few with 200-250 in my area from 4K to 6K. I considered it but eventually found something with lower miles and ponied up a few more K to get it. I'd say if its been maintained and everything checks out it'd be worth around 4k. i did see one go for 3500 as well with 225K..

 

How much is he looking to get for it and where are you located? Tacoma's in the Pacific Northwest sell high compared to other places ive heard about, also i bought mine with 172k for 6500

 

I bought my truck with 200k so i have no idea how it was taken care of, but its in great shape and running great!

 

I feel you, OP... I recently bought a 2004 with 200K on it. It looks great, runs great, and the best I can tell, the previous owner took great care of it. I'm like you - I'm going to keep this one till the wheels fall off. I just hope that doesn't happen this year.

 

Bought mine with 180K. 20K later not a single issue. Its all subjective and each situation is unique. If the truck was well cared for its probably good for another 100K, if not...roll of the dice.

 

Considering selling mine 97 with141k 3.4 motor 4x4. Auto trans . $6700

 

Like has been said it's all in how it was maintained. Mine's got 257k on it now and it runs and drives great. Typically higher mileage vehicles will have more needs than lower mileage ones but it varies wildly depending on how they were maintained and used. Mine was all highway mileage and the guy used it to move a washer and drier once. And it was cheap.

 

Mine had 190K on it got it for $5400 couldn't find anything better

 

I would buy a truck with 500k on it if it looked and felt right.

 

I am in the process of rebuilding my 2.7L with 250,000 on it and it looks brand new. Wasnt using fluids before the rebuild and after taking apart the cylinders were like new and everything was perfect on it. 200,000 is nothing for a tacoma

 

This advice isn't Tacoma specific per-se.

But if I have to replace my vehicle, in general I'm looking to get one that has less wear on it than the one I'm replacing. Just because I want to kick the *next* replacement can as far down the road as I can.

Depends on your cash situation and how much insurance settlement you got, of course.

If you can't "upgrade" to a newer one, then well: your last Taco already had 170k miles on it. If the odometer was covered in tape - I'm thinking most folks would be hard pressed to say which was showing more wear, a 170k mile Tacoma or a 200k mile Tacoma. For that small a difference (only 15%!) it's probably going to show more in what kind of use it had than in how many miles.

 

Just an update, for anyone who cares...

We went to go see the Tacoma with 200k miles on it. I drove up 2 hours to see it, I'm from Jersey, and it was in Conn. It just didn't pan out the way we wanted to. It was in rougher shape than I though it would be. It clearly showed signs of heavy use in the cab, the seat had a decent size rip in it, and the fabric just wasn't clean at all. The dealer couldn't provide service records for it either. When I drove the shift pattern just seemed sloppy. The clutch itself felt fine, but often time I didn't feel like the shifter was going in the gear. And when in gear the shifter would actually have play in it. There was also one time that it was bogging very heavily when I was in 2nd gear going around 20 mph up a very slight hill.

My brother was still considering it, and was gonna try to negotiate but I though it was a bad idea. The guy wanted to talk numbers, but I kindly told him I wanted to discuss it with my brother privately. We went to a McDonalds across the street, and heres where the story gets interesting lol.

I had e-mailed an add on craiglist for a 96 tacoma w/ 93k miles, 5 speed, 2.7l which I though was just spam since he never replied me back, and there was no number. I never heard back from him until we were in McDonalds grabbing lunch. I quickly called the guy, turns out he was an older gentleman, and I guess not very experience with selling things. So I told him I was in CT and I would gladly come down to Jersey to see it.

We drove back down to Jersey, checked it out, drove it and bought it It was a 96 Tacoma original owner, the guy just has a lot of car and didn't drive this one too often. Everything looked good, I'm gonna give it a tuneup since it hasn't been run in a while, but I felt much better getting this one. Paid $4k for it which I felt was a great deal. I gotta get it on Tuesday since it wasn't registered, and DMV was already closed.

This Tacoma does have that ADD and what appears to be locking front hubs, I gotta read up on how it works since my other Tacoma didnt have it. Overall, I'm pretty happy, and I hope the smaller tires 225/75r15 tires are better on gas mpg compared to the big 31s my other Tacoma had.

First mod after a tuneup is a good alarm, I'm considering the python 911, $200 and it's got keyless entry, remote start and a 2 way remote. Looks pretty good.

Thanks for the input everyone!