Looking at getting a 2004 Tundra

Hey everybody!

New here to the forums. Wanted to ask for some advice. My wife and I are looking to trade in her 2019 Jeep Compass Trailhawk for a truck and a 2WD 2004 Tundra with 171,000 miles just popped up not too far from us in Kansas City for $10,500. It's a 4 door double cab SR5 Rwd SB with a 4.7l V8 I'm not mechanically inclined in the slightest and we don't have any mechanic friends because my unit just did away with all of out mechanics and shipped them elsewhere. So I really don't know what to look for and I don't have anybody to look at it with me. It would be my wife or I's daily commute vehicle. Probably no more then 10-12 miles a day. Other then that we really just want a truck for the occasional Home Depot or Nebraska Furniture Mart trip as well as for when I go hunting.

I asked some friends and family members and the consensus seems to be either "Don't buy anything with over 100,000 miles on it." or "Shooooooot that's a Yota! It ain't even broke in yet!" and neither of those really help me. Judging from the dealership photos there's no visable rust on the body and the interior looks fantastic. I haven't gone to check it out yet as we only just saw it. Anybody have any advice for me? You might see this on some other forums as well. I'm probably going to ask around a couple places.

 

Welcome aboard sir. The First Gen Tundras are generally very reliable trucks. Your post doesn’t say what motor / cab combo you are looking at so it’s hard to give great advice in that regard. You mention hunting, living near KC (snow) and getting rid of a capable 4wd rig in the Trailhawk. You sure the 2wd truck will fit the bill? Gas mileage isn’t great in these either, so commuting long distance will cost more money, 10-12 miles isn’t too rough.

 

Hunting wise I think the only places I have to hunt in North East Kansas is all public land. It'd probably just be parked along the road or a parking lot until I dragged whatever animal back to it. I don't think losing 4WD would matter much. Having 4WD in the Trailhawk doesn't much for hunting. It's a Compass so there's very little truck space. I could fit some rabbits or birds back there, maybe a coyote, but nothing bigger then that. I have an AWD Durango that would probably fit the bill better if I had to go down anything snowy or icy. It's a 4 door double cab SR5 Rwd SB with a 4.7l V8. I'll update the original post with that info.

 

A trailer for the Durango May replace the need for a truck altogether. The 2004 DC or crew cab configuration is a bit of a unicorn model for the Tundra. It’s in between the original 2000-2003 non-VVti models, a seqouia, and the newer 2005-2006 model DC. Has some more unique parts than the later model DCs. $10k isn’t a bad price if the truck is in good shape and 199,000 miles isn’t near the life expectancy of a well maintained 4.7l. What you have to decide is how much you wanna spend to maintain the truck. An older truck will need things like timing belts and ball joints and radiators and other suspension bits that get old and wear over time. You can spend a lot having someone else do all the work to fix these things. If you’re handy and can do the work yourself, it will save a ton and these trucks are totally worth it.

 

We've been thinking about a trailer for the Durango but we don't have a place to put it at the moment. We're also somewhat worried about somebody stealing it since we live in town now. Getting a new truck isn't set in stone yet as she does like her Jeep, but we've just been talking about getting a truck for a few months because we miss the convenience of having one. I always had a truck up until I got this 2011 Durango and we didn't realize how convenient a truck was until we didn't have one. Now we own a house and we miss it even more. She's not too fond of the $600 monthly payments for her Jeep either. I figured if we could trade her jeep in towards a cheaper truck we could save a bit of money and have a truck for when we needed it.

I wouldn't mind learning more about fixing cars though, so something dependable and easy to work on would be nice. I figured there would be tons of guides and videos out there for these first gen Tundras if something broke on it that I could use to tinker around and learn on. Like I said earlier though, we're not entirely sold on it yet. She just wants something cheaper and we both miss having a truck. I'll definitely give a trailer a second look though. There's bot to be anti theft devices out there for them.

 

Welcome from LA (Lower Alabama)! It sounds like an attractive deal on the face of it, but make sure you do your own thorough inspection before buying. You might even want to pay a local mechanic to do a more thorough inspection.

 

Welcome

 

Welcome from NY.