2010 5.7l v8 SR5 with engine issues...what's it worth?

Greetings all,

I'm coming onto this forum to ask a general question about what this truck might be worth. I've really not been able to find a realistic representation and hope some of you might have an opinion to help me decide what to do with this truck.

It's a 2010 SR5 double cab with the 5.7 liter V8 engine and 6.5 foot bed with bed liner and a custom matching ARE topper over the back. Silver color truck, silver topper.
4x4 200,200 miles on it. Came with the towing package when I bought it new. I am the original and only owner of the truck. This truck ran like a champ until early August when something went drastically wrong. The engine started sputtering and no power at all. Can't really get it to go above 55 mph and even at idle it sort of chugs. All sorts of lights on the dash are on and/or blinking. 4 low, check engine, differential lock, etc. it just blinks like a christmas tree. Almost seemed to me to be a wiring or computer chip issue. Took it to my local Toyota dealership and they spent a day looking into the problem, but could not definitely say what the issue was but were kind enough to charge me like $100/hour for their time (nearly $800 for nada). They say no compression in some of the cylinders but they don't know why, but that means nothing to me as I'm not an engine guy in the least bit. They told me they could start taking it apart more and digging deeper, but given the high mileage and the cost of what they were going to do they recommended it would be cheaper for me to put a used engine into it. They quoted me nearly $10,000 for a used engine PLUS labor....a nearly $20,000 rebuild. Now, I love this truck and we've had many adventures together....but at that price I started looking at buying a new one.

I want to sell this truck, but I don't really know what it's worth and what to ask for it. My thought is someone with some time and effort could probably get the engine running again or drop a new motor into it. I don't know if the Toyota dealer was being honest with me or not and as I said, I'm not an engine guy, but I truly felt this motor would go for a half million miles at least and the truck would fall apart around it based on what I've read about this motor. It doesn't seem like catastrophic engine failure is really very common with this engine.

As mentioned, it's 4WD, the body defo has some Colorado pin stripes and dings here and there, but it's in relatively good shape. Never been wrecked or hit any large animals or anything like that. Interior defo has some wear but nothing cracked or busted. Original drivers seat has a tear in the cloth, but I've got really nice seat covers to correct that problem. As mentioned, custom ARE matching topper on the back that is in good shape but needs a new handle on the back.....I admit I keep a wrench under the seat to open it because it's just an easy redneck fix

I've seen pretty much the same truck with 185,000 miles on it for sale around $15/$16 thousand so I imagine it's worth something at least.

I went out to that website Carbrain that buys busted up vehicles and picks them up and they offered me a measly $2,250 for it. Was actually going to sell it to them just to get it out of my driveway...but they made such a mess out of the deal and wasted my time so I called that off. I want to list it on Craigslist or some other site but again, don't really know what to reasonably expect to get for it and would like some baseline of it's value before people start trying to rip me off....likewise, I want to be honest about it's condition and not rip off anyone either.

I have considered simply donating it to vehicles for veterans and taking a tax write off for it and helping out that cause...but it seems in recent years that process has changed to where they now take the vehicle and sell it at auction and give you a receipt for what it sold for that you can use as a tax deduction rather than you being able to write off a specific Kelly Blue Book value or whatever. I'm not sure what I'd even be getting for a tax deduction with that process which just adds to my confusion. Like, what would that sell for at an auction? I've no idea as I've never been to an auction like that and don't know the process.

At any rate, apologies for the long winded nature of the post..but if any of you could give me some sort of guesstimate about what I might be able to sell that truck for or what it might bring in at an auction if I donate it, I'd surely be grateful. Thanks and have a great day!

p.s. I can post photos to this thread once I figure out how to do that

 

I'm not an expert on value, but I do look at craigslist almost every day, so I've seen my fair share of mechanic's specials for sale. I'd guess you could easily get $5-$6k for it.

 

This could be as simple as the abs sensors need to be cleaned.

 

Find a local shop and throw an used engine in

 

I’d def recommend a second opinion from a non dealer local reputable shop before just giving it away or selling it for almost nothing

 

That's a good recommendation, I did take it to one local guy and he scratched his head too....he was recommended to me by someone I trust...but I just didn't get a good vibe off him to be fair. Maybe I'll try one more guy that another friend recommended....but at this point I feel like I'm just chucking money away and sort of want to be done with it?

 

Anything over $5000 would be a losing bet for me. Just a used junkyard engine would cost $4000. So in total I would be spending around $9k for a non-running truck and not even including labor costs to get it running again.

At least you got 200k miles out of it. That's not bad right? It would make a nice project car/truck.