New to 2nd Gen, what to look for?

Greetings,
After five years, I have to let my 1st gen tundra go. Sad, but it is time. I am looking at 2nd generation tundras, as I want to stay with Toyota. Is there anything I need to be on the look out? Any years that had bugs or years that are viewed as better? Thanks
Durbin

 

The 2nd generation are good. If you like the body style more. The 2.5 gen are good too. Different body style. I think the 2018 and newer didn’t come with extra transmission cooler. That’s about it as far as looking for bad rust. Over all you can’t lose.

 

Looking for one about a year ago for my daughter, I found prices and relative condition all over the place. We ended up finding one local (15 mins away). Was an 07 CrewMax Ltd with the 5.7 and 4x4 (250K kms). Was in very good over condition with a few dents. Also had the Toyota tonneau cover, and a set of summer rims with 33” tires. Truck had been lifted, but other than that was stk. Fast forward a year later, I replaced the following:

1. Steering rack with OEM unit
2. Upper ball joints (Rough Country)
3. Lower ball joints (Moog)
4. Tierods (Moog)
5. New double din Kenwood headunit
6. New Flowmaster muffler and catback exh
7. DS front ABS sensor

A local mechanic replaced the master cylinder, driveshaft carrier bearing and had to swap the rear springs since the PO who installed them put them on the wrong side which caused the carrier bearing to fail. All that was about CAN$1.8K, and parts for what I did including headunit was about CAN$4K. I also have a new Koyo radiator to be installed that was another CAN$500. This truck was CAN$14,500, and she “dumped” it on me and just purchased a 2011 Ltd Ext Cab for CAN$22K. She wanted a black ext with the brown interior. The 07 was slate grey ext with grey int. I was looking at a 2018 Platinum back in Oct, and almost purchased it for CAN$42.5K, but decided to wait for prices to fall.
In the end, it comes down to your budget, and wants. Most will say avoid the first few years as there there were more issues which is probably true. I can honestly say that I’m a little bit disappointed in the legendary Toyota “quality”, and the cost of OEM parts is through the roof costing 2-3 times what they used to be. I have a 97 LX450 with 350K kms, and it has been way more reliable than the Tundra comparatively speaking. Having said that, I love driving the Tundra, especially with the Flowmaster 10 series exh.

 

Thanks for the feedback. Used truck prices have gone up a lot since I last bought a truck. I am not sure what I am going to do.

 

Can’t exactly remember where or what was wrong with the 2012 model year. But there was a batch that was made that had some issues. Very vague and general but I’m sure you could find an article on it somewhere lol I would agree with the first comment 2007-2021 are all great trucks, just depends on what body style you like more. Also if you get one from a dealer I’d stay away from paying more than $25k just because it’ll probably be stock when you could spend a little more on a private party sale which more than likely will already have some modifications done to it. Take a peek at the ones listed on this forum for sale, might find what you’re looking for there!