Can I vent for a minute?

Actually, hiring someone to tow it to you is an option for the same money. I wanted a Black Corolla XRS, which is kind of rare. I found one in Florida. A moving company does NY to Fla and back all the time. They took a load down to Fla and took my Corolla on the way up. $600. After a lady totaled my first XRS, I found another in Boise, Idaho. Again, had it shipped to my door for $600.

I would find a Tundra you like. Let use the one in Houston TX. Look up a Toyota dealer in Houston. Call them up and tell them you want to pay them to do a pre-buy inspection. Price is usually around $100 to $125. The person drops it off. You get a full report.

Widen your search to 1000-ish miles. See how may come up.

 

That truck is in New York with no pics of the frame. Post claims super clean frame. Without pics I assume guilty (of crusty rusty frame), until proven innocent when we're talking about a nearly 20 year old truck in the rust belt.

 

Can I vent for a minute?


I'll take "Things the 3 Mile Island Reactor Said" for $600, Alex.

 

Hopefully, you are not in a hurry. Was in a similar position last year looking for a third gen RX350. Had a criteria of what I wanted, mileage, maintenance, no accidents, one owner, clean carfax, etc. In the nine(yes 9) months of searching, we finally found one that checked all the boxes except one. Very happy with the result. Like you, we had a specific budget and did not finance. Mind you, a few got away, i.e. dealer/seller sold but was still listed for sale. They're out there for you but it's just about timing. Again, hopefully you're not in a hurry. Patience pays off for the most part. Good luck on your search!

 

Hm, idk, totally different story here in Texas around Dallas. Place is littered with used Tundras, and for way less than $25k, that's an absurd price for a 2nd gen here. I paid $11.5 for my 2013 CM 4x4 5.7 TSS, leather and lots of buttons inside. You can get a decent 2016 or so for $25-30k, even a higher mileage 1794. Only thing I can say is that you have to jump fast on 'em, had more than one dealer sell them out from under me.

Example - https://www.autotrader.com/cars-for...a/plano-tx?marketExtension=off&newSearch=true

 

Tundras come in crew max and dbl cab. what's this crew cab you speak of? Maybe your search results are awful because you're looking for a truck that was never made by Toyota?

This right here^^^
You have to be willing to drive for it.



I bought a 2012 rock warrior in TN in sept 22, 63k miles listed at $25,999. I offered $23 and flew out the next day. Total trip cost with fuel home and last minute flights was somewhere around $600 IIRC. Was only gone for about 26 hours. I'd be seriously looking at trucks listed up to $30k and seeing what a $25k cash offer does to their price. Even if you can't get them down are you willing to pass up a good buy for having to finance a couple grand?

 

Whenever I have told a sales rep hey call me if something rolls in, they call me about a 60k truck that just rolled in when I was looking at a 26k truck originally ha maybe I wasn’t specific enough but I thought we had an understanding ha anyways

 

Where are you located I see good ones all the time here. In wa state.

 

When I bought my '00 Tundra from my FIL I flew to Texas to get it.

As I recall, I drove for like a week and a half just to get out of Texas! (Okay, may have been more like 12 hours, but it was a long time.)

 

Facebook market place seatte has a ton of trucks in your budget. For your budget you should be looking at 2005 and 2006.

I'm looking at a 2005 with 98k miles for 20k
And a 2006 with 138k miles for 19.5k both are double cabs. If you don't wanna pay that much for a first gen it's probably gonna be in a rust state. I paid 17.5 for mine 2 years ago with 134k.

 

Cars.com

I put a 200 mile radius from a Nashville Zip and got a fair amount of hits. (Not sure why but some DC's snuck through the filter)

Widen your search and maybe up the filter to $30K to leave room for deal making and you'll get even more.

https://www.cars.com/shopping/resul...ck_type=all&year_max=&year_min=2008&zip=37203







Why do feel like this is a Tom Sawyer, whitewash the fence kinda' scenario here?

 

Nice - https://www.autotrader.com/cars-for-sale/vehicle/717197013?referrer=/cars-for-sale/cars-under-26000/toyota/tundra/plano-tx?marketExtension=off&newSearch=true&startYear=2010&zip=75075&clickType=spotlight

1794 - https://www.autotrader.com/cars-for-sale/vehicle/717455009?city=Plano&listingType=USED&makeCode=TOYOTA&marketExtension=off&maxPrice=26000&modelCode=TUNDRA&newSearch=false&referrer=/cars-for-sale/cars-under-26000/toyota/tundra/plano-tx?marketExtension=off&newSearch=true&startYear=2010&zip=75075&startYear=2010&state=TX&zip=75075&clickType=listing

4x4, recently posted I think - https://www.autotrader.com/cars-for-sale/vehicle/716697092?allListingType=all-cars&city=Plano&driveGroup=AWD4WD&makeCode=TOYOTA&maxPrice=26000&modelCode=TUNDRA&newSearch=false&referrer=/cars-for-sale/all-cars/cars-under-26000/toyota/tundra/plano-tx?newSearch=true&startYear=2010&zip=75075&startYear=2010&state=TX&zip=75075&clickType=listing

Fancy - https://www.autotrader.com/cars-for...ear=2010&state=TX&zip=75075&clickType=listing

 

Personally I feel that all the issues with the 3rd generation are only making 2.5 s that much more valuable. Personally I looked for over a year for a low mileage mgm crew max and finally happened to be on the lot just checking when one rolled in to be turned in from a lease. Got a 21 with 30000 miles that was exactly what I was looking for. Took a while and a little luck but got what I wanted for a surprisingly reasonable price. All that to say just be patient and your truck will show up, but you will have to put in a little work

 

I agree, there was nothing wrong with my '00 and I liked not having a payment, but I wanted to get a 5.7 while I still could so I started looking a little.

Found a CPO one lease turn-in '19 4X4 CM w/20K miles at the dealer just down the hill and jumped on it. Should serve me well for the next couple of decades or so.

 

Easy fix, look in Canada. Especially in the western provinces where there is no rust. Your American dollar is worth almost 1.40 Canadian. You can easily find a truck up here for the price you're willing to pay.

 

Example this is only 19k USD with only 120k miles on it.

 

Bottom line he can certainly find one

No with his budget he can find a very nice 2nd gen easily. His criteria isn’t even that picky. He just has to widen his search. Apparently his area sucks. That’s ridiculous. A simple google search pops up a whole bunch, I didn’t even need to scroll.

 

20k for a 20 year old truck is insane, even if it is a Toyota.

In all reality could I fly 1,000 miles and find one? Sure. Why in the world would anybody really want to? What if pictures didn’t show something? What if the sales rep says it’s good to go, but the brakes are squeaky? There are a thousand things that even the most honest sales rep could miss when sending pictures and videos. I can’t risk taking a couple days off work and spending $500 in travel just to turn back around. I’d be happy to drive an hour or two, but even within 100 miles I’m showing one somewhat decent truck that has zero maintenance history (other than a million “customer declined service” records)

 

I’m confused - it says $27k there?

edit: Canada. Guess I need a passport to buy a Tundra now

 

I actually called on 3 of those and they are all sold. For some reason dealers don’t update their listings frequently.

 

I found our 2015 Sequoia on Cargurus and got it for a steal. I was looking at all the car buying apps at the time and my search radius was ~250 mi.

The deals are out there but you've gotta be willing to make a haul to reach one.

 

That's Canadian dollars. I did you a favor and translated that to united states dollars.

 

I hear ya. I don’t want to travel to find a truck for those same reasons.

A good carfax is even harder to find. With a tundra though as long as truck seems solid it would worry me much less though personally.

I feel for ya