Look for advice on buying 2001 Tundra with 120k miles

I suppose if you are on the east side of that gateway then the name holds true

 

Trust me its more a state of mind.
You dont really want to be in East St.Louis

 

I forget this area is referred to as midwest, but it sure as hell ain't mid or west unless you are in the eastern shore. @Darkness post was a good read, a lot of good history.

 

So, general consensus is to still at least take a look at it?.. I'm trying to see if a mechanic that my friend uses (in the same city as the truck is for sale in) can do a PPI for me tomorrow.

 

Yeah check it out for sure. If thats the only bad spot it might still be a good truck. Replaced frames scare people because having a whole truck apart and reassembled is a strange thing to do, but they can't all be bad.

 

I had a 2000 with a replaced frame, I won't do that again. Rust hides everywhere and wrenching crusty, rusty nuts & bolts is frustrating. I stopped buying cars north of the Mason Dixon line

 

Sorta like many cities that have a downtown area that's not actually south or down

 

I agree and if you continue down to the next answer it talks about STL and the Gateway thing too.

I like this one myself.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Down_East

It East enough but no so much Down?

 

This is turning into a very entertaining thread....

 

Welp.. I tried to make an appointment at noon and they have one at 10AM already. So do I get up at 7AM to drive over there (1 hour drive) or see if the person buys it? To be honest, I was trying to go for $8k out the door and they certainly aren't doing that with a person lined up right after me. So it'll be $9k out the door.

 

Or they are gaming you and nobody is looking at it but you.

 

There is an Old Saying: You don’t know until you go.

Worst case scenario is nothing happens. Best case is you get a solid truck. Its been months since seeing a solid 1st Gen for sale in my area.

@Hooptytrix is finding plenty of scores.

 

Decided to drive over tonight and really poke around underneath, see if I want to drive it. Have a buddy over there and can crash at his place if I decide to.

 

It’s only money, right? Once you get there and see it/drive it, you’ll want to bring it home. It’s probably the cleanest “local” Tundra you’ll find.

 

Well, got here and crawled under, what do you guys think? some rust breaking through behind the drivers side and bubbling more as well, passenger side also had the bubbling. More pics of underside also.

 

Crickets

 

Yeah, that's a lot of rust. Need daytime pictures.

 

Don’t think I want to spend $9k out the door on it. If the other person wants to then they can have it. If they don’t I’ll offer $7k out the door and tell them the fenders are rusting away and that’s all I’m willing to spend accounting for that.

 

Original pictures looked good. That seems like kinda bad rust. Then again $8k isn’t too bad.

id pass unless it was 7k-8k

 

From what I can see the rust doesn't look too abnormal, but the holes in the fender are bigger than it looked at first. I know the one owner low mileage is tempting, but I'd probably pass.

 

Sounds like a good plan, BH.

 

I'm spoiled and cheap. I won't spend 6, 7 or 8 on something with that much rust. Hell I paid 8 for my present truck and it had 88k on the clock, that was about a year ago

 

The rust on the axle, backing plates, shocks, sway bar Isn't something that would deter me, as thats all cleanable or replaceable. The body rust is another story. Go all in at 7k and see what they say...

 

Illinois huh? Better have that rust protection applied!

 

I paid 7500 for my 01 tundra 4x4 trd. Had frame replaced in 2012, 128,000 miles. Illinois

 

I agree! My 2000 was $8500 with 223K miles and no complete service record. Do take a look at the front suspension as these trucks do have some front end issues as I've learned here, just wear with ball joints and sway bar links, UCA bushings. Welcome, and enjoy. Super trucks. 6mos in and I love mine.

 

So the guy that was supposed to be there an hour and 45 mins ago is not there and is coming from out of state, lol. Not sure the other guy exists but I’m not going to play the game because I am not paying $9k for it and I’m sure that’ll be their bargaining chip, that the other guy will be there soon. Will be a waste of 2 hours so I’ll let the other guy no show.

 

Go have some lunch and beers and come back later tonight with 69 Benji’s.

 

Just read through this thread and the one thing that kept coming to mind was dealers know what they have. This isn't a rare find of some granny's truck that she rarely used or doesn't know what she has. It's a dealer selling it and it's dealer priced. If they're asking $8K, it's probably a $6k-$6500 private sale value. From the pictures you took of the effectively systemic rust, the earlier posted pictures from the dealer making it look as good as it could. I'd pass on it and keep looking.