Toyota extends rust warranty on older Tacoma pickups to 15 years

[mt_goat]

http://blog.lexus.com/2008/03/living-up-to-ou.html

Originally Posted by ShowStop

PDFs now posted:

Dealer Communication Letter (From Toyota Corp to all Dealers)
http://www.showstop.org/images/truck...munication.pdf

Warranty Policy Bulletin #POL08-03 (Details about what is covered and VIN ranges)
http://www.showstop.org/images/truck...nty-policy.pdf

Vehicle Inspection Procedure
http://www.showstop.org/images/truck...inspection.pdf

[JeffsJeep04]

Holy crap! That's awesome!

Originally Posted by mt_goat

http://www.autoblog.com/2008/03/07/t...s-to-15-years/

[thegross1]

That's sweet! Come on letter....I wonder how much they would buy my truck for?

[Skrillah]

No kidding...time to start shopping for another truck!

[JeffsJeep04]

Originally Posted by thegross1

That's sweet! Come on letter....I wonder how much they would buy my truck for?

According to toyota's site, KBB in excellent condition (regardless of actual shape). I'm not sure how OK I'd be with them buying it back...on one hand it would let me get the full sized truck that I really need (I pull more then a taco really needs to), but on the other...regular cab 4x4 taco's are HARD to find. Mine isn't too bad, so I'm sure they will just fix it.

[rockstar4christ]

So...is that saying that if I bought a truck in that year range that was used in salty areas and has a rusted through frame, and got it inspected, they would buy it.
1. Find a super cheap truck w/super rusted frame
2. Get it inspected
3. Toyota buys it from me
4. I get a non rusted taco with the $$$?

[JeffsJeep04]

I have a feeling that the price on rusted out taco's is about to go up....buy now!


My thing is...what about all the people who have already had to nearly GIVE away their otherwise perfect trucks or those who have shelled out tons of money to get them fixed?

[TEJASYOTA]

Here is another write up on this subject...

Rust on trucks from 1995 thru 2000 - click here

[fear]

That's awesome! Damn I should have hung onto my 1997 that died a horrible red death.

Makes sense to me though. There are soooo many Yota's around here of that vintage that are totally rotted out. Every time I see one for sale I take a look at the frame. Every one in that vintage(maybe 10 or 12 trucks) I've looked at has major holes and rot.

Think of the liability and publicity when a few of these trucks break apart at 75mph on the highway. Kill a couple kids and they've got a nightmare on their hands. Giving folks a few thousand to be able to junk them makes for good business....

wow... Toyota corporate does somethin' right.

[TacomaTRD99]

im pretty sure i just shit myself. This news just made my year. Im going to call a dealer tomarrow and see what they have to say. I did a repair a few months back to cover the holes in my frame. My question to you guys is their not that strong IMO, and if i took it into a dealer, should i uncover the holes or not? I have pictures i could show them etc, what do you guys think?

[terryj5]

This implies that the really bad cases will get the "buy Back". I wonder what will happen to them? A bunch of used parts for sale somewhere? I bet they get scrapped, hope not. This whole thing is just amazing and I have been thru the "secret" tranny waranty on the 83s and the head gasket recall, twice. It is the right thing to do though. Toyota has been bitten bad by the rust out issue before and it has taken quite a while for it to get over the rep. It's kind of a "spit in the eye" of other "struggling" companies also.

[Shakerhood]

I wonder how much they would low ball the Buy Back Price?

[fear]

If Toyota buys them back they'll be totally destroyed (i.e. crushed and recycled) for sure.

I can't wait for someone to find out what the buy back $$ is.....

Got a bunch of local rotted yota's I'll buy as soon as we find out!

We should spread this to other yota/4x4 forums too.... This is great news.

-Fear

[T_Dunn]

HAHA im gonna get my hammer and spotlight out tomorrow. I hope My local toyota dealership has some extra money or a good welder on hand. Now if only this would apply to the leaf springs. Maybe I'll go buy that 95 that is broken in half at the junkyard ahahaha.

[slguy]

wonder this applys to canadian tacos ? hmm i do have fraim rust issues on the 96

[Kyota]

Damn...I have a 99. No rust issues though.

[elcamino73]

Originally Posted by Shakerhood

I wonder how much they would low ball the Buy Back Price?

I'm sure they won't allow you to buy it back. if you did, you could re-sell it to them, or some one else, who could then sell it back to toyota. bad idea for business if toyota did that.

[Gregg Fisher]

IF toyota has a buy back program for all those rusty tacos, that means all the aftermarket add ons must be up for sale, or they will go with the rust. The toyota corp may not buy trucks back they may just rerplace the rusted parts, like they did with the ball joint warranty. It will be interesting to watch and see what happens?

[XT Tacoma]

This is definately interesting. I brought a beautiful Taco back from Texas (october 2006) to my extreme winter climate where there is salt used on roadways. I have the usual surface rust that most ANY vehicle develops on the chassis and related components, which is minimal as can possibly be. Hope to hell it stays this way.

[jester_motorsports]

Originally Posted by Gregg Fisher

The toyota corp may not buy trucks back they may just rerplace the rusted parts, like they did with the ball joint warranty. It will be interesting to watch and see what happens?

You can't exactly just replace parts of the frame though. The frame is one continuous piece. They don't make "patch panels" for frames.

I work at a dealer in the parts department. We just got documentation 2 days ago discussing this issue. It was VERY vague though. It basically stated that they'll be "initiating a Customer Support Program (CSP) to enhance the warranty coverage for Frame Rust Perforation on certain 1995 through 2000 Model Year Tacoma Vehicles."

Basically they just told us that they'd be extending the warranty coverage for a period of 15 years with no mileage limitation from the vehicle's in-service date. It doesn't state specifics on what type of repairs, replacements, or buybacks whatsoever. It just tells us that more info will be available in mid-March.

EDIT: That second link that was posted above DID say that they would repair or repurchase the vehicle and the if the "repurchase" option was chosen, the vehicle would be declared in "excellent" condition, regardless of the actual condition of the vehicle. Hmm, interesting. I wonder why they haven't conveyed that information to the dealers yet???

[itsmeagain5789]

i dont have an older tacoma, but this is reason that i bought another toyota. they replaced my steering column on my old 4runner after an 11 year recall. i guess they keep us happy, most of the time.

[Shakerhood]

Originally Posted by jester_motorsports

You can't exactly just replace parts of the frame though. The frame is one continuous piece. They don't make "patch panels" for frames.

I work at a dealer in the parts department. We just got documentation 2 days ago discussing this issue. It was VERY vague though. It basically stated that they'll be "initiating a Customer Support Program (CSP) to enhance the warranty coverage for Frame Rust Perforation on certain 1995 through 2000 Model Year Tacoma Vehicles."

Basically they just told us that they'd be extending the warranty coverage for a period of 15 years with no mileage limitation from the vehicle's in-service date. It doesn't state specifics on what type of repairs, replacements, or buybacks whatsoever. It just tells us that more info will be available in mid-March.

EDIT: That second link that was posted above DID say that they would repair or repurchase the vehicle and the if the "repurchase" option was chosen, the vehicle would be declared in "excellent" condition, regardless of the actual condition of the vehicle. Hmm, interesting. I wonder why they haven't conveyed that information to the dealers yet???

I still wonder about the $$$ side of it as the Excellent Condition might be in Trade In Value and not Retail or Open Market Value.

[MooseBit]

Good on toyota for manning up and doing this, but they are going to get HAMMERED in the northeast with trucks coming in. "A few rare cases" B.S., there is so many late 90's tacos rusting into the ground. The body looks beautiful, but the frames are swiss cheese. Had a friend loose 3k on a 99 limited, sunroof, rear locker, v6, manual, dream truck, because it litterally folded in the back. All that held the ass end on was the bed. Welded it up and sold it to a canadian at a big loss. My bosses brother bought a 97 ex-cab, was all proud of it and brought it by a party after he brought it home. It looked pretty good in the dark, but I told him to check the frame in the daylight. 1' long hole in the side of the frame, he brought it back for a full refund the next day.

Every one of the northeast tacos is a rustbucket. My 2001 doesn't have any paint left on the frame from front to rear, and the c frame in the back is flaking pretty bad. My bud's 98 nearly swallowed my jack when we did the rear springs. He'll be pleased to hear this, we were going to reinforce it all this spring.

It's downright despicable to have a 10 year old truck FRAME folding up like a wet paper bag. It used to be the bodies would collapse around the frames on trucks, not the frame fall out from under the truck.

[fear]

They better have some big checkbooks in New England, but it sounds to me like the Toyota lawyers and the Toyota beancounters figured it's easy money in the long run. Even if they paid 10k for every single rotted frame it's still cheaper than the resulting publicity from a frame failure with casualties.

Not many people are going to find out about this anyway overall since it's not a official "recall". So even if a bunch of people were killed a year from now Toyota could at least show they made some effort to correct the problem.

You gotta figure most people never even look under their truck at all... We represent maybe 2.... 3% of the market?

[T_Dunn]

Lets not even talk about how much rust fell off my frame when I put on my trailer hitch, I chipped a god damn tooth by getting hit in the face with a big chunk ahaha. In my frame next to the rear tire i can see big chunks of paint and metal and I can touch them through the square hole but there is no real way to get them out.

[mt_goat]

Toyota had great frames until Dana started making them.

[guitarman4325]

wow. i didnt realize there were that many rust problems on tacos. i live in nc and i have a little rust. i might have to take it in and get that fixed.

[rader]

This restores a little of my faith in Toyota. If they would add bent frames that would be nice!!!! My Tacos went two for two on bending.

They may have to eat a lot of FJ cruisers over the body mount or apron issues before that is over too.

[jester_motorsports]

Originally Posted by Shakerhood

I still wonder about the $$$ side of it as the Excellent Condition might be in Trade In Value and not Retail or Open Market Value.

See, that's the main question right there. If they give you "excellent condition" but on a "trade-in" value, it's not NEARLY as much as "retail" value. I did excellent condition on trade-in value of my 99 yesterday. It's a 99, x-cab, TRD, auto with 130,000 miles on it. It doesn't have leather or a sunroof but other than that, it's pretty much got the rest. Value was $6450. There's no way I'd take that for my truck. Luckily it's a non-issue with me. I'll check it out more thoroughly the next time I'm underneath it.

Basically though, it's not a for-sure thing that they'll just buy up every truck. They DO have the option to attempt to repair it, although that's a pretty expensive option.

[Kyota]

It doesnt sound like the frame was the problem. Just the sealant.