Flyinbowtie
01-01-2007, 01:57 PM
We got an education this week in the value of used Toyota Tacoma 4x4 trucks. I was sorta amazed at how these things hold their value, even with 150k on the clock, or more.
My 19 yr old son needed to step up to a newer ride, after falling victim to an inch of ice on the road Christmas Eve "Eve" in his 89 4Runner last weekend.
It was totaled, but everybody was okay.
So, we started looking around up here in the foothills, watching craigslist, the ads, and even hit the local dealers.
I had an ace-in-the hole, a friend who is a wholesaler, and was certain he could grab us a clean one at auction in the next week or two if we couldn't find one. He warned us that even at auction the clean 97-up Tacoma 4x4 extened cabs w/either the 2.7 4 or the 3.4 V-6 are going at3k over wholesale. He also told us that dealers from Stockton north are hitting up private party ads all over NorCal, buying them, taking them to the lot, detailing 'em and adding 5 or 6 k to the price. What we saw at the dealers confirmed that. They're not ashamed of asking 12k + for a 4-7 year old truck, pretty banged up, with 185,000 on them. According to Edmunds, Kelly BB, etc, they were asking high book plus for trucks that didn't even come close to being a hgh book unit.
We did find one, yesterday morning on craiglist Sacramento. It hit the net yesterday morning, and by 7 am he had had calls from 7 people from as far away as Santa Cruz.
Two admitted to being buyers for dealers. One was enroute from Redding, and one from Stockton.
We were first there with the $, so we "won". The owner is smogging it and we'll grab it Tuesday. We are happy with the truck, a one-owner 97 with the 3.4 V-6, 5-speed, manual locking hubs, extended cab, and only 88k on the clock. The owner hass maint. records from day one, and it has always been garaged. We feel like we stole it.:D
His brother has a mechanically identical model with 279,000 on it, these things apparently run forever.
You guys in California that have one of these that might be thinking about selling it need to check the market before you put a price on, you might be surprised at what you can get.
My 19 yr old son needed to step up to a newer ride, after falling victim to an inch of ice on the road Christmas Eve "Eve" in his 89 4Runner last weekend.
It was totaled, but everybody was okay.
So, we started looking around up here in the foothills, watching craigslist, the ads, and even hit the local dealers.
I had an ace-in-the hole, a friend who is a wholesaler, and was certain he could grab us a clean one at auction in the next week or two if we couldn't find one. He warned us that even at auction the clean 97-up Tacoma 4x4 extened cabs w/either the 2.7 4 or the 3.4 V-6 are going at3k over wholesale. He also told us that dealers from Stockton north are hitting up private party ads all over NorCal, buying them, taking them to the lot, detailing 'em and adding 5 or 6 k to the price. What we saw at the dealers confirmed that. They're not ashamed of asking 12k + for a 4-7 year old truck, pretty banged up, with 185,000 on them. According to Edmunds, Kelly BB, etc, they were asking high book plus for trucks that didn't even come close to being a hgh book unit.
We did find one, yesterday morning on craiglist Sacramento. It hit the net yesterday morning, and by 7 am he had had calls from 7 people from as far away as Santa Cruz.
Two admitted to being buyers for dealers. One was enroute from Redding, and one from Stockton.
We were first there with the $, so we "won". The owner is smogging it and we'll grab it Tuesday. We are happy with the truck, a one-owner 97 with the 3.4 V-6, 5-speed, manual locking hubs, extended cab, and only 88k on the clock. The owner hass maint. records from day one, and it has always been garaged. We feel like we stole it.:D
His brother has a mechanically identical model with 279,000 on it, these things apparently run forever.
You guys in California that have one of these that might be thinking about selling it need to check the market before you put a price on, you might be surprised at what you can get.