A sad day for my Toyota Tacoma

Over the week end I had a complete brake failure on my Tacoma. No wreck no amazing crashes luckily. That isn't the sad part of the ordeal. The sad part is yet to come.

Come Monday it goes to the shop to be repaired the mechanic tells me he isn't going to work on it till it goes to the dealer ship for possible recall problems. I tell him to patch it up good enough to get me to the dealership then. Which he does.

When I get to the dealer ship I talk to them about a possible recall on rusted out frames on Tacomas from 1995 to 2000. The dealer service manager proceeds to tell me all about it. So we go out and look at the trucks frame all looks good but one spot. He tells me I have to bring it back in to have it put on the lift so it can be inspected and tested. While he is setting there telling me this I pull out my pocket knife and poke a hole through the frame with the Knife.

Here comes the sad part. He tells me if the hole goes all the way through which it does the truck is to be scrapped. I will be payed and payed well for the truck. The deal now goes down like this I take it back in to have it looked at and pictures taken they send them off to Toyota. An engineer reviews them then a claim agent calls me. The claim agent is to explain how it will all go down and what I will get and price can be discussed at this time. They then send out a Toyota Rep who give me a check and takes the truck.

I bought this truck when it was just 2 years old with 20,000 miles on it. I looked for over 2 months for a Tacoma with the features I wanted when purchased. The right motor, manual transmission, true 4 wheel drive, and locking hubs. Since then I personally have put down over 200,000 in this truck with only some minor problems. Needed a new starter once, new clutch, and a new idler pulley. This has been the best truck I have ever owned and it will be greatly missed.

I have posted a link to an article about the problem. As a side note I never received a letter and I bought it from a Toyota Dealer. So for all you Tacoma owners out there take a look and see if you are part of this problem.

http://blog.toyota.com/2008/03/living-up-to-ou/comments/page/8/

D.