Seeking Advice on Potential 2006 Tundra Purchase

New member and (potential) 1st Gen Tundra Owner. Hello!

I am mulling over purchasing a 2006 Tundra Access Cab from a private local party.

The truck appears to be VERY clean with only 59,000 original miles. It is a SR5 with TRD Off Road package.

Two owners, the first had it for 10 years in Minnesota, the current owner here in Arizona for the balance. It appears to be very well cared for, frame and under carriage has minimal surface rust. Leaf Springs appear a bit more rusted but serviceable. Front and rear diffs were just serviced as well as the transfer case. Current owner says serpentine belt was also recently replaced.

He's asking $22k, which is outside the range from KBB but given the low miles and clean condition perhaps that is reasonable.

Figured I would come to the experts for an opinion.

Appreciate your feedback in advance.

 

If you like the truck and going to keep it a long long time itmay be worth it, but seems high. I would rather have a 2nd Gen with 100K miles for that kind of money unless you're a collector.

 

I’d take a higher mileage first gen over that low of miles at that price. These were meant to run not sit. Make an account on my Toyota and plug the vin in to look at the service history if it has one.

 

That's at least 40% higher than remotely reasonable. You don't want the shit that comes along with low mile trucks.

Have you read this thread? It definitely shows pics of what you can expect. This and 10 years in MN are all the reason this is overpriced.

 

West coast that’s worth it. New Base model F-150 is 45k. Maintenance will seem like it is nickel and diming you for a bit.

I’m at 315k on mine and there is no way any of the big 3 (including 2nd gens) will be as trouble free as a 1st gen Tundra.

I paid $8,500 for mine in March 2020 with 207k on it. I thought I was nuts. I think now I got a deal. Mine isn’t that clean though.

Problem is if you get T-Boned insurance won’t pay nearly what you paid for it.

Make sure frame is 100% for that price through.

 

Assume on the high end that cap has been installed for 14/15 years of the truck’s life.

Check for rust/rot under the bed rails.

These trucks are known for frame rot, so good luck.

 

As a MN native, don’t trust the exterior of the frame. Salt spray will get inside the Fram rails and rot it from the inside out.

Nice truck, but golly that’s a lot of money.

 

It's even more than you'd pay in California, for a truck that's been in California its whole life and doesn't even have surface rust on anything.

 

As mentioned above, if you're planning on keeping 'a' truck for a long time and this one is an option over a much newer & higher priced Tundra, then it may be worth it. Let's assume for a second that everything underneath is as clean as the outside and the owner was meticulous with the service and has all records. I still think it's around $4K too high all things considered. Keep in mind (as mentioned) there are certain risks with buying a truck that is almost 17 years old.
I have a very similar looking DC as yours I bought 2 years ago with 58K miles for $15K. It had some significant things done to it & added to it that I felt made it a sweet deal like timing belt, serp belt, brakes, trans flush, tires, shell, head unit with new speakers, back up cam, etc.
All that being said, it's still a 17 year old truck . . . but it's paid for and my insurance / registration is cheap (by California standards).
Unless there are some skeletons, or hidden problems / issues, it looks like a good truck.
Is it worth it, is a decision you'll have to make.
Best of Luck.

My 2006 Similar to yours . . . .

 

Like, you drive away, and 100 miles later the timing belt snaps and boat anchors the engine because the previous owner never changed the timing belt due to how low the mileage was, not realizing there's an age limit on those belts too.

I'd actually love to see what's under your valve covers after the sludge and varnish the rest of us low-mile truck owners have found under ours from all the short-trip driving that led to those low mile numbers.

 

Yeah, it might look like a chocolate factory under there for all I know.
The guy I bought it from was my neighbor. He used it for 2 reasons, to pull his boat, and to go on surf trips.
He had a company car to do all his commuting & around town stuff, and the Tundra just sat in his garage all week.
He was on it as far as maintenance, and did the timing belt not because the mileage, but the age. Who knows.

 

sounds like longer trips. I’d be a lot less worried.

 

One of the biggest design related hassles on these engines is removing the valve covers! Plenty of room to work our trucks, so not unmanageable. Put the same engine in a Land Cruiser, however, and now it's an all day job. I'm sure you don't have to take the wheels off to pop the valve covers off on a F150

 

I would pass for all the reasons mentioned above.

 

22k is higher than I'd pay. It does look clean, but I would need to really know everything inside and out before shelling out that much $$. The two owner thing bothers me.... One owner with low miles is one thing, but a second owner doing the same thing with the same truck raises suspicion. I bet the second owner thought is was the find of the decade and then maybe discovered some of the issues mentioned above about low miles patsy trucks and decided to bail on it. Which makes you either the next sucker or possibly very lucky to find it BUT, don't overpay for it just because it looks clean and pretty.

 

Me likely but I wouldn't pay 22K on a $32Kish truck that's 16 years old UNLESS if it got totaled I could recover the market value I paid.

Hell, if I could buy my truck new I would, even if I paid twice the $27.5K I paid when I bought it in 2002!

 

To your point, I was worried as hell when I bought my 2-owner 63-64k mile truck, that something was fishy with it. CarFax had was listed as a "fleet" or "business owned" vehicle on top of the mileage (I forget the legal language Alabama uses). I knew from CarFax it was always in Alabama, so frame should be clean, the 1st owner had it ~55k miles, but the 2nd owner put 9k miles on it and traded it in, which left me feeling like it was a gamble. I got it cheap enough, I was like, "screw it, I'll take the risk". I had a set number in my head - wanted to be out around $11k - $13k OTD, and pay cash.

Turns out the previous owner was an older dude who managed a bank in Birmingham and, to save money, registered it in the bank's name as a "work vehicle", which is where the 'fleet' designation came from. 2nd owner, I really don't know what the hell he did with it, I found some signs it was used for work purposes (sawzall blade in the center console, random deck fasteners and related bits, etc.), signs of light hitch usage and a jacknife contact, then later found evidence someone dropped some money into the brakes, and had the valve covers off. I also found some receipts from a jiffy-lube type place for oil changes, cheapest possible oil change, if it was even changed knowing places like that...

Needless to say, 1st owner clearly short-trip drove it, leaving the heads varnished and cooked. I suspect they dumped it, potentially due to bank 1 cam seal leak, possibly cowl rainwater leak, and maybe a brake issue. I suspect whoever bought it had some brake work done (rears looked pristine), and must've had someone in the valve covers to check the cam seal leaks, because there's two diff't color FIPG sealing the corners when I replaced the typical low-mile leaky valve cover gaskets, and clearly the washer-gaskets that hold the covers on were missing.

It's not clear to me if they fixed the cam seal leak at the time? But I believe when they had that work done, popped the covers off, and saw how bad the heads looked (sludge/crust/varnish) from all the short-trip, low-mile driving, they decided they'd dodge a bullet and dump the truck on trade-in. Less than a month after buying, the factory alternator died a violent death with fire. Then an O2 sensor went out. Then I found the sludge and crust in the top-end, and have cleared a lot out gradually so they're more golden than mahogany.

Anyway, another tl;dr for me. Short version: Low mile often doesn't mean problem-free. Someone is trying to capitalize on the innate desire for a 'more-virgin' vehicle here, don't fall for their shit! Spend the same $$ and get a 100k-150k mile truck (minimum) that's lived its whole life in CA or AZ.

 

If that were my truck, I'd want $22k for it. Gorgeous color, amazing condition. No one here is wrong about the "use it or lose it" nature of vehicle use and maintenance. Driving a vehicle is good for it. It's what it was designed for. Low miles keeps the appearance nice and decreases wear on some parts, but others literally rot away from lack of use. I would not pay $22k for a 2006 truck. I would be OK with 150k miles, good condition, $10-$15k for one of these optioned the way I wanted. Your money, if your in love with this one, have it THOROUGHLY inspected by a trusted mechanic. Frame, rubber bits, timing belt, scope the cylinders and valve covers, 4WD system etc. Good luck.

 

Low miles and being 16-17 years old are not the winning combination you might think. Things still deteriorate with age and can actually be more problematic due to inactivity. I would not pay that price, but if you do, expect some surprises hiding under that clean exterior.

 

Greatly appreciate all the insightful feedback, guys. This would be a third vehicle in our two person household, used for outdoor pursuits primarily, so the low mileage trend would continue. I don’t want or need a headache. I’m a retired guy and have the time to chase down issues but not the desire. The varnish/sludge under valve covers from short trips has me very concerned.

It caught my eye due to the cleanliness but will pass on this one given the high price. Look at either newer or higher mileage and less expensive.

I like the idea of opening a mytoyota account and putting the VIN to see what comes up.

Again, thanks.

 

I'd love to get my hands on an ARE top like that thing has ...

 

It appears the frame was inspected at 33,900 miles in 2015 and a rust inhibitor was applied under a Toyota campaign. Perhaps that’s why the frame looks clean.

 

Also always check CARFAX or a similar service. I looked at a very nice 2006 Limited 4x4 with odometer showing 89,000 miles, the truck looked excellent except for the seat belt wear which was weird. The story from the seller was inherited from his Grandpa original owner and original miles-which was BS, before test drive I said let me check CARFAX and when I did the vehicle had 3 owners and last reported milage of 279,000! Of course I walked away from the truck.

 

Here’s a graph of prices paid from auctions on bringatrailer. Crazy what clean examples sell for. One went for $42,500, 26k miles. Interesting. Maybe $22k is realistic?!

 

To someone out there, sure. I used a phrase earlier, "virgin vehicle". There's a reason.

There's always, always someone out there who is hung up on this idea of getting a "virgin", seemingly "untouched" thing with the fantasy it comes with a guarantee "it hasn't been molested" or something. I have guy friends who're the same way, they don't want to think about who's been up in their partner, how long, or why, the thought of it disgusts them. And they end up with something that's not broken-in, unfun. Sometimes it's an ego thing, sometimes it's a bragging thing, or insecurity.

THAT is the kind of person is the type paying $42k for 15+ year old truck with 26k miles on it. The thing is, they get no guarantee nobody has molested things at that price, just some extra confidence, whether unfounded or not. Reality is, there's are a slew of issues you're bound to face on something that's sat around that much over the years. Like....

You need oil splashing on rubber seals to keep them from drying out and cracking, for example, else you get leaks. You need to burn through that full tank of gas in 4-6 months else you get varnish and sludge. There are things that NEED to happen in a vehicle of this age, but they just don't unless you're putting the miles on them. And these are the things that have bitten me and others with low-mile 1st gens in the ass.

Granted, sometimes the person paying those prices ends up being a purist or a collector who's vying for something all-original, but in my lifetime of experience picking up vintage stuff, buying used cars to modernize or restore, it's normally the 'virgin-hunters' who do that shit, as I like to call them. And when you see things fetching those crazy numbers, those aren't trucks that lived in the rust belt for 10 years like the one you're looking at.

Note ~30% of the trucks on that chart sold for $20k or less. 20% sold for $17k or less. That's a reasonable price point for these trucks if they've never seen salted roads and it's under 100k-120k miles. I don't care how nice the seller says the frame looks on the outside, if the truck was driven in the snow for even 1 full season, the frame has been compromised IMHO, and 25% of the value is out the door. And I'm asking to see pictures of inside the framerails, and need some proof it wasn't re-sprayed.

It's your money, do what you want to do. I just see too many 1st Gens in my area who've lived their whole life here, are under 150k miles, have had the timing belt, water pump and pulleys changed within the last 10yr/100k miles and just $15-16k, I can't entertain the idea of a truck that looks great on the outside with 50k miles on it @ $22k. There's someone out there who'll buy it at that price, I have no doubt. I'm just not that sucker. I've got my low-mile truck, and it's not all its cracked up to be.

As it sits, I wouldn't pay a dollar over $18k for that truck, if the cap is included, and that's entirely dependent on what I see inside the frame, whether there's evidence f a re-spray, and no signs of even superficial rust or warping at the typical buckle/compromise points.

Don't forget: You're basing the value on BAT. BAT is specifically a website that targets your typical collector/virgin-hunter. You're basically skimming value numbers from the cream-of-crop vehicle that qualifies to be on BAT. It's a terrible way to assess the value of something - it's only showing you what something can fetch to a certain type of person, not what it normally fetches.

 

Actually, if you want to buy mine, timing belt was changed recently, it's had a ton of modernizing, restoration, and sprucing, southern-only truck, never seen salt, only 74k miles as of last week. I'll sell it to you for $32k cash.

Then go out and buy one with 30k more miles, in better engine-internals shape, for $15k. There's two on my Craigslist as of Monday.

 

Think I’ll pass…on this and the other truck. I’m just amazed people are dropping that kind of dough at BAT.

 

Believe me, so are we. Here's 6 pages worth of thread speaking directly to that point, and even discussing some samples from your chart:

https://www.tundras.com/threads/1st-gens-are-entering-legendary-status.83988/

 

Very interesting. This has gone from me driving past a nice old Tundra on the way home from the grocery store and thinking nice truck for sale to going down the rabbit hole on this thing.

 

Well, at least you found some pretty cool people down in the rabbit hole