Used Cars: used truck buying, toyota financial, toyota dealership

Question
Hi Roger,

My question is in regards to buying a used 2006 Toyota Tacoma.  I have been looking for one now for about 4 weeks and came across an '06 Tacoma with 71K miles being sold by a dealership.  My concern is that there have been two previous owners.  The first owner leased it for 3 years and put around 56K miles on it.  Then in 2009, the lease was up I suppose and it was sold at an auto auction.  The second owner had it for 7 months, put 14K miles on it and then traded it to a dealership.  Carfax looks clean right now.  No apparent wrecks, mechanical problems, etc.  Should I be suspicious at all about this?  The truck looks great (means very little I know), and the dealership said it has gone through a 120 point inspection with no problems found.  How can I really know if this is a sound purchase?  What further questions should I ask?  Thanks so much, Roger.  I appreciate your help.

Grady Maddox

Answer
Hi thank you for the question, I would not be worried at all about the Toyota truck you found having had two previous owners, with the second owner owning it only for a short time. I can think of at least 100 reasons why a person would do that. I managed a large Toyota dealership for a couple of years and what I would be more concerned about than anything is not how many owners it had, but who those owners were and how well did they take care of the truck while they owned it.

Owner #1 - leased vehicle on a three year or 39 month lease it sounds like. Not everybody is offered the opportunity to lease a vehicle. What it requires is above average credit also Toyota financial has been known to buy fairly deep. At the end of the lease the owner number one chose to turn the truck back in instead of rolling it into a purchase and keeping it. What that means is that somebody from Toyota financial expected that truck very closely for any type of wear or damage that could be considered above normal wear and tear so they could charge him extra for the condition. There is no question that he understood that and Toyota buyers generally return their vehicles in great shape. People always say that Toyotas and Hondas last longer than domestic vehicles... I don't believe that for a second, and if it was ever true then it certainly isn't true in the water and hasn't for many years (4-6 yrs) the reason that it seems like Toyotas and Hondas last longer is because of the caliber of the buyer more than the quality difference in the vehicle. Toyota buyers generally have better credit, better jobs, are more likely to change the oil in a regular basis and are more likely to have scheduled maintenance's done on time to protect their investment.

Owner #2 -  as long as this was not a high school kid which you would be able to tell because they almost always modify something... stereo, wheels and tires, lift, stuff like that. He only owned it for seven months but it sounds like he never stopped driving it the whole time he had at 14,000 miles which is significantly more than normal by about two and half times. If the vehicle looks like it's in good shape... and hasn't been tortured by someone taking it off road and running it till the wheels fell off which you can tell by crawling underneath and looking, you can also tell by looking at the paint on the front left corner panels in the hood to see if they went through a bunch of brush, or some other off-road venue. To check the oil make sure it's nice and fresh looking,

I would say go for it! And enjoy it. I don't know which state you are writing from but out here in the Northwest Toyota Tacoma's in that age group with those miles are a very hot commodity make sure you change the oil and take care of it and keep all of your receipts because it will add a tremendous amount of value if you can demonstrate to the next owner how diligently you maintained the vehicle

Roger

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