My son sold his RV (trailer) and so is downsizing from his F350 SuperDuty to a smaller truck. He had a Tacoma before and wanted another. Priced a Tacoma lately? Yikes. Anyway, he found a 2005 V6 with 210k at a dealer 41 miles away (road distance), inspected the hell out of it (in part using my borrowed Veepeak OBD2 and borescope for the frame), test drove it hard for around 10 miles. Seemed to be solid mechanically, albeit with really chunky and noisy off road tires and a nice coating of clay on the bottom. He scanned it again and nothing. So he bought it and drove it home. Once here he rescans it: P0420 and P0430 pending, no CEL yet. The app he uses said (in our driveway) that it was 56 miles since the codes were cleared. Most likely the battery was just unplugged and all 56 miles were the test drive and the drive home. Cars on lots often have their batteries disabled, that part isn't in itself suspicious. The dealer has a "return it up to 5 days or 240 miles" coverage. Seems like about the same amount of usage that would be needed to promote the pending codes to an actual CEL. My money is that they knew the cats were marginal/bad but calculated that the CEL was probably not going to trigger within that short usage period. Most buyers are not going to scan for pending codes, they would only scan if the CEL lit. There are things that can trigger a P0420 and P0430 that aren't the cats, but statistically, that is by far the most likely problem. I suggested he just take it back now, but he wants to have a local Tacoma mechanic have a look at it first. As an interesting twist on this when this vehicle was made California allowed Federal cats on trucks. Up until (I forget the exact year, 2018?) if one failed it could be replaced with a Federal cat. Unfortunately, when we had the cat stealing epidemic they changed that rule, so that now these old trucks need CARB cats if one is replaced, which are more $$. Just for fun, the vehicle has 4 catalytic converters. Looks like ballpark $2400 in parts to replace all of them. Thoughts? Edit: forgot to mention, for people not used to CA laws, it isn't legal to sell a vehicle here which cannot pass smog. Either one of those codes would be disqualifying once they get past pending and trigger the CEL. I don't think "pending" (with no CEL lit) would fail smog though.
You can buy aftermarket ones for way cheaper and weld 'em on. But first, give the engine a tune up and a fresh tank of gas to be certain this problem is a problem that is truly fixed with cats and not something else. Also, every time I see a near new Toyota Tacoma I get sad and wonder how such a perfect, small long-lasting truck with great MPG turned into a huge gas guzzling box of ugly with large amounts of known reliability problems. It's like everything that made their historic pickup truck the greatest truck ever is now that exact opposite of what they're selling. Most embarrassing of all is how weak these rigs are for towing or for truck campers / cab over campers.
Son took the truck to a mechanic today for an inspection. Mechanic saw the cat codes (still no CEL but only about 1 mile more on it) and other issues culminating in one big one: no coolant visible in either the overflow tank or the radiator. Son had checked the coolant level in the radiator before starting the test drive and it was full at the time, capacity 10 quarts. 3 or 4 (at least) gone in 50 miles. He didn't check it on arriving back home because there was no reason to - no cloud of white smoke behind it coming back from the dealer, it didn't run hot, and in the morning no puddle under the car. Luckily the mechanic is just 3 blocks away so even if it was completely empty that wouldn't have hurt anything. Anyway, it's going back to the dealer, and they said they will refund, but they won't pay for a tow. Son doesn't want to drive it because the verbiage in the agreement is mushy and if the motor blows for any reason they can argue he is at fault for driving it knowing there was a massive coolant problem. So we're off to rent a car carrier. Luckily he had not yet sold the F350, so plenty of towing capacity in house still.
Wow... What a huge pain! Hopefully their service fee on returns is reasonable and you can put the whole thing behind you! Also, tell your kid of the option of a $3k Gen2 Prius with a 4x8 foldable trailer is just as good as an expensive truck and way better at the gas pump...
Due to stringent CARB laws; those pending CAT codes would make that untouchable to me. While those V6 engines are pretty reliable, they can easily fry CATs if they've been chipped or modified; especially with over 200K miles. I always smell sulfur going through the mountains when chipped trucks pass me.
An old 2wd 5-speed Toyota Truck can get 35mpg and are super easy to repair, can last nearly forever. I just sold an '86 Truck w/145K miles for 2/3rds of its original purchase price after 40 years and three owners! That's a vehicle that doesn't just save big money, it holds value!
That Tacomas last a very long time (usually) is a two edged sword. If you have one you can just keep driving it. But because they hold their prices so well finding an inexpensive one that is mechanically sound is difficult.
Glad you were able to return her! I've seen many good used Taco's for sale...tell him 2005 is a bit too far to go back. (And that was the first year of the larger Taco and had some issues, I had a silver one, V-6, and needed to get a few things on her fixed under warranty but then she was perfect for 10-years when I upgraded to a Tundra.) The 2010-2015 Taco with a V-6 are very solid.
The old ones do... But read up on the ones they've made in past few years. 100% pure gas guzzling garbage with lots of mechanical failures and warranty claims with drivetrain, brake system, transmission, instrument panel and a level of engine design complexity that ensures there's no way truck can goes to 300K miles without need for major repairs: https://pickuptrucktalk.com/2026/03/2024-2026-toyota-tacoma-known-problems-transmission-engine-small-gripes/
When they went to that 3.5L V6, is when the luster of a Tacoma V6 being anywhere near the Hilux legend, faded for me. Yes, there were the frame rust issues, indicative of that era of Toyota's #1-sales-domestic-quality-practices dark age. But was raised in and 'qualified' for my H I drivers licence in a 22R 4-spd Pickup -- and to me, every gen since they massively increased the size just felt tinny, esp in the doors. Doors aren't drivetrain tho, and if they were as solid as that 22R's (albeit will admit that particular motor will warp a head in seconds if you run it low on coolant / spring a leak on a tough off-road situation), no heat from me. All the Local V6 Taco owners I know who bought a 3.5L after retiring their rusted-out 4.0L, agree the big-bore was thirsty but torque were in the right place at the right time, and much lower-stress for doing most reasonable things in that size of pickup. The 3.5 gets better emissions and fuel economy, but the torque is higher up enough to disappoint the old guard. I drove a 3.0L V6 Penske box-truck rental to haul 1500 lbs of my crap from VA to NoCA early '90s, a 3000-mi+ ETS journey I'll never forget -- and also how that era of Toyota V6 (old iron-block-alum-heads) shrugged off going over the Southern bits of Rockies + Sierra Nevadas, 80 mph in sheets of rain in TN w\ semis at 2am, signaling them in after they pass on left like they do each other... and getting 19 mpg overall (better after an oil/filter swap in a NAPA car park inside the CA border. That also set the bar pretty high... which esp this turbo generation has utterly failed
