Well gotta give Toyota a thumbs up. I took my 02 Tacoma in during the original recall. Dealer said it passed and coated the frame. Just this past fall the truck failed inspection due to holes in the frame. Took it to dealer after calling corporate , they took pics and was given a full new frame swap. So now I basically have a new Tacoma with only 120,000 miles on her.
Well gotta give Toyota a thumbs up. I took my 02 Tacoma in during the original recall. Dealer said it passed and coated the frame. Just this past fall the truck failed inspection due to holes in the frame. Took it to dealer after calling corporate , they took pics and was given a full new frame swap. So now I basically have a new Tacoma with only 120,000 miles on her.
Pretty damn impressive customer service. No telling how much that whole procedure cost TOyota.
My 1995 Tacoma with 135000 miles was bought by Toyota for almost $10,000 in 2008. It was the frame rusting problem program that a guy in the Lowes parking lot told me about. He said go see your dealer and be blown away by what they are going to give you. I do believe there was a cutoff date on the deal. And I was never notified directly by Toyota.
From my understanding, there was no problem with the steel used in the frame. The problem was that the supplier who made the frames did not do the metal rust treatment to spec and it was not identified until frames starting rusting out years after production. My truck has had the frame and spring recalls done but I have no complaints after 8 yrs/160K miles with nothing but routine maintenance. I was glad for the new springs as I had overloaded the old ones a few times and they were showing their age.
Had a '06 Toyota Tacoma and got rammed from behind, not huge shock but lifted slightly one side. Inspection result from insurance, car is total! fixing the frame would be too expensive.
The previous owner of what is now my '02 Tacoma (with 72xxx miles, not that it really matters) didn't ever take it to a dealer for the whole frame recall thing, which means that by the time I bought it, Toyota was no longer making good on their offer for buyback or replacement. I took matters into my own hands and replaced the frame myself. I found a healthy frame from Tacoma that had been in a rollover accident, and switched 'em out (scrapped the old frame). It was an enormous project and I wouldn't try it without a lot of extra manpower; an automotive lift sure came in handy too. It works though and it's rewarding to have it all in one piece now.
"Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts." - Winston Churchill