Buy used 2003 Tundra?

taco08

My father is looking at replacing his 1996 Ford Ranger with a 2003 Tundra 4.7 4X4 Access Cab.
I'm just trying to read through as many of the threads as I can to get up to speed with this truck to make sure he's not getting in to anything he shouldn't

Looking for some general feedback.
Truck has 110.000km on it dealer is asking $17,800CDN but from what I can see in Black Book the truck is probably worth around $15,000
Is there anything special we should be looking at on the truck? Gottcha's and such?
He will be using it to tow an 18foot travel trailer.

apptun

I just traded in my 02 4x4 Access Cab with just over 100k miles on the odometer. Everything worked as it should with great tires, brakes, etc. It had a trailer brake and beefed up rear suspension. Truck was probably an 8.5 on a 10 point scale. I truthfully realized about 9000 us dollars for the truck. Thought that it could bring around 10,500 if I sold it privately, but I did not want to hassle with the sales process. I would just make sure that the recalls have been done and I would really pay attention to frame condition. Part of the reason why I traded my truck was due to the excessive rust(my opinion) on the frame. I know that Toyota made good on the Tacoma frames, but once again, I did not want to hassle with the process if it came to be. The 02 overall was a fairly good truck. It had a persistent vibration that shook the console at around 45 mph that I finally just gave up trying to fix. I had to replace the 4x4 actuator and Toyota sprung for the oxygen sensors with the extended coverage that they provided. Beyond that the only complaint that I have is that the truck was really hard on tires. I never got over 30k out of a set and it was on set number four when I traded it off. Good luck

taco08

Well that sounds like quite a lot of things to look out for. Seems we're stuck at a point where just about every truck made in those years has some kind of quality issue that makes them not very attractive.
Dad's Ranger is not in bad shape, it's just old so we may just hold on to it for another year and see what's available next year.

Thanks a ton for the feedback, very helpful.

apptun

I would not be scared at all of the 03. If you can but it at a fair price and it is in good shape, it is a very good truck. Most of my issues were really fairly minor and I am a meticulous and demanding person when it comes to my truck . By the way, I traded for an 06 and except for the size of the double cab they are basically the same truck. The 06 just has several updated features.