Good buy? Unfamiliar with rust

I'm looking for a new 4th generation due to my last one being totaled by the insurance.

I'm working in Massachusetts right now and found a guy with an '06 Sport Edition V6 with 104,000 original miles. It hasn't been registered since 2018 due to a rusted out exhaust which has now been recently replaced. I drove it yesterday and it runs great. I'm pretty stoked about the mileage since this is half of what my other 4Runner had but not sure if there would be any concerns with it not having regular use over the last 6 years (he does drive it occasionally just not on the highway due to lack of registration).

I'm from the west coast and not familiar with the rust issues of the east coast. I took some pictures and wanted to get some opinions on if it was a good buy or not.

He is offering it to me for 6,000.

 

I am also not an expert on rust, but that looks like a hard pass to me.

 

I too would pass and keep looking.

Welcome to the forum!

 

That looks absolutely terrible. I'd imagine at minimum that most of the bolts you see are seized up and would need to be cut out. I wouldn't want to be inside that thing if you hit a hard bump, based on the looks of the lower control arms I could see the ball joint snapping. Ditto the frame, it doesn't look good. That radiator support looks terrible. See how that skid plate just has a giant hole in it? That's just what you can SEE. There's gonna be a lot worse deep up in there. I think this could only serve as a farm vehicle at best and isn't worth much of anything. I would suggest you walk away.

 

Walk away. Besides terminal rust, chances are good every rubber thing (cv boots, suspension bushings, etc) will fall apart in short order after that much time sitting around. So you probably wouldn’t even be able to get much use out of it for your 6k. Even if you wanted to do the work yourself and to spend thousands more refreshing those parts, there’s no way any nuts and bolt is coming apart without a torch.

 

Absolutely no reason to consider this.
If you must have a 4th gen, scout one from a non rust belt.

 

Those are hard winter mass miles, the motor is probably great, it needs a new non rusted out home.

 

Even before getting to the end of the OP's message I was thinking exactly this. Hard Pass.

 

Run

 

No thanks. Keep looking

 

Nope!

 

He should be paying you to take that off his hands.

I can't imagine trying to just remove one nut. Whole 4R might just crumble. Except the exhaust you can see it nice and shiny.

 

Odd that he let it sit 6 years due to needing an exhaust. And IMO, that's a lot of rust for 104k miles, even in the rust belt.

 

Mileage doesn't even really matter, rust never sleeps. Even when parked the rust continues, especially if this is on the coast.

I'm from New England, hard pass from me too. I've seen worse, but it'll be trouble. And sitting so long isn't good for vehicle.

 

Welcome.
Run,don't walk! You don't need the aggravation.

 

i’d go so far as to say rust gets worse faster if it sits. Especially if it was still a briny salty mess when parked. I’ve got a 2005 Mazda hand me down. We got it with a little under 40k miles on the clock about two years ago. It was garage kept, but the salt didn’t ever really get rinsed off of it when in use. The rust on the subframes was advanced when we got it, and everything on it leaks…everything. But, it still runs, and the rust isn’t quite structural, so it’s still a good backup vehicle. Not gonna spend any money on it though lol.

 

In the first picture the frame is rusted so badly there is a fissure. Walk away from that vehicle. I don't care if it has 100 miles.

Buy something more recent with less rust. I grew up in Newton, Mass and drove there and Vermont for 15 years. Never needed 4WD or AWD in the winter. Buy snow tires and drive on plowed roads. Done.

Get a more modern rust-free Toyota. Not that rust bucket.

 

Head south, find a clean one

 

That’s a scary amount of rust but what else can you get these days for $6K? The engine is probably still great if you have the time to repair/restore the undercarriage.