I got a beef with Toyota and my truck.

[NJshadow93]

I bought my '03 back in July and noticed some of the cladding was a little loose. Truck has been in 2 minor accidents according to CarFax before I bought it. It wasn't a big deal to me that they were a little loose but took it to a body shop. The guy re-secured all of the cladding and it was not that much, slightly over $100 I believe. He said some clips were broken so he had to order some new clips and re-attatch. He showed me the broken clips just by slightly pulling back the molding. Worth it IMO, try to find a cheap body shop, the one I found charged $45 an hour and did great work. Not a problem since.

 

[PWGUNNY]

I have an '04 with 110,000 miles, I have one clip that broke on the passenger side rocker panel. I am going to see if I can get another clip somewhere-maybe Pep Boys. You're situation seems to be pretty unique and not a common problem. An accident won't show on carfax if it doesn't go through insurance. Maybe your vehicle was assembled on a Friday afternoon, late in the day.

 

[knightsfs4]

Well here's the deal. The Toyota body shop is charging me $40 for each fender to take it off and replace it with the clips. So $80 total for both of the fenders and that includes clips. Not bad! Then they're charging $80 to paint the new fuel door, and $20 to install (but i'm gonna do it myself cause it's just two rivets). I figured it would be a whole lot more, but I'm happy with the results. As for the bumper, I'm gonna tackle that myself. They want $60 just to take it off and "look at it". I think I can look at it myself for free

 

[8086bruce]

Seems like a fair deal.

 

[black_120]

Does your fenders still have factory vin stickers on them? the quote the bodyshop charged you sounds pretty reasonable. Let us know what they find when they get the fenders off.

 

[034RUNNER]

Not normal; complain to Toyota until they do something about this. My 03 does not have anything loose on it.

Our 2008 Tundra, though? Don't get me started.

 

[knightsfs4]

I did complain and they didn't care, but it's cool. The store manager knows my name and I'm Comtemplating filing suit about It considering the lack of respect and help I've received.

 

[DC runner]

Unfortunately it isn't against the law to be an ass. As for it being a certified pre-owned; I would look to see exactly what the covers.

Your truck appears to have some strong indicators of having been in an accident and anyone familiar with body work should have picked up on that. Did certified cover that?

Certified means it is inspected right, but what does that actually get you? Depends on the language. All to say, next time, take any potential vehicle to a trusted shop (including body work) and have them look. They can spot things. Over spray. Missing clips. Bent pins.. all those tell tell signs that it has been in an accident. No amount of repair ever seems to get it back to factory robot specs and you can tell.

 

[TSO]

+1 for a previous accident.

Take note that not ALL incidents make it to Carfax. Only what is "reported" ...