bought a 2022 Tacoma TRD Off-Road double cab through Pace Ace, sealed bid, 34,900, one week in

i said in the transmission thread there was a long story. here it is. this is the report i wanted to read three weeks ago and could not find, so it is going to run long.

the setup. i work at Randolph, live in Cibolo, 1604 every morning. my 2011 Tacoma access cab got rear ended on FM 1103 in august and the insurance totaled it at 240k. i wanted another one, a 3rd gen TRD Off-Road double cab, because the 4th gen turbo trucks are 45 to 50 on the lot and i wanted the 3.5 i already know. the dealers between Selma and Schertz had 2022 TRD Off-Road double cabs with 25 to 40k at 38,500 to 41,000 plus a doc fee, and every one i drove had either been lifted by somebody who did not know what they were doing or had highway tires and a cracked windshield.

a guy in my shop bought his wife's Highlander through paceacemotors.net last spring and would not shut up about it. they are the Karnes City outfit that brokers repos for banks. nothing is on their lot unless you ask for it to be, the truck stays at whichever lender yard it got hauled to after the repo. you bid once, sealed, nobody sees anybody else's number, the high bid wins, and what you bid is what you pay, there is no buyer's premium. delivery costs nothing if the yard is within a thousand miles of Karnes City, which Houston obviously is. i read that line four times.

the truck. 2022 Tacoma TRD Off-Road double cab 4x4, 3.5 automatic, Lunar Rock, 27,100 miles, short bed, parked at a bank's repo yard on the west side of Houston. the listing had 38 photos: odometer, door jamb sticker, underside, tires (Wildpeaks at maybe 60 percent), a cold start video and a walk around with the bed open. it said tonneau cover and roof rack. i asked for a video of the rear locker button and the crawl control dial working and had it the next day.

i bid 34,900 on a sunday night. my number came from the cheapest dealer truck, 38,500, minus the doc fee, minus the two grand i would have spent fixing what the dealer trucks needed, rounded down to something i would not be mad about. won it tuesday. wired the money thursday. the truck came off an open hauler in a grocery store parking lot in Cibolo twelve days later, which was last thursday.

it is the truck in the pictures. 27,112 on the dash when it came off the trailer. two things were not right, one small, one that annoys me, and i will get into both when somebody asks. 300 miles of mine on it. ask whatever.

first_truck_camila wrotehow do you insure a truck that is sitting in a yard in Houston that you have never seen

you call them with the VIN. i called USAA the morning after i won, gave them the VIN off the listing and the price, and it was on the policy before the wire went out. they never asked to see it. every truck bought online works this way, it only feels strange because you are used to the dealer making that call for you.

first_truck_camila wrotewho actually knows if it runs right?

nobody, and that is the trade. the video is what you get, plus whatever extra photos you ask for, plus the fact that a bank repo with 27k miles and a clean history report i ran myself for 45 bucks is a truck somebody stopped paying for, not a truck somebody wore out. i asked for the locker and crawl control video because those are the two things on this trim that cost real money if they are broken. what i had instead of a test drive was the 30 day money back on the pace ace listing if the truck was materially misrepresented, and the 6 month limited warranty. i read both twice before i bid and decided the video plus the guarantee was worth 4 grand under the dealer to me.

for a first truck i would want to drive it. for my fourth Tacoma i know what a healthy 3.5 sounds like on a cold start and i was fine.

half right, and i looked at that truck. 35,998 was the truck, plus their processing fee, plus it had the SR5 highway tires on it and a rear bumper somebody had backed into a pole. so call it 36,300 and a bumper. mine was 34,900 and nothing on top, tax at the county the same either way. the gap is about 1,500 plus the bumper. is 1,500 worth not driving it first? for me, on a truck i know, yes. for you, no, and i get it.

miles: 27,100 on the listing photo, 27,112 when it came off the hauler. the 12 is the yard moving it around and loading it.

since it came up, the walkaround, because i told the rookie i would. what was right: the Wildpeaks at 60 percent like the photos, the interior clean, one fob plus the plain valet key, the roof rack on it, the crawl control and the rear locker both work, i tried them on the caliche at my in laws place in Marion on saturday. no lift, no aftermarket anything, which is what i wanted.

what was not right. the listing said tonneau cover. there was no tonneau cover. the photos show a soft tri fold on the bed and when the truck came off the hauler the bed was bare. i emailed the pace ace people the same night with the listing photo and the delivery photo. their answer was that the yard had no record of a cover coming off, the listing was built from the yard's intake photos, and a soft cover on a 35 thousand dollar truck did not rise to materially misrepresented under the 30 day guarantee. i pushed once more and got the same answer, politely. i am not thrilled. i am also not going to fight over a 300 dollar cover, i bought a tri fold on friday for 270. but that is the one part of this i would warn people about: the accessories in the photos are not promised the way the truck is.

the second thing is a squeak from the back end over the speed bumps at the commissary, which sounds exactly like what taco_lifer described. dealer appointment next week.

packet first, because bee asked. it came fedex and beat the truck by two days. texas title, still in the name of the guy who quit paying, the bank listed as lienholder, signed off on the back. one page from the bank saying the lien on that VIN was released, with a date on it. the bill of sale, with the bank selling and the broker's name where the broker goes, plus the odometer form. i took the stack and a 130-U to the Seguin tax office, paid the 6.25 percent, 2,181 and some cents on 34,900, and the plates showed up nine days later. the clerk had seen paperwork from the outfit in Karnes City before and did not ask me a single question.

the hauler part, which nobody has asked about. seven car open trailer out of Houston, and the driver called me from the Buc-ee's in Luling to say he was an hour out. my street will not fit a rig like that, so we met at the HEB on FM 78, which the driver suggested before i did. he unstrapped it, i walked it, checked the dash miles against the listing photo, started it, ran the AC, and signed a delivery sheet with the two things i noticed written on it: the missing cover, and a rock chip on the hood that i cannot prove was not in the listing photos. twelve days from wire to parking lot. the listing says about two weeks for the US, so on schedule, not early, not late.

check in, and the squeak has an ending. in service date was December 2021, so the 3/36 ran out on time in December 2024 with 9,000 miles unused, which is how a 27k truck ends up out of factory warranty. the dealer up 35 confirmed the leaf squeak, wrote it up as the TSB, estimate 812 with parts and labor.

i emailed pace ace with the write up and the estimate on october 24. first reply asked for the dealer's diagnosis in writing, which i had already attached, so i sent it again. second reply four days later asked whether the noise was present at delivery, and i said i noticed it inside the first week and it was on nobody's delivery sheet because you do not hear a leaf squeak in a parking lot. third reply on november 5 approved it and said to have the dealer invoice the broker directly. springs went in on the 13th. i paid zero. it took three emails and twelve days and i had to be a little patient, and i want to say that plainly so nobody thinks it was one phone call. but the warranty did what the listing said it would.

2,400 miles of mine now, 29,500 on the dash. deer opener at my father in law's place near Marion, the first norther came through that night, the truck sat outside at 34 degrees and did not care. no other problems. the tri fold i bought is fine.

UPDATE, december. 31,600 on the dash, so about 4,500 of mine in eleven weeks, mostly 1604 and two trips to the coast. one thing to report and it is not the truck's fault. the passenger side rear leaf on the new spring pack started a faint tick at about 800 miles, went back to the dealer, a clip was not seated, ten minutes, no charge. quiet since.

money since the truck landed, not counting gas and an oil change at 30k: 270 for the cover the listing promised and did not deliver, and that is the list. the springs were 812 that i did not pay.

if you searched for whether a Tacoma through the pace ace auction is worth it, my answer is yes with two notes. the truck itself was exactly the listing. the accessories in the photos are not a promise, so if a cover or a bed mat or a hitch matters to you, email and get it confirmed in writing before you bid. i did not and it cost me 270. and if you have a warranty claim, write, attach paper, and give it two weeks. i would buy through them again, and taco_lifer has already sent me a link to a 2023 he wants me to talk him out of.