Always Ask For Undercarriage Photos (1 Viewer)

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Joined
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Location
Columbia, MO
Not trying to bash anyone with a rusty 100 here. I'm coming from owning an 80 for 9 years and jumping to a 100 for a 2nd vehicle. I've been inquiring about a few and I always ask for undercarriage photos. Beautiful 2006 with great maintenance history and clean as a whistle up top. He didn't want to send me undercarriage photos. I finally got him to. I will pass on this one, obviously. Again, not trying to knock anyone with a rusty Cruiser and this rust may be acceptable to some which is perfectly fine. Just thought I would post to help somebody else out who is looking. Don't forget to flip it over and take a look. ;)

Just a couple of photos here. It doesn't get any better towards the rear.

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This was my experience when shopping for my 100-series also. Used car dealers would never send my undercarriage shots, one finally did after two days of promising only for me to see a freshly applied coat of chassis-black. Literally every rig I looked at that was originally from the east coast had the same paint covering what was clearly a rusty underside. Point being, even after you get pics make sure you carefully examine them to understand the true condition of what you're seeing.
 
Yah, it's just the nature of the beast. I'm from Missouri so I know how it goes although we're not as bad as the pics above typically. I'm not knocking the dealer which is why I'm not going to post any full-body shots or give the dealer name. If anybody wants that info, just PM me and I can send you all of the photos.
 
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I second the pictures. The dealer took me seriously when I showed up cash in hand and with my coveralls. I crawled under the rig and laid there for 40 minutes. My wife was laughing at the dealer and told him, "You should have just sent him pictures!" But, in the end, we drove away with a "new to us" 99 100 series.
 
Yep, I had dealers promising to send me undercarriage pics "the next day" along with more interior pics/etc. I'd always get the seat pictures, never the undercarriage. The guy selling the 100 that I ended up buying literally texted me pics of the undercarriage maybe 15 mins after I asked for them.
 
Yah, I just got pics from a northwest Cruiser. Clean as a whistle under there.
 
In STL here and crawled under the one that I bought from a dealer/friend too.
This one was clean and clearly cleaned a lot but it has also been a while since we had real winters here.
Does not stop the chemicals on the road though either.

Tried to get pics from several others and no one would be forthright about that either.

I kept getting repeat interior shots? I guess they thought I would forget what I wanted???

I think that black stuff is a dealer "Treatment" for many under carriage ills.
I know that Toyoya will blast it on there as a stop gap before agreeing to replace frames for one.
 
I'm in Columbia, Missouri. We definitely have not had any hard winters here in quite some time, @EZDog !
 
I just got a GX last year from Florida -- only 3 years old. Undercarraige looked similar, only found out when I had a shop look at the car for me. Found out later it started life in Minnesota.

Totally agree with you.... get pics no matter where it is coming from.

I am waiting for the hand me down.


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I've been exporting old Mercedes to Germany for about 20 years, which is how long I've been pleading with sellers to take pictures of the undercarriage. There's this common misconception that you need a lift, which is nice I suppose but hardly necessary. All you need is the ability to put a camera on the ground next to the car at about a 45 degree angle. A few pictures from that angle will tell the story of the car on the vast majority of vehicles.
 
I bought my 100 in Georgia and drove home to NJ just to get it truly rust free.

Its not even worth looking in the north east - they all have rust.
 
I bought my '05 from a South Carolina dealer to bring back home to Georgia. It was immaculate up top and inside with good service history. I had looked at a lot of others here in Ga that were nowhere near as nice. So I jumped without even thinking to look underneath. Wish I had if for nothing else than some more negotiating leverage. It spent most of its time in Maryland. I hear they get snow up there!
 
Lots of southern dealers will sell trucks from northern auctions. Grrrrr

We got tricked like that with our 4Runner. It's a 2012 and has way more rust than my 03 100.
 
Worked on a customer's LC today, this is what a normal NE cruiser will look like underneath, no bolts my IR 2235Timaxx couldn't remove though, and the truck drove really smooth.


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