Need some opinions (HELP) regarding a Gen 4 purchase with european-cars / Dave Gitman / Cars of North East

[Marsride]

I found a Gen 4 on the European - Car website that I put a $500 deposit down on before doing some background research on the seller:

Pardon Our Interruption...

I discovered that individuals on this website have had issues with him in the past so I'm having concerns at the moment. I believe my biggest concern would be rust damage, however the Carfax report (towards the end of the link above) shows that it spent it's first 30K miles in Maryland, the next 6K miles in Texas, and then the remaining 15K in Florida. The undercarriage photos are (a little ) 'dark' as complained by others on this website, and a request for follow-up photos of any obvious areas of rust, I was provided the following:

I don't see any obvious issues going on with the car, but with some of the negative comments members have made, I just wanted to get a 2nd opinion from any of you.

Thanks in advance for your thoughts or suggestions!

Mark

 

[TahoeZ]

First couple of pictures are pretty small so tough to get a great look at those areas. Definitely some significant road grime in a few areas. Second to last pic, looks like some of that grunge could have been painted over. Last pic looks like road grime but can't be sure. Last frame pic you can clearly see the light rust/patina in the frame hole threads; also good.

Buying vehicles sight-unseen is always a gamble. Nothing there that would scare me away, but you have to go into it knowing that you won't be able to get a real look/feel for things until you see it in person and you're taking a chance on it.

 

[Marsride]

Thanks TahoeZ....I'll probably hire someone from Lemon Squad to do an examination of the car at European-Cars with emphasis of rust or body integrity (I'll request they send to me 'lots' of undercarriage photos). The closest Toyota dealership is 35 minutes away per Google Maps.

There were some decent photos of the undercarriage towards the bottom of the listing (see link) in my original post albeit a little dark and (some of them) lacking good detail.

I ran a Carfax last night and it agrees with what European-Cars had in their listing. I found it interesting that the 4th owner, who lived in New York, purchased it in June 2021 with 51,011 miles, and then sold it in April 2025 at 54,436 miles averaging 924 miles per year over 4.8 years of ownership (assuming the Carfax info is accurate). This is assuming you can trust the Carfax information. I ran a report on my 2013 4Runner last night as well, and there were several oil changes (over the past 2 years) that didn't display. So Carfax is not a perfect system in my humble opinion.

So in summary:
0-29k miles Maryland (Bowie) 18" ave. snow fall per year
29k-34k miles Texas (Keller and Grapevine) infrequent or none
34k-51miles Florida (Jacksonville) infrequent or none
51k-54k miles New York (New Hyde Park) 60" snow ave. per year

So final exposure of the car to snow (e.g. salt \ sand \ etc.):
3k miles in HEAVY snow exposure
29k miles LOW level snow exposure
18k miles of INFREQUENT OR NO snow exposure

Sorry for the numbers...I'm a CPA and I can't help myself! LOL

Thoughts??

Mark

 

[TahoeZ]

Having a third party inspect it in person would be ideal if you can't do so yourself.

Exposure to snow isn't an issue; it's the salt on the roads. No way of telling how much it was driven in salty conditions.

Did you run your own CarFax?

 

[nkbitsch]

I am currently looking at this car from the same seller: Pardon Our Interruption... - https://www.ebay.com/itm/197609722200

I must say that reading about the seller on this forum took me from "I am definitely buying" to "I might be better of finding another vehichle".

Do we have any success stories buying from Dave on this forum?

 

[PLPResto]

I found a Gen 4 on the European - Car website that I put a $500 deposit down on before doing some background research on the seller:

Pardon Our Interruption...

I discovered that individuals on this website have had issues with him in the past so I'm having concerns at the moment. I believe my biggest concern would be rust damage, however the Carfax report (towards the end of the link above) shows that it spent it's first 30K miles in Maryland, the next 6K miles in Texas, and then the remaining 15K in Florida. The undercarriage photos are (a little ) 'dark' as complained by others on this website, and a request for follow-up photos of any obvious areas of rust, I was provided the following:


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I don't see any obvious issues going on with the car, but with some of the negative comments members have made, I just wanted to get a 2nd opinion from any of you.

Thanks in advance for your thoughts or suggestions!

Mark

It looks as it should for where it has been living. And a car fax most likely will not show you any information on the frame unless work was done on it by Toyota. The first 2 areas where the rust starts usually is between the Transmission cross member and front suspension usually starts bulging out on the inner side then it works it’s way down the frame towards the rear. Look inside the trailer arms a spot that is missed a lot when checking. Sometimes a hole is present inside the bracket on the frame and it travels. If you get this truck, have it coated with a lanolin product like Woolwax, and make sure they soak the inner frames . Good luck

 

[Living in the Past]

If you get this truck, have it coated with a lanolin product like Woolwax, and make sure they soak the inner frames . Good luck

OP is in San Diego. Unless planning on running on the beach shouldn't need to be coated like other areas of the country more prone to rust. Have a 04 bought new will 133K. Always in AZ and rust is a non issue. Northern part of the state does salt. Rare times I've driven on a salted roads I've taken it to Costco car wash few times.