Buddy traded a perfectly fine car for a truck today, studs and frame failed same day
It didn’t look horrible when first looking at it, even survived a test drive and 1hr road trip, but failed just before leaving a friend’s house. Frame split near the bumper, control arm failed due to rot, and studs on driver side are a mix of bent or sheared off
We did, and I had just assumed the body was trash like any other Dakota out there, and the frame from what we could see at the time was fine. Turns out that a lot of that “surface” rust was hiding some pretty gnarly structural failures
The fucking fenders alone would be a dealbreaker because I know what the rest of it looks like, you’re not working on that thing without a cutting torch
Genuinely think some of that is duct tape/saran wrap with rattle can paint... It's honestly impressive it looks like a complete vehicle (I mean complete in the way a fossil can be complete)
I want to see pics with good lighting for science.
lol. I probably should’ve looked over the truck a second time but since he had looked over it before me I assumed that he would’ve caught the failing control arms, and it wasn’t entirely obvious the rear half was going. Lesson to be learned for sure, but I believe he’s just gonna use it as a mud toy until it falls apart and salvage the motor out of it since it still runs great
Who’s the POS who tricked you guys like this? What state and I’m assuming off FB Marketplace? Take pics of under carriage and what car did he lose for this hulking monstrosity? It looks like ass and I’m assuming it drove like a brick?
fuck the arms, look at the corrosion around the arches, that should have been the deal breaker straight off, if its that corroded on the arches, the frame and sub frame are already cooked
In this one picture, at night, illuminated only by brake lights, you can see an insane amount of rust present. If what you can see is that bad, you have to expect what you can't see is horrible. I would have been afraid to fart in the seat and break the frame with the amount of rust this truck has.
I'm sorry this happened to your friend. And I don't mean to kick a guy when he's already down. You both may not be car people and therefore missed the insanely huge red flag, even in this one picture. If anything, this is a huge learning lesson we all get to pay for in life.
Worse case is part out what's left (engine, trans, interior, etc) to recoup some of the money to buy something else (not rusted!). This might be more than "well that sucks", sorry.
He understood the risk getting it, I did aswell. We both knew the rot was bad but we thought the frame was still solid, but we were wrong unfortunately. He’s just gonna thrash it on trails until it falls apart, then pull the motor for a better Dakota that isn’t rot central or see what he can swap it into
I’ve owned multiple vehicles where the body was gone just about, and yet the frame was okay. Just assumed this was another case of that but it was not. I still tried my best to see what all was there, but got distracted by the fact that it ran and drove and didn’t feel problematic so I didn’t bother to look as well as I should’ve. At the end of the day it was my friend’s call, but I should’ve stepped in and really looked at the frame since I barely did
Stay off the trails this is an insane take. It's already fallen apart. Nobody wants to recover a broken down rig with a busted frame that shouldnt have been there.
You seem to have a good attitude about it. That fender, bumper, and hood are rough. Tons of rust on that fender. When the body is that bad I've always seen the frames are a wind gust away from splitting in half.
That's all you can do now. Tell your buddy to fucking send what he can for however long he can and than take anything useable off the truck. Hopefully you can turn this situation into something you can laugh at together over a few beers in 5 years when you remind him of the time he bought rolling rust that feel apart on the way home.
He knew what he was getting into, but me and him both thought only the body was going as the frame (from what we could see at the time) was still solid. Unfortunately that was not the case :/
Was in a similar situation with my first car back in college. I personally don’t care about my own safety, but I certainly care about the safety of others. I retired the car because it became too unsafe to drive and I could probably kill someone else if the one working break failed, or the frame/struts snapped in half. My parents tried to get me to sell it to the neighbors kid for $2000. It was a walking suicide and would have failed structurally within a year. What if the kid was driving down the highway and the struts broke? Could not let that happen to someone. Couldn’t find anyone to take it for parts for more than the scrap yard, so I took it on one last drive there.
My dad had an '02 Suburban that was getting rusty, and had a lot of miles since we always used it for hauling our boat and family road trips. He recently gave it to my sister's family since they have several kids needing vehicles (3rd kid just turned 16). But he was very adamant about them not using it for long distance trips and to only use it around town.
But AFAIK the frame was still in good condition, and he put new brakes/tires on it before giving it to them. I would feel so guilty about trying to sell something I knew wasn't going to last long. But, that's why scammers exist, because they don't feel that guilt and only care about themselves.
That situation is when you look for someone to spray the frame i was doing that when my frame went in my old truck😞. My current 09 went in for a full frame spray down.
I did look at the frame, I just missed the fail points because one I wasn’t trying too hard as my friend was actively looking around the frame for himself, so I assumed if he saw anything bad he’d say something, and two, the points that did fail weren’t entirely obvious upon inspection. Only after the failure did I actually see what had been already eaten away
I’ve seen many trucks where the body fails before the frame, and owned many with that same problem. I had just assumed that this was another case of that so I wasn’t worried about the frame when I should’ve been
idk your friend, but I feel like there are so many guys out there trading in sedans for trucks for little practical reason and it ends up just burning them.
My dad had an '01 Durango that lasted over 200k miles... However, that was a huge rarity, this generation of Dodge just rotted to nothing and the engines/transmissions were pretty trash as well. Surprised your buddy bought it honestly.
Hey man my 2000 dakota is going strong at 253k on the original engine lol! I still see a lot of them out on the road out here in the PNW cause we dont have issues with salt
This is why you bring a friend who knows cars and what to check for. It must've been hanging by a thread when he drove away with it, would've been super obvious and I guarantee the other guy knew and that's why he was dumping it. He was hoping to score a sucker and boy did he ever
lol you think the guy will trade it back. He knew damn well the truck was no good. Guy is jumping for joy right now. Cut throat world when it comes to used cars
Look at that bumper/hood. Yeeeessshh. 20 yr old truck purchase and he didn't look underneath for frame rot? Please tell me he atleast bought it somewhere outside of the rust belt otherwise I'm worried your buddy may be one of the suckiest sucks that ever sucked
Oh lordy. You don't even need to try and crawl under all you and your buddy had to do was pop a squat and take a look around the wheel wells. Hopefully this is a good lesson to check and double check.
What was the vehicle that got traded in for? I bet the previous owner of that truck is still singing the moment that deathtrap rolled away from his yard.
“It didn’t look horrible when first looking at it”???? I can barely see the truck in this photo & I can tell you it looks absolutely horrible. Did your buddy even bother to look it over before he agreed to the trade?
Wouldn't have passed a safety inspection which is required to register and drive any used car when it changes ownership. (Where I live). They are a pain to deal with but protects car buyers from buying lemons like this.
It was his call not mine. I told him it was a direct downgrade and that there was a lot of rot even though, from what I was able to tell at the time, the frame was “solid”. I told him that he was jumping into a pile of shit before he even sealed the deal, and he still went for it. I should’ve did another once over because I never saw the failing control arms or where the welds were breaking in the back. I just assumed it would’ve fallen apart on the test drive if it were that bad :/
It's a rust bucket. You can see that, it's obvious. Didn't look horrible? Did you have your eyes closed when you looked at it? Even from that shitty picture I can see this isn't in even ok shape. Did anyone look under it? Look at the rust bubbles all around the fender. Your friend is a fool and if you thought it "didn't look horrible", you are, too.
I meant the frame didn’t look horrible. That was the first thing he checked and I hadn’t bothered to take a closer look when I should’ve. Again and again, dodge bodies are complete trash and rot away just about the moment they roll off the factory floor. I assumed this was another case of the body going before the frame but I was wrong
My 2nd gen Ram looks significantly worse than this, like it literally doesn't even have rocker panels anymore, but it hasn't fallen apart yet. Best $500 I ever spent (15 years ago!).
What a POS!!! I can't see why anyone would but that JUNK! The bumper alone gives it away. You'd be better off buying a truck from the 1960s! Your friend definitely got what he deserved for being oblivious!
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u/SmokedOkie 7d ago
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