NHTSA Complaint #11623139 — 2008 TOYOTA TACOMA

In March of 2008, I purchased a new 2008 Toyota Tacoma (VIN: [XXX] ) from Orleans Toyota in Massachusetts. In July 2010 I re-located to New Hampshire and registered the vehicle in that state in July 2010 where I have resided since. The odometer reading at that time was 21,220 Miles. In September of 2014, I received a safety recall notice from Toyota regarding a potential frame corrosion problem. I scheduled an appointment with the local Toyota dealership in East Swanzy NH on September 12, 2014 to address this issue. The odometer reading at the time was 82,068 miles. There were two remediation options, as set by Toyota: A.Inspect frame, clean, and apply CRC if no perforations were found B.Inspect frame and if perforations found, replace the frame. Both of these options were intended to mitigate any and all risk of future corrosion of the frame that was a result of a known vehicle design flaw. Toyota chose to apply the CRC. I therefore assumed that the frame was intact at that point in time and the issue had been resolved. Between September 2014 and December 2019, I drove the vehicle 62 miles a day on [XXX] in NH commuting between Hillsboro and Keene for all 12 months of the year. This represents a total mileage of 87,939 (36,054 of which can be considered winter driving during the months of November thru March). The Toyota dealership inspected and passed the vehicle in 2023 without mention of any issue regarding the frame. On [XXX] of this year, the Toyota dealership rejected the state inspection due to severe frame corrosion (to the point that the technician felt it was a risk putting the truck on a lift). It should be noted that this vehicle has only been driven 3,000 since it passed inspection in 2023, none of which were during Winter months. In addition, there are no visible signs of rust or corrosion on the exterior of the vehicle. The above points to the fact that the CRC application in 2014 was ineffective in mitigating the safety issue. INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOI