It's easy to understand why pickups are so popular in the U.S. First off, many of them are home-grown, and Americans like buying products built in the States. Secondly, pickup trucks combine the space and practicality of an SUV with the added capability of, well, a pickup truck. You can seamlessly go from hauling the family around to knocking out some farm work, and, because many are equipped with all-wheel drive or four-wheel drive, most pickup trucks are just as comfortable on the highway as they are rambling along the path less traveled.
However, one thing many trucks — from a wide range of eras and generations — seem to suffer from is rust. Perhaps pickups only seem more prone to rusting because owners typically work them harder than your average car. Or maybe it's due to how many miles they cover, or how frequently they're cleaned. Whatever the reason, pickup trucks and rust often seem to go hand in hand. That can make buying one for long-term use a bit tricky, especially if you're shopping for a used model. While there's no such thing as a truck that won't rust at all, a good head start would be avoiding trucks that are known to be particularly partial to a large helping of frame rot. By perusing through owner's forums and respected third-party outlets, we've identified five of the more rust-prone pickups out there, and some of the entries may surprise you.
That's not a typo or an obscenely long generation. Rather, we are highlighting multiple generations of the Toyota Tacoma that owners report as being particularly troublesome when it comes to rust. Toyota's mid-size pickup truck offering first arrived as a '95 model year, which marked the beginning of a nearly 20-year-long battle between owners and rust-induced rot.
The issue with the Tacoma is frame rot, and, at one point, it got so bad that Toyota actually issued a special Customer Support Program (CSP), which extended the warranty protection for afflicted models. Naturally, and this is the case for all of the trucks featured here, the worst-hit examples were those owned by drivers residing in colder climates. This is because salt is placed on the roads to deal with snow during winter, and this salt then coats the chassis and eats away at the metalwork.
Frame rot isn't just an issue for a few isolated trucks in snowy locations, though — the problem is far more expansive than that. To demonstrate the scale of the issue, a class action lawsuit ruled in favor of Toyota's upset customers. The lawsuit concluded that around 1.5 million vehicles were affected by the frame rot concerns, obligating Toyota to fork over almost $3.4 billion in damages. That figure includes a $15,000 estimate to repair each of the affected vehicles and a cost of $90 million just to inspect them.
Much like the aforementioned Toyota Tacoma, the Nissan Frontier has a rather wide window of model years badly affected by rust. Namely, the first two generations are prone to corroding, and the issue has gotten so bad in certain climates that Frontier and Navara models have been known to literally split in half due to frame rot.
Fortunately for U.S. owners, it does seem that the modes most affected by rust come from the Navara line, which is simply the European variant of the Frontier. Again, this may be due to the amount of salt used on the roads during European winters, as that salt is flicked up onto the truck's undercarriage, where it stays until it's washed off. This is why it's always best to wash salt off of your vehicle, even when temperatures are cold outside.
Still, there are more than just a handful of complaints of rusting Frontiers in the U.S., so it would appear that they are not exempt from corrosion. Even though some owners insist they provide excellent care for their pickups, many have reported that the frame wears out far quicker than the rest of the truck. As important as regular oil changes and sensible driving patterns are, perhaps the wisest move would be to prioritize frequent washes and garage storage if you have your heart set on driving an older Japanese pickup truck.
The Chevy Silverado is the first American truck we're highlighting as particularly prone to rust. Specifically, it's the GMT900 generation we're looking at, which ran from 2007 to 2013. The fact that specialist outlets already sell a multitude of rust-busting frame repair kits for GMT900-gen models paints a not so pretty picture about how easily iron oxide can set in when it comes to these Chevys.
While it's to be expected that a high-mileage or particularly hard-worked Silverado might attract a fair bit of the brown stuff on its undercarriage, a TikTok posted last year by automotivenfield highlighted the horrendous state a Silverado had managed to get into after just 26,000 miles. The exact age of the truck isn't stated, but it appears to be from the GMT900 generation, which would make it, at most, a 17-year old truck.
In the video, the truck is up on ramps, which allows us to get a proper peak underneath. Here, our guide with the camera points out numerous cracks in the frame, in addition to literally poking holes in the chassis, here, there, and everywhere. Even more impressively, it appears that the truck was originally protected with some sort of rubberized undercoating, which clearly didn't do its job, at least not for very long. So, while rustproofing is still worth it for modern cars, do some research to pick the right approach, and consider reapplying the coating annually to ensure reliable protection.
The second-gen Silverado isn't the only Chevy of this era to suffer from corrosion. The first-generation (2004 to 2011) Colorado is also one to watch, especially for those that live in colder climates. Rather than the issue stemming from an inherent design flaw, it actually seems to occur due to sloppy quality control. Unsealed sections of the undercarriage collect moisture, and this moisture then starts eating away at the unprotected metalwork. Here's the thing, once that rust is set in, it can then spread along the frame, eating away at metal behind even the protected areas and resulting in a totally rotten frame. It's not uncommon for frames to have been found entirely rotted out, even prior to 100,000 miles. Had the undercarriages been thoroughly protected when new, the chances are that many more Colorados of this era would have survived in better condition.
While older trucks might show their age sooner, due to how long they've been on the road, all Colorados of this generation have the same tendency to rust, according to enthusiasts. Keeping on top of underbody protection is an absolute must then, and if you live in an area where the roads are salted throughout winter, then you'll need to pay very close attention to the condition underneath. Holes can quickly appear in structural areas, which can easily knock the confidence of any owner who wishes to use their Colorado for towing and hauling purposes.
"Built Ford Tough" is the Blue Oval brand's slogan, which evinces images of sturdy trucks that can handle anything. In truth, the build quality of newer Ford trucks actually seems to be lacking in some areas, as was proven by Cars.com when they acquired a brand-new F-150 back in 2021. That's right, a brand-new F-150 had rust underneath. While we aren't talking about rotten frames or holes in the bed here, surely a truck fresh off the lot should be exactly that — fresh. Instead, Cars.com found that rust was already setting in on the outer ends of the rear axle, the rear differential housing, the rear driveshaft U-joint, and the front driveshaft. While the body is made of aluminum and not at risk of rusting, the protection underneath of this fourteenth-gen F-150 was found to be seriously lacking.
Professional inspections revealed that, although unsightly and certainly a little disappointing, this corrosion was unlikely to affect the performance or life of the truck and the components in question. However, this was nearly an $80,000 truck — are consumers to accept rust on trucks like this just because it doesn't affect the life of the vehicle? Cars.com put the feelers out to other owners and discovered that its F-150 wasn't alone — many others experienced the same issue. Oh, Cars.com also inspected four other brand-new F-150 trucks at a dealership and found that all four — still unsold at the dealer — already had rusty differential housings. They might look neat on the outside, and we're not saying these F-150s are some of the worst Ford cars ever built, but these newer F-150 models are already starting to show their age underneath.