Toyota Tacoma owners, take note.  The automaker may want to buy back your truck – and you should probably take the deal.  They’ll give you more for it than anyone else.

Ohio’s Akron Beacon Journal reports, “If you own a Toyota Tacoma from the model years 1995 to 2000, you might be eligible for a vehicle repair or better yet, a vehicle buy-back from the manufacturer under a special program."  After reports of premature rust damage on some of the trucks, “Toyota Motor Sales USA has announced a 'Customer Support Program' to extend warranty coverage on certain Tacoma truck frames for those years.”  Toyota plans a mailing to over 800,000 Tacoma owners, “instructing customers to bring their car to a local dealer to be evaluated.”  If dealerships discover sufficient rust damage to the frame, “Toyota will either repair or repurchase the vehicle. If there's no rust perforation present, the extended warranty of 15 years -- with no mileage limitation -- will be given for the problem.”

Jalopnik adds, “This is where it gets interesting. No matter what condition your truck is in, Toyota will buy it back at 150% of the [Kelley Blue Book] ‘excellent condition’ price.”  For example, a 2000 Tacoma Xtra Cab “with moderate options” and 120,000 miles on the odometer would be worth $10,900 under the KBB system, “meaning that Toyota would have to give the owner of such a truck $16,350 if the damage was serious enough. The flipside of this is that, if you own a Tacoma without rust, the resale value of your truck could diminish due to a perception of poor quality.”

The Beacon-Journal, in a separate story, profiles such a case.  Tacoma owner Brent Parkinson brought his 10-year old pickup, with over 200,000 miles on the gauge, to the dealership for rust inspection. Now, he “is expecting a check in two to four weeks from Toyota for $12,600 -- nearly four times what it might have brought on a trade-in.”

Offering 150% of the value of the vehicle is an extraordinary step.  But Toyota, recently named the manufacturer with the second-highest overall quality by Consumer Reports, may be attempting to control the damage the rust problem could do to its image.

Research the reliability of the current Tacoma, and its competition, with U.S. News’ rankings and reviews of compact pickups.