What to check when buying a used truck on Facebook Marketplace or Kijiji

Frame and rust

In Ontario, Quebec and the Atlantic provinces, road salt is what kills trucks, and it starts underneath where listing photos never go. Bring a flashlight and lie down.

• Frame rails. Surface rust is normal on an older truck. Flaking layers, swelling, holes, or a screwdriver that pushes through is rot. Check above the rear axle and behind the cab, where mud sits.
• Crossmembers and spring hangers. The brackets where the leaf springs mount carry the load; rot there is a serious repair.
• Brake and fuel lines. Steel lines along the frame rust from the outside in. Look for swelling and crusty fittings.
• Cab corners and rockers. Many truck generations are known for rust in these spots. Search the model and generation with “frame rust” or “cab corners” before you go.
• The box. Wheel arches, the bed floor under a liner, and the tailgate seams.

Rustproofing vs undercoating. An annual oil spray, the drippy kind many Canadian owners pay for every fall, is a good sign, especially with receipts. Thick, fresh black undercoating on an older frame is different. It can be honest protection, or it can hide rot that was painted over the week before the sale. Tap it. Ask when it was done, and why.

Where the truck lived matters. Trucks from the drier parts of the Prairies and BC’s interior often have cleaner frames than salt-belt trucks of the same age, which is why sellers advertise a “BC truck” or “Alberta truck”. Check the history report for where it was registered, and inspect it anyway.

Work and towing wear

A truck that towed a travel trailer twice a summer and one that pulled a loaded equipment trailer every day can show the same km.

• Hitch and receiver. Heavy wear, a bent receiver or a ball mount rusted in place means regular towing. A trailer brake controller under the dash means trailers heavy enough to need brakes.
• Bed holes and rails. Fifth-wheel or gooseneck hitch rails, or holes where they were, mean heavy trailers.
• Transmission. Check the fluid if there is a dipstick: it should be red or pink and not smell burnt. Feel for slipping, flaring between gears or harsh shifts when warm.
• Rear suspension. A truck that sits low at the back when empty, or has helper springs or airbags added, carried weight.
• Fleet trucks. Plain white trucks, ladder-rack holes, ghosting where decals came off. Many recent trucks show engine hours in the instrument cluster menu. Lots of hours for the km means long idling, which wears the engine without adding km.
• Plow trucks. Mounting brackets on the front frame, extra wiring at the grille, and worn front suspension and ball joints. Ask directly: plowing isn’t a deal-breaker if the front end was maintained.

4x4 checks

1. Engage 4H on gravel or wet grass, not dry pavement (most part-time systems bind on pavement). The 4x4 light should come on promptly.
2. Try 4L at walking speed. Listen for clunks, grinding or a light that flashes without engaging.
3. Drive in 2WD at highway speed. Whine or howl that changes with speed points to differentials or wheel bearings.
4. Look underneath. Leaks at the transfer case and front differential; torn CV boots on independent front suspension, often with grease sprayed around them.
5. Shift back to 2WD and make sure it disengages.

Diesel trucks

Diesels can run for a very long time, and cost a lot when they don’t.

• Emissions equipment. Check that the DPF, EGR and DEF systems are there and working. Ontario’s environment ministry says deleting, tampering with or defeating emission controls is already illegal in Ontario and its neighbouring jurisdictions. A “deleted” or “tuned” truck can bring inspection, insurance and resale trouble along with the extra power.
• DEF system. Warning lights, a DEF tank that’s never been refilled, or a seller who “doesn’t bother with it”.
• Cold start. Ask the seller not to start it before you arrive (in winter, a block heater is normal; ask if it was plugged in). Hard starting, heavy smoke that doesn’t clear, or rough running when cold can mean injector or glow-plug trouble.
• Turbo and blow-by. Oil around the turbo or its hoses, a loud siren-like whine under boost, or heavy fumes from the oil fill cap with the engine running.
• Records. Fuel filter changes and oil changes on schedule matter more on a diesel than almost anything else.

Is the price fair?

Trucks are the hardest vehicles to price-compare because there are so many versions of each one. A fair comparison needs the same:

• Year (or generation) and km band
• Cab (regular, extended or crew) and box length
• Engine and drivetrain (4x4 or not)
• Trim level

Search those on both Facebook Marketplace and Kijiji and note what has been listed longest, since those prices didn’t sell. On Kijiji, listings with a VIN can carry a price label (Great, Good, Fair or Higher price) based on CARFAX Canada data on similar vehicles, which saves time. For context, AutoTrader’s index put the average used vehicle across all types at $36,690 in June 2026, down 2.6% from a year earlier.

Lifted trucks, big tires and aftermarket parts are hard to compare and rarely add as much value as the seller paid for them. Price them as a stock truck, then decide what the extras are worth to you.

Searches and filters that work

On both sites, search by model and generation, not just the make: buyers and sellers use shorthand.

• Model and engine: “tacoma 3rd gen”, “f150 5.0”, “f-150 ecoboost”, “silverado 5.3”, “ram 1500 hemi”, “tundra 5.7”, “sierra 1500”.
• Configuration: “crew cab”, “8 ft box”, “long box”, “4x4”.
• French: “camion usagé”, “pick-up”, “4x4”, plus the model.
• Kijiji: in Cars & Trucks, choose the pickup body type, set make, model, year, km and price, and set For sale by to owners.
• Facebook Marketplace: in Vehicles, set the vehicle type, make, model, year range, mileage and price, then sort by newest. Dealers will still appear; Facebook has carried dealer inventory in its Canadian vehicle listings since 2018.

Then remove what you don’t want. Neither site documents a way to exclude words, so on a computer you need a filter that can: “lifted”, “deleted”, “tuned” and “plow” are common choices, depending on the truck you are after.

The “$1,000 to hold” truck scam

In 2018, Barrie police warned about fake Kijiji listings for Chevrolet pickups. The “seller” chatted with buyers, asked for $1,000 to hold the truck, then gave an address where the homeowner had never heard of any truck. The same script still runs on both sites: a good truck at a slightly low price, a seller who is busy or away, and a deposit to hold it by e-transfer. Kijiji’s advice is short: “Never send a deposit before inspecting the vehicle.” See the deposit scam.

Popular trucks also get stolen and resold: Équité Association says organized crime is shifting toward re-VINing stolen vehicles for sale. Run the VIN checks in stolen car and VIN checks on every truck, and match the VIN on the dash, door jamb and ownership.

At the viewing

Use the full used car checklist, plus:

• Daylight, dry ground, a flashlight and something to lie on.
• The truck cold when you arrive.
• Hitch, bed, frame, lines, cab corners, rockers.
• 4H and 4L on a loose surface.
• Engine hours versus km, if the cluster shows them.
• Ownership in the seller’s name; in Ontario, the UVIP.
• Then a mechanic, on a hoist. Frames are the one thing you can’t judge properly from the driveway.

With Sift

Truck searches fill up with dealer stock, rebuilt titles and trucks with no km listed. Sift, a free browser extension for Facebook Marketplace and Kijiji, clears them on a computer. Start a hunt › Car in Sift’s presets saves a truck preset with the vehicle filters on, branded titles hidden, dealers hidden and already-seen listings dimmed.

• Year range and maximum km, from the site’s vehicle details and the listing text (“210K km”).
• Branded titles hidden: salvage, rebuilt, flood, as-is, for parts, including French terms.
• Dealers tagged or hidden, from Kijiji’s dealer flag and wording like “OAC”, “we finance” and “stock #”.
• Block words for “lifted”, “deleted” or anything else, with whole words, phrases in quotes and a prefix star (delet* catches deleted and delete).
• Kijiji’s CARFAX-based price label where it shows, and price-drop badges on trucks whose price has fallen.
• “Check this” flags on deposit-first and “text me at” listings, and good signs for one owner, service records and a clean Carfax.
• Alerts: “Watch this search” checks a Kijiji search as often as every 15 minutes and notifies you only about trucks that pass your filters.

Sift does not decode or check VINs, pull Carfax reports, search liens, check stolen-vehicle databases, verify odometers or prove whether a seller is a curbsider; it reads what the listing says. The frame is still yours to check.