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Thinking of getting a 4runner, looking for imput


natas1321
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My brother-in-law swears by them. He's on his second one after giving his old one to my brother, which has like 350K miles on it and still runs great. I had test drove one years back and ended up getting a Mountaineer instead just because I preferred its ride quality. The old 4-runners rode like a truck to me, but that may actually be desirable for some folks.  

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Late model or older? If older, consider the poor mans 4runner, the Nissan Pathfinder. I'm coming up on 200K on mine and it's been solid. 

Edit:

It's been some time since I purchased but this Here are my options when I got my Pathfinder (2011)

  • 1996-2004 4runner: 200-250K miles, $10K-14K
  • 2001.5-2004 Pathfinder: 100K-140K miles, $5K-8K
Edited by RedRider3141
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My dad bought a 2010 with 185k miles last year.  He had a 98' before that with 250k.  He loves them.  But he did say that he wished his new one was more powerful.  His exact words were, "its a little bit of a dog".  I myself have always been a bit of a bigger vehicle owner (with wife, 3 kids, and active lifestyle)...thus I've got a 1st gen 4 dr Tundra and wife drives a current gen Sequioa.  I think one of the best values in the SUV market has to be the 1st-gen Sequioa....its roomy, bulletproof, drives like a car, and can be bought cheaply....the only real downside is that it gets shitty gas mileage.  But if you've got a Tacoma, you're already use to that.

Honda guy who's recently become a Toyota convert,

-CJB

Edited by CBaron
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6 hours ago, RedRider3141 said:

Late model or older? If older, consider the poor mans 4runner, the Nissan Pathfinder. I'm coming up on 200K on mine and it's been solid. 

Edit:

It's been some time since I purchased but this Here are my options when I got my Pathfinder (2011)

  • 1996-2004 4runner: 200-250K miles, $10K-14K
  • 2001.5-2004 Pathfinder: 100K-140K miles, $5K-8K

My wife had a 2010 4runner. We both loved that car. She totaled it (the day I was leaving for a week long bike trip to CO, but that's another story). She wanted to go down to the Toyota dealer and buy another 4runner. I talked her into the Pathfinder (2014) because of the 3rd row seating with our growing family. I've regretted it everyday since. However, I will say that the newer Pathfinders are much more car-like than the early 2000's. 

I've been thinking about a 2000ish 4runner for myself lately. I drive very little, so my priorities are decent reliability, low entry cost (don't need anything depreciating un-driven in the driveway), easy to find replacement parts (and less computerized bullshit to break), and 4 doors good for dropping kids off at school. I'll be interested to see where this thread goes. 

 

Edited by notyal
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Tacoma with camper for the win.  However, if you really want a 4 runner, PM me and i can give you the number to some wholesalers who buy/sell them.
 
IMG_20171219_184145379.thumb.jpg.58204a00454eb5a4d2b876e8ef44cdf7.jpg
Appreciate it and if I go that route I will let you know also considering a topper for one of my Tacoma's.

Sent from my moto g(6) using Tapatalk

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9 hours ago, natas1321 said:

 considering a topper for one of my Tacoma's.

Sent from my moto g(6) using Tapatalk
 

The nice thing about the topper is being able to finish a ride, and slide the bike in and lock it. No concern of rain, snow, salt, vandalism or backing into sh*t with the carrier. Another bonus is not having to drag dirty bikes into a hotel at 2am or having to shoehorn a filthy bike into your SUV.  On short trips ill use my carrier, but overnight trips will be using the topper.

 

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Almost got a 4R, but ended up getting an outback. I still like the idea of a 4R (off-road prowess, indestructibility, that back window). But in the end my outback can go almost* as many places before either stock vehicle starts getting paint scratched with WAY less gas and a lot more day to day comfort and drive-ability. They just debuted the 2020 model too.

Good luck finding a great 4R, I'll live vicariously through you.

 

 

 

*dang departure/approach angles

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7 hours ago, ATXZJ said:

The nice thing about the topper is being able to finish a ride, and slide the bike in and lock it. No concern of rain, snow, salt, vandalism or backing into sh*t with the carrier. Another bonus is not having to drag dirty bikes into a hotel at 2am or having to shoehorn a filthy bike into your SUV.  On short trips ill use my carrier, but overnight trips will be using the topper.

 

All the same things hold true for a van too.

-CJB

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8 hours ago, AntonioGG said:

 

For you guys with toppers, how secure are the locks on those compared to a car lock?

Other than preventing people from just reaching in and grabbing whatever, they aren't theft proof.  If thieves want in they'll just break glass and help themselves like any other vehicle break in. You can add cable locks to bed to ease your mind and bit, and let the insurance company deal with the rest.

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6 hours ago, AntonioGG said:

I've been eyeing Ford Transits after checking out @Ridenfool's.

When I saw this thread I considered mentioning it. Now that Antonio brought it up, here's the story. It may not be everyone's cup of tea, but I've owned Pickups and SUVs and for me this beats them hands down for overall utility. You won't win any awards for looks, but it is so nice having standing room and privacy to change clothes at the trail head. Plus, keeping the bike inside and out of sight with lots of room left over.

I sold a Toyota Tundra and bought the Transit. It has three times the load capacity (will carry the weight of my other car, a Ford Focus, with 400 lbs left over), it hauls more stuff, gets the same fuel mileage as the Tundra (15.5 or so), and with the 3.5 EcoBoost twin-turbo engine it is a sleeper that offers 350 HP and 400 FtLb of Torque at low RPMs.

After almost a year and a half I've nearly finished converting it from a used plumbing van to a dedicated MTB hauling and camping rig.

It has a fridge, hot and cold water, 400 Watts of solar, 200Ah of battery and a 2000 Watt inverter for 120 VAC that powers the water heater, induction cook top and other stuff.

Even after installing so much I was still able to move my wife's Esthetician business to a new office in one load. (Plus filling her car with boxes)

Here's some pics at various stages of the build.

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MTB2LR.thumb.jpg.bfb1edf11879ab8f92cffe19b6c5a97c.jpg

Awning3LR.jpg.e56ae7a43a91f81848fc29b3a05ab14f.jpg

 

EcoBeas2tLR.jpg.63f66df4a8a6754005e1a614edaa80f3.jpg

Edited by Ridenfool
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On 4/18/2019 at 12:51 PM, Teamsloan said:

... in the end my outback can go almost* as many places before either stock vehicle starts getting paint scratched with WAY less gas and a lot more day to day comfort and drive-ability. They just debuted the 2020 model too.

The Subaru line is surprising capable on Jeep roads and worse. My experience with an Impreza and a Forester in trail building and maintenance at Rocky Hill amazed me time and again on the utility and off-pavement prowess of these vehicles. The fact that they can do all this and still make pretty good MPG is just icing on the cake.

I'm very likely to get another Sube in the future to round out the fleet as I'm consistently missing the AWD and ground clearance while driving a Ford Focus.

 

Edited by Ridenfool
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I've got a 2013 tundra crewmax with a camper and it's been great. For long haul trips I use the Kuat, as the bed us full up. But for local/TX trips racks in the bed. I've got lights, similar to the taco photo above, so loading after dark is easy. Also camps in a pinch, so that's nice. For security, I have a power tailgate lock and I lock the bikes.to the rack inside and with a cable..so even if they broke the glass, it's going to take effort to get the bikes out the window as the tailgate still won't open.

Gas sucks, and the 5.7l engines all suffer from cam tower oil leaks. Not bad enough to pay $2k to fix, but annoying that Toyota still hasn't sorted it out. Rides like a car and is very comfortable. 

All that said, I'd planned to replace it in 60k miles (200k) but instead of another truck I'll probably go tall van. That is, unless a great hybrid truck is available in 2-3 years. I'd sure love my daily 20-25 miles to be on electric.

IMG_20180803_185727.jpg

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On 4/23/2019 at 9:21 PM, Mattlikesbikes said:

That is, unless a great hybrid truck is available in 2-3 years. I'd sure love my daily 20-25 miles to be on electric.

 

This where we're at as well. Worked in auto industry for the last 28 years and i am done with internal combustion engines and the mess required to keep them going. We just bought a hybrid for the wife and will hang onto that until a plugin worth driving drops below $40k. 

There's a ton of money being dumped into electric truck research & design right now so we're not far away from seeing something available to consumers.

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