Hi all,
I'm a new college graduate, 21 years old, out on my own - so paying for 100% of stuff - for the first time. My 2005 SR5 (V6, 2x4 w/ LSD, Leather) has served me well for the past 5-6 years, and is currently sitting at 185k.
I am currently trying to decide whether I should put any money into this thing or sell it now and get something cheap like a Corolla. I expect to either move to the opposite side of the country (East to West coast) or be deployed out of country with my work within the next two-ish years, so I don't want to get a newer 4Runner until after I get back. BUT I could easily rack up 30k (or maybe even 50k) miles in that time, so I know I probably can't just let it roll.
Can you guys help me figure out a realistic operating cost? Since I bought it at 125k miles, I've only done the following:
- Synthetic Oil changes every 5k
- Air filter cleaning
- New brakes 20k miles ago
- New Cats (both replaced) about 20k miles ago
- New starter about 40k miles ago - forded about 3 ft of water in a flash flood and this was the only notable part that failed that week
The spark plugs were last replaced at purchase (so 125k)
My tires (Nitto Terra Grapplers) have almost 45k miles on them but look like this:
I have seen threads mentioning water pumps and suspension, but I need to cut through the wishes and get down to brass tax. Do I really need to drop money on suspension? - I haven't been offroading since moving. I loved this thing, but rode it super hard and accept that it might be time to part ways soon. It's not in the greatest shape anymore, and I really don't want to pay for another job like the catalytic converter swap (my parents covered that, thankfully, but it was like $1800). If I do a serious maintenance overhaul, I would love to add remote start, replace the headlights (I've sanded them down 3x now), and put in a nice stereo with Carplay, but I don't want to sink an extra $1k for those 3 items and then have a $3k issue a month later. I believe I could sell it for $5-6k pretty easily.
So, what maintenance would be smart/worth it, and what do you think I should do?
Edit: Side note - I just moved across the country and have only basic tools with me to work in an apartment parking lot. I'm not afraid of DIY stuff (my dad and I swapped the starter), but I don't even have a car jack here.
