I've been the proud owner of an 04 limited for a few years now, but now I have another runner in the garage. I bought a 97 model yesterday with 344k on it😁. It's a 4x4, 5 speed, 4 cylinder. It has a ton of maintenance records, clean title and Carfax. It runs and drives really well for the age and mileage. Was I crazy to buy this thing? It's a 3rd vehicle for us as I also have an IS300 I drive daily, so I'm not super concerned about reliability.

Given the history of these SUVs, she will serve you well.

To some folks, you're just at the half life point. Being a manual with a four cylinder you've got a good chance of adding many more miles...congrats. Keep us posted on its history.

I just got a 96 with 200k on it and I am kinda in the same boat as you are!


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I just finished a 1,600 mile trip with the family. My truck is about to roll over 404,000 miles.

I'd say your good to keep on truckin.

^^ Did you have a head wind while you took that picture? I get 80 MPH at 2500 rpm without head wind. tires are 265 75 17

Are you serious 22.1 MPG? is this with ETC on only thing? I get 18 MPG (real calculations, not scan-gauge)

I know another guy having the same configuration truck as yours in CA. These trucks are very rare. Keep it in good shape, one day you can make a profit "if you plan to sell this runner"

I don't recall specifically what way the wind was blowing in that pic, but it was blowing pretty good.

Just noticed the MPGs in that pic. It was probably accurate at that moment but an average MPG for that trip was about 19-20 MPG. Good variety of mountain grades, curvy country roads and flat stretches too.

That's loaded down with 5 people + gear/stuff and rolling 265/75/16 Cooper ATPs

Here is a snapshot of the last 5 or 6 fill-ups.


And here is a shot of the trip odometer (reset at each fuel-up) at 186 miles on half a tank. Ironically the ScanGauge which has been pretty accurate, showed that I had another 186 miles until empty.

Nice! Are you using an app or program to generate those reports?

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It's an app called Gas Tracker by Fuelly

I too have Cooper AT3 265 75 16 (correction: I had a typo as 17). I took off the tow hitch and did my best at cruise, but still 18.5 MPG max. OK, yeah with the headwind, I get that same RPM and MPH.

Do you keep ETC on all the time? I want to try that.

What gears are you running? Perhaps that could be the difference.

When I first got my truck about 55,000 miles ago, I drove with the ECT on all the time and to be honest, I couldn't tell any real difference, but I figured it couldn't hurt — so I left it on.

Then my tranny lockup solenoid failed so I replaced all three solenoids and flushed all the fluid. Now when I turn on the ECT button, I can tell a difference. It definitely holds gears longer. As such, I don't like it so much for around town driving as it makes me feel like I'm winding out the gears unnecessarily between stoplights.

Now I just use it on long drives, up in the hills or whenever I need to lay down the lead foot and get gone.

Oh and the AT/3 and ATP tires are very similar. So they should be similar in terms of MPG too I would think.

What type of device is that you have in for the odometer


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That's a Scan Gauge. It plugs into the OBDII port and will pull out all sorts of useful info.

Great truck! Thanks for the gas app knowledge as well!