looking at a 99, that is on 3rd owner. but some confusion.
1) Carfax ( uisng license plate) comes back and agrees with what current owner tells me of what he knows ( over phone and 2 hours away) including the accident, and approx date that gave it a salvage title.( with previous owner)
However....car fax comes back with 17 characters in vin, I checked several times, yet when I try to look up more im told too many characters. Type in pate again, comes back with everything right, except again too many characters.
2) on the car fax it says on date of repair and new title.... and makes note of color reported as gold ( was it changed to gold ? ) when his wife bought it and transfered to her name.
3) it has a locker, automatic, but the floor mats say "Highlander" I asked owner, he said ....I dont know...its a 4runner my wife bought.

so......Vin begins JT3HN.....does the H stand for highlander ?

why does it have 17 characters on car fax.

I called owner again, but being turkey day cant get him, and he said he was going hunting tomorrow......I believe both of those, cause so am I , friday and saturday is special caribou hunt days in this part of Alaska


other info. 185k. Timing belt wires and plugs done 9k ago, sunroof is glued shut, studded snows on 2nd season. Gold, black flares, emblems are gold, tan cloth.

17 digits is the Standard for VINS, across manufacturers/models.

Why try to enter more digits??

My vin is JT3HN87RX19...yet it is not a Highlander.

I suspect someone just put those mats in for kicks.

Better be Cheap price with all that not working.

How about Rust?

thanks

this is the site that would not take my vin
TOYOTA 4RUNNERVZN185L-GKPZKA - TOOL-ENGINE-FUEL - | Japan Parts EU

as far as price, well, up here it is real hard to find anything good in a used toyota 4x4, let alone a 3rd gen. Subies are the easy to find rig here, dont want one

HN means it's 4wd. 17 digits is mandatory for vehicles since a long time ago. If you are copying and pasting the vin make sure there is not a extra spaces at the end or beginning. Also there are no "o's" in vins, only zeros so don't mix them up lol.

Also highlanders (4runners) IIRC only came in the metallic green.

Me personally, I take a hard pass on anything that is salvage titled. Unless you yourself salvaged it.

I'm leary if it truly has a locker. I came across a few people that just put the switch in and say it has a locker. So if you physically can see it then your good. Or have him send you a pic since its 2 hours away.

Good luck.

Highlander were one year only. One color and the only way the average person knew was the build sheet in the windows when new. The year 1999 the color green. I thought my 01 sport was a Highlander until I learned what they exactly were.

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The "highlander" designation was nothing more than a small label found on the driver's window on the 99 and 00 Sport models. Theres really nothing THAT special about the name itself, people really want them because it was the last year you could get manual trans and e-locker together. Also had the best interior imo

I though they only were 1 year and had the 1 inch longer springs in the front and back coil springs? Yes they are based off the sport model.

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According to our own 3rd Gen Buyers Guide, and a quick google search, it was both years in the 99-00 subgeneration

Site is ticky about VIN input, time it rejected me was what I put in (incorrect VIN) as with locker axle I got from salvage yard, haven't done copy/paste.

Fair enough. Then the 99 tall springs should be called 99-00 talls.

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The "Highlander" was available in Green and Black.

If you go to the Toyota Owner's site and enter the vin, you can look up the original window sticker options paid. Best way to know for sure.

Logged Out My Vehicle Page | Toyota Owners

Another good site: Toyota VIN Decoder - Free from Olathe Toyota Parts Center

Great to know. I thought it was only green.

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so... i *think* mine is a highlander. '99, manual, locker, imperial jade green. had a look at top4runners and i see the list of characteristics now. also, i have not seen a '00 as a manual. anyone here have such a creature?

There's definitely a few, when I was shopping for my vehicle there was a manual '00 Sport w/ e-locker about 10 hours south in Oregon that I heavily debated making the trip for - and still kinda regret I didn't
Again, "highlander" was purely a sort of nickname for the Sport trim, not a certain combination of features - it's just that particular combination (locker+manual) was only available for that trim in those years, making it sought after, but not all of them came equipped as such. If you have a hood scoop, it's a Sport model
VSC/Trac was added in 01 too, which also makes the previous years more desirable (even though it can be easily disabled with a little snipping and soldering)
Also came with brown/black interior which was the best looking to most. Imo it beats the hell out of plain grey!