I Found The Cure For T4RSS (Toyota 4Runner Snob Syndrom) lol!

About a month ago my I picked up a 1990 GMC Van for my band to tour with instead of my 4runner. We got sick of all 6 of us touring the country for months at a time in my 4runner so I bought a full-size van with a queen size bed in the back and a 22" lcd flat screen with xbox 360. Now all the luxuries are nice but, OMFG this van is the biggest piece of :toilet: I have ever driven in my life. I've had my 4runner parked at my guitarist's house for the last month because I've been working on the van and I don't have enough parking spaces at my house for both of them. I've also been driving the van everywhere for the last month so I can find out everything that's wrong with it. Now I'm not complaining about how much of a piece of junk that van is considering we only paid $900 for it but it has made me realize how amazing my 4runner is. For the last year I've complained about how my steering isn't pefect, my throttle response could be better and how my suspension needs a little work but after driving nothing but that p.o.s. Chevy for the past 4 weeks, driving my 4Runner last night was like a breath of fresh air. Now even though the van is 10 years older than my 4runner, they do both have nearly the same amount of miles (145,XXX on my 4runner and 153,XXX on the van) but the van has been flooded with problems and all I can say is that back in the 90's Americans had absolutely no clue on how to build a vehicle. My first car was a 1985 Camry with 200,000+ miles on it and it ran beautifully. So I have come to the conclusion that for all of you who think your 4runner needs a lot of work and are losing some apprecition for it, go drive an early 90's Chevy for a month. Then the next time you drive your 4runner you'll fall in love with it all over again.

Very true. I drove my buddy's (he's actually the guitar player in my band as a matter of fact) '00 Ford Ranger and wow what a POS compared to my '97. The steering was loose, suspension felt horrible, and even though a lot of folks talk about the lack of power in the 3rd gens, my 3.4 '97 is way faster than the 4.0 V6 in that Ford. I was trying to pass cars coming up a 5K ft mountain pass and had to give that idea up. I just had to get back in the slow lane and deal with it. Even when I had my old gears (4.11s) and 33s it was faster than the Ford!

When I finally got my runner back after i crashed it, it felt like I was driving a luxury vehicle. Everything felt so smooth, quiet, and controlled. I had been driving a Chevy Malibu ('99?) and a Jeep Cherokee Limited ('98) over the course of a month.

Dark Runner said:

... go drive an early 90's Chevy for a month. Then the next time you drive your 4runner you'll fall in love with it all over again.

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No need to do it for a month. I periodically drive a rental car for work for a day or two. That's all it takes to appreciate the T4R at the end of a day.

I work at a tire shop when I'm not in school so I drive a lot of different cars/trucks. The first thing I do is check the mileage. It amazes me when driving vehicles that have less than 100ks on then how terribly they drive in comparison to my toyota. Even simple things like how the seats are holding up. I don't know why people buy particular brands of cars over others when quality and reliability go hand in hand with a toyota (except for their recent peddle issues :wtf. I just don't get it. I've got 158ks on my 4runner and I've done nothing huge as far as maintenance. The thing takes care of itself. Toyota for life.

Yeah i can definetly agree with this, every time i drive my sisters 04 Saturn Vue, i literally just want to drive it into the nearest tree and walk to my destination. It sucks its a 4cl with a 5 speed and i cant ever get the clutch right and I've drive a lot of stick cars and this i couldn't shift correctly, also the shit on it is just breaking off. But I think this should be aimed against american cars because the rest of the (Euro) cars in my family all work great with great power and comfort and are all used, the Jetta feels like it has 30k miles when it actually has 225k miles.

I can def. agree with above.
I drive a 2000 Chevy S10 for work. If it weren't free, I wouldn't drive it.
I am the only operator since it was new. When something breaks, I get it fixed. Regular oil changes, etc...the truck just rolled over 60K miles. Low in my book.

Now the kicker....
It has already had replaced:
Rear main seal
Tranny seal
Head gasket
Radiator
Alternator
Heater core ( x2 )
A/C compressor ( x3 )
Sets of tires ( x2 )
Brakes ( x2 )

That's all I can think of at the moment...
Noisy, rattly, generally a POS...BUT it is by far a much better truck than the brand new Colarado I drove for a couple of days while my truck was in the shop. That Colarado was the biggest POS I have driven in a long time.

Granted, my T100 is 5 years older, and has over 200K miles on it. It was abused as a construction truck B4 I got her. She is rattly & squeaky too, but that is expected.

My Wife's 97 4Runner runs/feels/sounds like new at 150K miles and counting....

Lovin My 4Runner

After having a company vehicle for over a year (05 GMC Envoy), I was forced to go buy a vehicle due to budget cuts and the recession. I looked around and found my 99 T4R at first I was hesitant in getting an older vehicle but, I don't regret making the purchase. That Envoy was the biggest POS I have driven in a long time, it rattled, ran like crap, wasn't comfortable at all and got the worst gas mileage. I have had several cars and SUV's but nothing comes close to the sturdiness, smoothness and just down right satisfaction I get from my T4R!

my old '98 zj 5.9L had power to spare but every other part of that rig besides the engine was a piece of junk, All of these toyota recalls don't bother me one bit , after driving american made cars the majority of my life none of them feel as solid or as well made as the runner, just the sound when you close the door and all of the rest, and the best example i can say is this

my jeep was a 1998 with 200K and on it's last leg, dying every month for one reason or another

my 4runner is a 1999 with 198K on it and needs zero service, nothing is broken, i mean nothing, no knobs, doors, windows, it's basically like a new truck.

i'm just pissed american quality has been crap most my life, and that the japs are getting really good at this car stuff, they are almost better then the germans which has always been held in high regard when speaking of quality....

American quality is AWFUL.

I agree with John, the biggest POS I have ever driven was a blue Saturn VUE that had said ALCHMST on the license plate.

I drive Mercedes by the hundreds quite literally, and tons of other makes mixed in. I still love getting in my 4Runner at the end of the day. Work keeps me interested.

I've been doing a lot of stereo installs in the last two weeks, (Ford Econoline van, 2 F-350's, an Audi S4, an F-150, and a Denali) all newer than 05' and every time I finished delivery and got back into my 4Runner, it felt like home... The steering was tighter, brakes were better, better power curve, etc. The Audi was decent, the rest of them were just plain crap.

I will never get rid of my 4Runner...

ChildrenOfBodom said:

American quality is AWFUL.

I agree with John, the biggest POS I have ever driven was a blue Saturn VUE that had said ALCHMST on the license plate.

I drive Mercedes by the hundreds quite literally, and tons of other makes mixed in. I still love getting in my 4Runner at the end of the day. Work keeps me interested.

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I can't speak for modern American vehicles but after working on this van I can see the difference in how cars are built between Americans, Europeans and Japanese. The Japanese and European way of building a car is very anal-retentive. Everything has to be precise and as close to perfect as possible. The American way of building a car is an, "it's good enough" attitude. a quick example, when I'm not rocking faces off I'm a car audio installer at Car Toys and every foreign car I've ever worked on uses nothing but metric nuts and bolts, while almost every american car I've ever worked on not only uses both standard and metric nuts and bolts but for instance, the reciever hitch uses a 19mm, 22mm and 1/2" bolts. Who the hell thought that was a good idea?

Dark Runner said:

I can't speak for modern American vehicles but after working on this van I can see the difference in how cars are built between Americans, Europeans and Japanese. The Japanese and European way of building a car is very anal-retentive. Everything has to be precise and as close to perfect as possible. The American way of building a car is an, "it's good enough" attitude. a quick example, when I'm not rocking faces off I'm a car audio installer at Car Toys and every foreign car I've ever worked on uses nothing but metric nuts and bolts, while almost every american car I've ever worked on not only uses both standard and metric nuts and bolts but for instance, the reciever hitch uses a 19mm, 22mm and 1/2" bolts. Who the hell thought that was a good idea?

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There must be a committee of jerks that want to make removing that tow hitch as annoying as can be.

Yeah, that's a great way to put it, American manufacturers are absolutely average, "it's good enough"

ChildrenOfBodom said:

There must be a committee of jerks that want to make removing that tow hitch as annoying as can be.

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Toyota is on that commintee too, they used 2 different sizes of both systems, and 1 of the bolts was blocked by the tailpipe.

JohnsD90 said:

Toyota is on that commintee too, they used 2 different sizes of both systems, and 1 of the bolts was blocked by the tailpipe.

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u sure your tow hitch is stock??

cuz I know lots of people that have put aftermarket tow packages on..

those could be fabbed with standard..

Duhockey said:

u sure your tow hitch is stock??

cuz I know lots of people that have put aftermarket tow packages on..

those could be fabbed with standard..

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the hitch might be aftermarket but the nuts and bolts aren't. It's hard to explain how I know, I'll try to take a picture.

JohnsD90 said:

Toyota is on that commintee too, they used 2 different sizes of both systems, and 1 of the bolts was blocked by the tailpipe.

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Your's must have been changed out cause the hitch on my 4runner has either 4 or 6 bolts (i can't remember) and they were all 19mm

Kmvreter said:

No need to do it for a month. I periodically drive a rental car for work for a day or two. That's all it takes to appreciate the T4R at the end of a day.

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Update. Don't get them often but just finished a day in a rental SUV. The Jeep Commander Sport V6 is a POS. It had a 4x4 badge but was actually a full-time 4wd (no part-time or low range so couldn't try anything out.) The 3.7L was gutless in this vehicle; unresponsive accelerator feel, downshifting on the highway at the first sight of a rise. There were some minor interior plus's (sat radio; remote radio control locations) but more negative's, especially the narrow drivers footwell, poor ergonomics to view gauges, rear view out back, bad tracking on the road, yadda, yadda...)

Nice to get back in the T4R.

my love for jeep died the day they released the liberty and diarrhea of pos trucks that followed ....................

and in all honesty the only good jeeps are the zj,xj and wrangler series(tj,yj) and that's still open for debate as they still fall apart @150K

theizzardking said:

my love for jeep died the day they released the liberty and diarrhea of pos trucks that followed ....................

and in all honesty the only good jeeps are the zj,xj and wrangler series(tj,yj) and that's still open for debate as they still fall apart @150K

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I agree except for one point. I think the last good series was the CJ.

theizzardking said:

and in all honesty the only good jeeps are the zj,xj and wrangler series(tj,yj) and that's still open for debate as they still fall apart @150K

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150K! That's really good for a Jeep. My neighbor's '06 Willy's Edition Wrangler takes 5-10 minutes to get started every morning (it kinda pisses me off because the cranking always wakes me up since he leaves an hour before I do). Then it stalls randomly while at stop signs and such. Oh, and it's got 40K on it. Started doing the problem at 36,500, 500 miles after warranty expired.

My other neighbor had to replace his throw out bearing on his '08 Wrangler at 37K. 1000 miles after the warranty expired. He was so pissed that he fixed it, sold it and got an FJ Cruiser. I told him it was the best decision he ever made.

It's appauling how shitty the new Jeeps are. Sadly, the Liberties seem to have the least problems, except that they suck off road stock.