Hi there!

My name is William, I go by Will, and live here in the Dallas, TX area.

I have a son and we go camping with his Boy Scout Troop (Plano, TX) and after the first few years of Cub Scout camping taking the family sedan I finally got frustrated with the lack of space and searched online on a Thu evening, and run into a guy selling a 2002 Suburban with 207K miles, which must have been keep indoors as it looked very nice for the age. Interior showed the age/usage, but it looked promising. My next door neigthbor is on his 3rd "burb", so I took him with me the next day, and by evening I had the burb with me.

Fast forward 2 great years camping with my son all over Texas, Oklahoma, and New Mexico. Now that we take less kids with us camping, I "still" need an SUV, but I need a smaller one, so I will be putting the burb for sale shortly, and I am 100% decided on a 4x4 4Runner.

One of my co-workers who lives in Austin belongs to a 4x4 group that have lots of Jeeps and Toyotas, and after talking to him a lot, I have decided to stick with the 4Runner since they are "generally" more reliable in the long run.

My 2002 burb is RWD, and I have come too close to being stuck while camping 3-4 times. Almost had to be winched out on Jan of this year!. So hence why I "want" to get a 4x4 model.

I can probably get $3-4k for the burb, to use as downpayment, and with a a small $5-6K loan that gives me a working budget of $10K for a 4x4 4Runner to use for camping

From my initial search, it looks like I should be able to find a mid/late 4th gen (2005-2009) 4x4 4Runner for that budget, of course assuming higher mileage, which does not scare me too much on the Toyota (heck, my burb now has close to 220K miles!). My wife likes the 5th gen, but I don't think my budget will stretch that far!

Any tips or advice?

Any years or options to look for, or stay away from?

By the way, I am currently looking at this one (5th gen) - any thoughts?
Autotrader - page unavailable

Will

I got my 2010 with 137k for 15.7. It was beat up in spots and I had a few minor issues I had to fix. All said, I spent about another 2k in seat covers/floormats/replacement parts/fluid flushes.

10k budget seems like 4th gen territory. Or a real nice 3rd gen. 3rd gens are the real deal. I almost got a 3rd gen but last min I found my current 5th gen.

Gotcha - thanks. So the one I linked for about $15-16K and 167K miles sounds "reasonable" then, assuming it is in good shape?

Those TRD stickers are fake. Also, when I said 15.7, 700 of that was taxes, I got the car for 15 flat.

Car looks ok to me.

Things to help you negotiate the price down.

- Hood should have lots of rock chips.
- Lift gate latch should be worn out
- Rubber inserts at the bottom of the window (where the window slides up from) are probably shot.
- Radio knobs probably dont move the FM channel or volume like they should all the time.
- Last time diff oil replaced?
- Belts and water pump? Will they need to be replaced in 30k miles?
- Brake pad life remaining?

With any older 4Runner, make sure to check that it easily goes into 4H and 4L. Sometimes this can be a problem if the previous owner rarely used the 4X4.

To OP: in short, I would recommend 5th gen - better ergonomics (much bigger inside), dual VVTI and IMHO just better overall), but based on the budget, 4th gen maybe your only option… in that case, look for 2006 + with V6 engine and 2005 + with V8.

That 2011 model looks like ok deal… I would say if they will sell it for 15 or even lower I think you call it a great deal…
However, I am in DFW as well and went to that dealer couple times looking for a car for my teenager… I have not bought anything from them, but would recommend using “magnifying glass” when looking at that 4Runner before buying it...

Good luck in your search!

Excellent - thanks much for the advice!


OK, I am going to assume the sticker is fake - good to know!

What features "in the 4Runner" would be telling of the car having a TRD package? Would stuff like the A-TRAC or Hill Descent be part of a TRD or any other package?

Toyota used the TE (Trail edition) as its offroad model. TE replaced TRD from (2010-2013) . TRD pro came out in 2014 with the refreshed body style. The stickers like you see on 3rd gen were never used on any 5th gen from 2010 to present.

Wow, excellent. Thanks so much


Cool, thanks. I have been showing these to my wife, and she says she will help me with the budget a little in order to get a 5th gen. Happy wife, happy life, right?



That right there is all I need to know to pass on this particular one. Thank you

Wanted to update the thread, in that I found a 2010 4Runner Limited with 170K miles. I took it to TandemAuto here in the DFW and they checked it end to end doing a formal pre-purchase-inspection. Except for needing new shocks (which I used the negotiate a lower sale price), the truck got a clean bill of health, with lots of places showing that it was maintained well, and not abused.

Thanks much!