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