The Back Story of my 4Runner

(Editor’s note: Skip this post if you just care about the mods!)

Today is the last day of March 2011 – the month in which I finally bought my 5th Gen 4Runner after 18 months of waiting and wanting and otherwise annoying everyone around me about 4Runners. Why do I say “finally” in such an exasperated tone?

Where to begin…

In the summer of 2009, I got wind of the news that a new generation of 4Runner was coming out as a 2010 model (with a Fall 2009 release date). I saw the teaser pics and got excited. In the fall of 2009, I went to a local dealership to see if they had any information about when the 2010 4Runner would be on their lot. They didn’t know. While I was there, I test drove a black 2009 Sport Edition 4Runner (which I was told was the last 2009 they’d have on their lot), and it was nice. I almost bought it. I decided to wait for the 5th gen. The black SE was parked in my neighbor’s driveway three days later (my neighbor across the street, so I saw it front and center every time I walked out of my door). I thought it was taunting me.

Then the 5th gens started to arrive at the dealership – and appear on the road - I knew I was right to wait. They were gorgeous. They were bigger and badder (in my opinion). They were awesome.

My wife agreed, but we (she?) wasn’t ready to buy one just yet. You have to understand the mentality in my house about loans, financing, credit cards, etc. I did not have a good financial mindset when I was younger, and it took me a long time to pull myself from the depths of debt (especially after going through a divorce!). So I have happily adopted her financial approach as our “family methodology”. Everything we own is bought at 0% and paid off before interest charges hit - furniture, electronics, cameras, TVs, home theater systems, you name it. We don’t carry credit card balances. The only thing we pay interest on is our mortgage, and that’s only after she made three mortgage brokers fight to the death in a pit of vipers while yelling out their lowest APRs.

So I waited for 0% financing on a 4Runner. (note: don’t do this – it never happens)

I waited, and watched the “sudden acceleration” thing hit the news, and thought to myself “maybe they’ll do 0% on all of their models as a PR move to show the public they’re confident in their product!” They rolled out 0% on almost 10 models, but not 4Runners.

I thought maybe there’d be a 0% offer as the winter weather went away and people stopped buying SUVs during the summer, or when gas prices went up. It didn’t happen.

It never happened.


Then…my wife got pregnant. Space in the cars became a premium, between my 7-year-old in a booster seat and the soon-to-arrive newborn with a car seat base. We decided it was time for something bigger. My son was born on March 1st, and the new 4Runner was in my driveway on March 18th.

Where do all of you come in? Look at my avatar over on the left side of the screen. I joined this place in January of 2010 – that’s 15 months ago! I used this forum to get information on what models people were buying, what the pros and cons of the Limited, SR5, and Trail trims were, and what people were paying.

Then people started modifying them.

I never came here with the intention of learning how to modify my 4Runner. I just wanted to learn what the forum members thought of their new cars, see what problems they were encountering, and solidify my opinion that the 4Runner was right for me.

But I started seeing pictures of the mods. And I liked it.

And the people on here were friendly and helpful. And it encouraged me.

I started jotting some of the easier mods down, thinking I might tackle them. Over the 15 months, these notes became a little more…formal. You can scroll down and see what happened.

(OK, I’m an engineer – we’re dorks by nature, and we love spreadsheets)

My spreadsheet had hyperlinks to T4R.org threads that showed how to do the mod, plus hyperlinks to the website where the parts were sold.

I’m so indecisive about the wheels that I just listed every single one that I liked, and I’ll have to make that decision later.

So here we go!

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