Hey everyone! Unfortunately, I need to say goodbye to the T4R. I've moved on to a Tundra to handle daily towing needs and an open cargo bed. So, here it is: (some things doubled in my sig)

2004 T4R Sport Edition 4WD V8
76,700 miles
6 disc JBL w/ iPod integration (PA-15)
Sunroof
Auto dimming rearview mirror w/ Homelink
Double Decker Cargo
Side Air Bags
BRAND NEW GY Wrangler Silent Armor 275/70/17 (including spare!)
Spidertrax Wheel Spacers 1.25"
OME 3" Suspension w/ 1" FR differential drop
RR Diff breather mod

My original plan was to drive this thing until the wheels fell off, so I pretty much babied it. I even have two sets of floor mats depending on the weather. Yeah, I have taken it off road a couple times, but since I drove it to work everyday, it was nothing like some of you have done.

Located in SE Michigan
$16,500











I'm sure you noticed the bug deflector has has a corner missing. Other than that, this truck is in great shape. Thanks for checking it out.

Bump. Still trying to sell

Do you guys have any comments or ideas? This is a great truck but I'm not getting much traffic from Autotrader or from it sitting on my front yard. Granted, it's a little difficult to sell a Toyota in SE Michigan, but still. Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

My honest suggestion is to try eBay. I know a guy really well that I've bought a couple of cars from. He said that surprisingly enough he was advertising on autotrader, the local papers, and he had a local car lot. He wouldn't get a nibble at all. His lot is on a major road that travels the length of all major cities in the area. No bites really. Then he put one car up on eBay on a whim hoping somebody from Cali would want it (low mile Prius that looked brand new) and sold it for $3,000 more than he was asking and it was to a local (she lived 5 miles from his little dealership)! They just didn't think to look in the other places, and many times hit eBay first.

Now he lists pretty much every vehicle he has that has lower miles like yours (sub 100,000) on eBay and the majority either sell through eBay or somebody will contact him through eBay and make a deal with him locally. It just seems to be a great way to get things noticed.

I sold a car on craigslist once and that was relatively painless. Just be prepared for lots of scam emails. They aren't so bad though if you have the time and enjoy messing with people who send that stuff. If you were local to me it would sell in probably a day for that price. I know people that are always on the lookout for 4Runners in Utah. You may even get somebody that wants to buy it out here and truck it if it were listed on eBay. You might want to check into trucking companies and figure out what it would cost to ship it to different areas and what your ebay fees would be in advance. If I had the means I'd buy it from you tomorrow and hold it until November and resell it to somebody who needs a vehicle to get them to the ski resorts (nah, not really, I don't have it in me to try to run a business like that... but I would keep it and sell it for what I paid for it just to keep it out of a dealer's hands!). ;)

My last suggestion is to look into local dealers who deal in auction vehicles/vehicle locating. The guy I mentioned above does that as part of his job. People come to him searching for a vehicle. They give him $500 and he goes to the auctions in Phoenix and Vegas every week or every other week and picks up the vehicles the people ordered. If he doesn't get exactly what they wanted or they don't like it when he gets back with it then he puts it on his lot for 2-3 weeks. If it doesn't sell he runs it on eBay or takes it right back down to the auction and recovers what he put into it 9/10 times. He is very good at it. I actually met him when I saw a Suzuki sitting on his lot that looked new (it was a current year vehicle) and it had 12,000 miles on it and was going for about $10,000 less than a dealership. I called and asked what was up and he said he bought 12 directly from Suzuki that were program vehicles (used by some real estate corporation for a short term lease deal to move people around a housing development that was in progress or some such business as that) and 11 had been pre-ordered by customers and this was the last one and somebody had backed out on it and he was keeping one for himself and selling one. He was going to truck it back down and sell it at auction, but preferred to sell it for what he put into it initially plus enough to cover the trucking up to Utah and his time on the whole thing. Once he found out that my wife was his daughter's teacher then he told us that we could have it for no-profit to him at all, and it was the best little SUV we'd ever owned and really got us out of a jam of being stuck driving a Dodge NEON (BLECCCH!). It was the best thing to ever happen to us, and it was cool of him to do that. We got it for like $13,000 including TT&L and it was absolutely a mint 2003 XL-7 loaded with almost no miles on it. I have a cousin that runs the same business in Vegas and does well and helps a lot of people looking for a car but not wanting to deal with the runaround.

So if you can find a dealership in the local want-ads that says they "locate vehicles" or are a "car searching service" then you may want to give them a heads-up that if they have a customer looking for a 4Runner then you have one that is in great shape and you'd sell it to them for your price and they could mark it up from there. Some will offer auction values or low book, but just let them know that if somebody comes through looking for a great 4Runner ASAP that it is a way they can make a quick $500 with no work and refinishing/refreshing/transporting from the auction/title and key issues, bill of sale problems, VIN checks, and all of the other crapola that they have to go through in order to get an auction deal done. Plus the person can see it locally.

If you need any more tips just drop me a line. I've helped a lot of people buy cars over the years, so I can be helpful in a pinch, and for what I charge (NOTHING) people always get exactly what they paid for, and they love my money back guarantee. Haha.