Hey everyone! I want to start off by saying what a great community this has been here the past few days. Thanks to everyone I've gotten the chance to chat with. I am purchasing my first 4runner soon and am needing some help with my purchase.

I constantly hear how much people talk about the reliability of these vehicles and how solid they are. I am looking at purchasing between a '99 and '02 3rd gen 4runner but am trying not to break the bank on it.

I have found some good ones that I have seen between 5k and 7k with 170+ miles on them. Would you think it is smarter financially to pick up one with higher miles or to hold out for one with between 100-125 miles on it, but those are going for more around 9k-10k.

The other difficult thing is that most of the good ones I find are miles and miles away, and I'd hate to travel 300+ miles for one, and find that it's a rust bucket. What may look good in pictures may not be the same up close. Anyone have any input from when they made their purchase?? Thanks in advance for your help!!!

No purchase input, but coming from working on them since they were new...... They have been fantastic rigs. Maintenance is all the difference, if course, but thr just seem to keep going and going.....

miles are not as important as maintenance record

Yeah as long as it has had routine maintenance, it will be good for you. I bought mine with 160,000 on it and now its at 256,000. And I haven't had to do any major repairs at all. I would recommend trying to get one for around $5-6K in the 160-170K mile range. Unless of course you can afford one with less miles.

No advice as well... but 3rd generations are the best looking so far in my opinion. In Canada, I've seen ones listed between $5K-9K. There was one posted last week for $3K on Craigslist and it was gone within two days. Good luck! Post some pics when you get it.

I just bought a 2002 SR5 with 207,000 miles on it. It is so quiet and smooth I could fall asleep driving down the road. It really does boil down to maintenance. I compared it to a nearly identical 2002 with only 87,000 miles for $4000 more. I opted for the higher mileage because the difference was so obvious. I'm already thinking of buying another 2000-2002 I like this one so much.

I don't have a 3rd gen, (I have a '95, never had any major problems because it's been properly maintained)... I would say the service record matters more than the mileage, I would also make sure that it hadn't been offroaded or have any kind of lift, in my preference you're buying another man's troubles when you buy a pre-lifted vehicle, do the lifting yourself if you want it lifted, other than that, I'd go for it, they're great reliable vehicles.. mine's never let me down.

I bought a 97 six months ago with 150k from a dealer who I thought had a good reputation. After 4 months it blew a head gasket the farther I got into it the more I found was wrong. Long story short 2 months and $3500 later I have a new reman long block in my rig. This thing had been abused it had so much bars leak in it the heater core was plugged and the fitting in the block for the coolant return line from the oil cooler was plugged as well.

just bought a 2000 sport 2wd 165k for $6000 6 weeks ago. The previous owner used it through law school & kept all the service records (about $7000 worth). it seems like it will be very reliable & drives ok, not like my newer hondas though. I spent about a month looking so take your time shopping. get a clean one, don't worry about the mileage too much.