Recent content by Bearshrimp

Yes I was, just my spin on it :naughty:. Well, yes and no. I agree that Ford’s products have been much better developed and engineered than GM or Chrysler. Unfortunately my experience with Ford quality has been very poor primarily at the dealer/service level. I have owned 3 Fords (91...

1976 Toyota Corolla SR5 Sport Wagon 5 Speed in Japanese racing Orange! Great 1st Car with the OHV 4 and a 5 speed (the 70’s 6 speed). Developed an intake leak and sounded like a C-130 on start up. Purchased for $250 and Junked after a year for $50 cash. 1969 Pontiac LeMans Auto shop project...

Funny, I am looking for a 91'ish manual 4Runner with a V6 (I know, heads) for big boy playtime and evertime I see one up here in the evergreen state on Craigslist its got CA plates and, invariabily, 2WD. I see the 2WD 4Runner as all the looks but W/O the beans to back it up. On the other...

Right, just wanted to avoid sounding like an Occupy Seattle guy. The CEO for Toyota makes about $1M per year. Thats about 1/48th the amount of comp paid to GM's CEO before they went TU. Diffrent priorities aparently.

5.7? You sure it wasn't a Chevy in disguise :nerd:

Yes that's true; it’s a safe bet that the US/CAN economy benefits more from having cars built here than it does if they are built over seas (what about Mexico?). I don’t have the numbers handy but as a rule of thumb the production cost of a durable good is about 10-15% of the total cost. So if...

Consumer Reports is fine but they are reporting from a set POV that appeals to the mass market. They run into trouble any time they review a product that is intended for a niche market. Most 4Runner buyers are part of a niche market of folks who place a higher value on off road capability and...

On the buy America thing, the cars may be built here, but all the profit from manufacture flows back to where the parent company is listed (i.e. the stock exchange). Until Toyota and BMW are listed on the NASDAQ, most of the dollars spent on US built cars will end up in Japan or Germany...

It’s not the workers that determine the quality of manufacture. The 4Runners are “better built” because: Engineering The engineering behind them is better tested and generally well thought out. Production The Tahara plant has a relatively slow moving production line and is almost completely...

Yes, I had Fords (Escort GT, Taurus SHO, Explorer, Mustang GT) before the Jeep and they were much, much worse.

Harsh, this looks like a tough crowd for Jeep. I had a 1997 Grand Cherokee LTD with the 5.2 V8 and quadratrack from 97-05 and put 148k miles on it and it wasn’t THAT bad mechanically. Maybe Jeep took a nose dive in the 90’s. Of course the Jeep did have issues over the years, fuel pump, rear...

My wife comes from a “buy America” household and it was a hard sell to get her to agree to a Toyota. I sat her and her father down with spreadsheets and said, given the fuel economy and resale value, we could not afford an American SUV. After owning my 4Runner for just over a year now I can...

Hey out there, This weekend I was in an off road frame of mind and went alone (stupid), without winter clothing (stupid) to an ORV area in the mountains which was totally deserted because of the time (8:00 am on a Sunday morning). About ½ way down a train the snow started becoming...

I am 6'5" and fit fine in my 5G 4Runner.

Wow, how could I forget the Aztec. They stopped building them years ago, but I think you can still find them on some dealer's lots. Now that's ugly!