Good potential buy?

[FSUt4r]

1998 TOYOTA 4RUNNER

I'm planning on calling on this tomorrow, I can see obvious rusting on the exhaust tip so the underside may be scary. The back passenger side rim is also missing, so if he doesn't have it I would need to replace it. Also if you notice that missing patch of paint or whatever that is on the drivers side door.

Depending on engine etc, Ill try to use the rim/potential rust as a bargaining tool and offer 3500 to start with the goal of not paying more than 4200.

Anyone have a better strategy? I'm new to 4runners and figure you all are the experts

 

[StreetKill831]

That patch you are looking at is actually something that comes on them from the factory to protect the corner of the door. His is just a bit discolored.

From the looks of it the under carriage shouldn't be very bad as far as rust goes. Exhaust pipes tend to rust a lot faster than most of the stuff under your vehicle and that one doesn't look very rusty.

Millage is good, you will easily get to 200k and much further if you take good care of it(as long as it has already been taken care of decently). When you talk to him ask him if the timing belt/water pump have been changed and ask to see the paperwork. If it hasn't been done yet it should be right away(recommended every 90k miles) and you can use that as another bargaining chip since a dealer will charge about $1200 to do the job(you can do it yourself for MUCH cheaper, but they don't know that).

Looks like a nice and clean, unmolested T4R. Still a 2wd though...

 

[FSUt4r]

Yea the 2wd thing isn't too big of a turn off for me since I don't do any extreme wheeling, I just started my car hunt today so im using this one to try an gauge what decent deals are.

 

[StreetKill831]

As far as the price goes, It's not a steal, but a fairly decent deal.

 

[t4r4life]

damn almost 5gs for a 2wd, if it was 4wd it's be different most guys that bought 2wd wish they have 4wd now

 

[96743runner]

That guy is asking way too much IMO. I've seen many 4x4 4Runners with similar mileage/condition sell for a bit less around where I live. Even if you could talk him down to $3500 I personally would not go for it..especially if you suspect that it has a good amount of undercarriage rust.

 

[StreetKill831]

I guess I was thinking more about his $4200 max offer and wasn't really taking the 2wd part into consideration.