Help with buying a 2005 Limited V6

anything can be fixed, some normal wear items can be fixed at reasonable cost

other things are horribly expensive to diagnose and then to fix

the accident on the carfax is your big negotiating point, being that it is relatively public knowledge
 
prule84 said:
First off, thank you guys a ton for your replies. I definitely won't be moving forward with it unless that brake issue is addressed. I'll try to get ahold of the accident report and see if I can figure out what happened with it. I asked the salesman about it today and he said that it was "very minor" and "nothing to worry about." Besides the basic stuff that you mentioned LUVDA4RUNNER (oil, air filter, fluids) they supposedly replaced the struts too and did some other mechanical work. I'm going to see if I can get a list of that as well.

The most true thing that I think anyone has said to me is "I think your excitement for the 4runner is clouding your judgement." I really think you hit the nail on the head there. My current car is about to croak, and I couldn't be more excited about potentially having a new car. I can't wait until it's sitting in my driveway and I can call it mine, and I think that it's affecting my judgement big time.

The reason I am still considering this car is the price. I was looking at 02's and 03's until I saw this one advertised at roughly the same price. If I bring it to my mechanic (who is a family friend) and he doesn't see anything of concern, would it be a good deal? I hope so.
Click to expand...

I've been there. It is always exciting buying a new car. Sometimes you want it so bad you overlook some things.
That being said, the price is good, it has a nice maintenance record.
Probably would be a good rig assuming the accident was minor and no structural damage.
If it feels right go for it, if your gut tells you no, keep looking.
 
what the seller says obviously does not mean much given the brakes and "struts" patter...

Does not sound to me like you are taking very much risk on this deal and the price will only get better.
 
Update: Went and test drove the 2003 V8 Sport Edition. Drove awesome, brakes felt good - but there was a catch of course.

The vehicle was traded in last week by an older gentleman (salesman said he was 73). The car was being sold "as-is" because it had likely been in an accident and there was some damage to it. It was missing one of the side mirrors, and the gray plastic trim around the car had some scratches on it. That to me honestly wasn't a big deal because I can get a new mirror and could deal with minor scratches.

When the car was running I noticed a slightly off sounding noise likely coming from the exhaust. I asked the salesman and he thought it was probably some sort of exhaust leak. At the very worst a catalytic converter.

Anyway, we went inside and they offered me pretty much nothing for my trade-in (I have an old car, '97 Volvo 850, wasn't expecting much). The price was $7,400 out-the-door (all the dumb fees and sales tax included). I told him I wanted to take it by my mechanic, which he said they do not allow for as-is sales. I told him I wanted an extra day to at least call my mechanic, he said I was taking a risk and they wouldn't hold it for me. He wanted me to sign intent to buy papers, I walked out the door.

I made the right call right? Obviously this is an extremely cheap price to get into a 4runner, and even with the repairs that I know of I'd still be looking at under 10k which is a great deal. But obviously there is some underlying issue. Why would they sell as-is when they could fix it up themselves and sell for $13k or more?

Here again is the link for this listing:
2003 Toyota 4Runner Sport, $6,465 - Cars.com
 
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