So a little vehicle background.
I was brought up with my Dad being a foreign motorcycle fan. He didn't actually get into foreign cars until I bought my first civic in high school. After that he has been head over heels for Honda as well as Toyota. As for me I went from Civic LX to Integra GSR to AP2 S2000..... now I am buying a house so I sold my S2K D: I live in salty NY and drive a Geo Prizm in the winter... bought it for 500 bucks back when i was in high school 8 years ago. Thing has been a tank but is very rusty so i decided I wanted a well rounded all season reliable vehicle for when the Geo finally breaks in half from the salt. I love camping and biking and thinking about buying some kayaks for the Misses and I. So I was looking at Tacomas for a while but wanted a double cab. Wanted to keep the initial cost of the vehicle down to around $6000.... Didn't realize how expensive pickups were.... never had interest in them. So the 4runner is a bit cheaper and from everything I have read it is the best of the best for reliability as long as you know how to take care of it. I would love a gen 4 but don't want to pay that much for a vehicle that i will end up driving on these salty roads. So the 1998 to 2000 3rd gen seems to be more in my ballpark. I also have never owned an automatic vehicle and don't intend to. I know this is no s2k and I wont be banging through the gears but I think it just makes any vehicle more enjoyable to drive. I do like the lifted look and bigger tires even though I don't plan to off road but all my cars have been far from stock so I was thinking 3" lift with maybe 33" tires and the 4.88 gears. I just can't believe how hard it is to find one! especially a stick. The more I look the more I fall in love though. My father is a used car dealer and back when i was in high school he bought my cousin a Tacoma. My cousin hadn't come and picked it up yet and it was in the middle of winter. The Geo couldnt crawl out of our snow packed driveway so i grabbed the tacos keys through it in 4WD and was on time for my midterm!
I was brought up with my Dad being a foreign motorcycle fan. He didn't actually get into foreign cars until I bought my first civic in high school. After that he has been head over heels for Honda as well as Toyota. As for me I went from Civic LX to Integra GSR to AP2 S2000..... now I am buying a house so I sold my S2K D: I live in salty NY and drive a Geo Prizm in the winter... bought it for 500 bucks back when i was in high school 8 years ago. Thing has been a tank but is very rusty so i decided I wanted a well rounded all season reliable vehicle for when the Geo finally breaks in half from the salt. I love camping and biking and thinking about buying some kayaks for the Misses and I. So I was looking at Tacomas for a while but wanted a double cab. Wanted to keep the initial cost of the vehicle down to around $6000.... Didn't realize how expensive pickups were.... never had interest in them. So the 4runner is a bit cheaper and from everything I have read it is the best of the best for reliability as long as you know how to take care of it. I would love a gen 4 but don't want to pay that much for a vehicle that i will end up driving on these salty roads. So the 1998 to 2000 3rd gen seems to be more in my ballpark. I also have never owned an automatic vehicle and don't intend to. I know this is no s2k and I wont be banging through the gears but I think it just makes any vehicle more enjoyable to drive. I do like the lifted look and bigger tires even though I don't plan to off road but all my cars have been far from stock so I was thinking 3" lift with maybe 33" tires and the 4.88 gears. I just can't believe how hard it is to find one! especially a stick. The more I look the more I fall in love though. My father is a used car dealer and back when i was in high school he bought my cousin a Tacoma. My cousin hadn't come and picked it up yet and it was in the middle of winter. The Geo couldnt crawl out of our snow packed driveway so i grabbed the tacos keys through it in 4WD and was on time for my midterm!
