Hello Everyone!!
My name is Jason and I'm from Wichita, Ks. I've spent entirely too much time in the last 12-24 hours reading on this forum as well as a couple others. I found tons of great info for a new 4Runner owner to know, so thanks already!! I can tell this site will be wonderful as I am a DIYer, and rarely take my toys in for service. We enjoy camping, boating, beer drinking, and in general having fun with our kids (6 boy and 9 girl). I started running a few years ago and have now become a lunatic runner, averaging 30 mile per week. I ran my first marathon in October 2011, but my wife still thinks I am a nut and would prefer to watch, or just stay at home.
Enough about me, now to how we became T4R owners!
I had no intention of purchasing a newer vehicle anytime soon as we recently purchased a 5th wheel, that I tow with my '05 Ram1500 Hemi. But my Ram just isn't enough truck to pull the 5th wheel and the boat (Glastron SX 195 - 19.5' bowrider) behind it. (Tandem towing is allowed and many around here do, and if there are any tow nazis here, I've weighed everything fully loaded and am well within rear axle rating and GCVW, without the boat.) My wife has been driving a 1998 blazer that we've had for about 5 yrs and got it with 130k on it. I've replaced fuel pump, water pump, oil cooler lines, rad, the list goes on... It never left us stranded, but was really struggling as of late. I hadn't driven it in months and while I was on vacation over the holidays decided to check the brakes, fluids, etc. on her blazer... Well.. as soon as I started it and drove around the block I was embarrassed for my wife, and at myself for not realizing how poor of condition the blazer had gotten into while I enjoy my truck or motorcycle. I mean she never complains about it or anything..
I think this was on Friday, 12/30/11. That night I mentioned to my wife that I was in the blazer that day and it was in BAD shape.. She just looked at me and smiled. I told her to start looking online at SUVs she liked, that could tow, and that would fit within a budget I provided. We narrowed the field to 2 different Explorers (1 had 84k miles, 1 had 111k miles), a Durango (94k miles) and something else (I didn't like it so I must have blocked it from my memory.) We looked all weekend, and in Sunday's paper. We finally picked a dealer that had the most choices from above to start with, and went in Monday morning.
Upon arrival at the dealer we looked around and didn't see the top 2 or 3 picks we came to see.
We went in and spoke with a salesperson and told them the requirements and $$ amount we wanted to stay in. He looked a little concerned as there were not many SUVs in the lower price point I wanted to be at. We looked around and finally found the Explorer with only 84k on it and got ready for a test drive, but it was almost out of gas. The salesmen said he'd be right back and left to fill it.. about 20-30 minutes later he came over with some other guy who explained to us that the Explorer was messed up and they wouldn't sell it, but he found the perfect car for me! Then they lead us to a Lincoln Avaitor with 140k... I was not even interested, then they tried to put us in a GMC acadia. I need to tow a boat folks!
At this point I told him thanks and we would be on our way, and started to leave. At that point he said I've got one more place to show you. These are cars that we recently took on trade, have passed the 169 point inepction, and are in line for final detail before they photo them and put the on the lot. I really just wanted to leave, it had been about 3 hrs at the dealer now, but new if I left I was done for the day and thought I'd spend 30 more minutes just making sure. We jumped in a golf cart and ran down the street a block or two to a lot of cars that were getting cleaned. As soon as we rounded the corner my wife saw the 4Runner and liked it. We looked, drove, crawled around underneath (not sure why but it makes me feel like I'm ensuring something.. ) Then went in to make a deal.
We picked up a 2002 4Runner with 118k miles. I paid a little more than I wanted too, but got $2800 on trade in for the '98 chevy blazer 4x4 with 191k miles and a tranny that barely moved.. and I was honest with them about the condition of the trade! Yeah me! They tried to go pretty high on the price, but I got up to leave. They said they wouldn't move on the price, but moved the trade from $600 -> $2800! The salesman about fell on the floor when the finance guy said he'd do $2800 to get the deal done. So I left happy. I sent the vin to the local toyota dealer today to try and find out as much as I can about it. I don't know if the timing belt or water pump have been changed or not?
My wife LOVEs the truck, and I think it should be fine to pull my boat, but I do need to weigh my boat on trailer, so far I've only weighed my truck/5th wheel combo. I'm assuming nothing, and not taking chances, the truck is in great shape so I will likely replace the rad with Koyo and then put an additional ATF cooler on since I plan to tow a boat in the Ks summers. So, this was a HUGE intro, and kind of all over the place, but I've read so much here in the last day that I just wanted to say HI and Thank you!! Any tips or pointers are appreciated!!
- nibs
My name is Jason and I'm from Wichita, Ks. I've spent entirely too much time in the last 12-24 hours reading on this forum as well as a couple others. I found tons of great info for a new 4Runner owner to know, so thanks already!! I can tell this site will be wonderful as I am a DIYer, and rarely take my toys in for service. We enjoy camping, boating, beer drinking, and in general having fun with our kids (6 boy and 9 girl). I started running a few years ago and have now become a lunatic runner, averaging 30 mile per week. I ran my first marathon in October 2011, but my wife still thinks I am a nut and would prefer to watch, or just stay at home.
Enough about me, now to how we became T4R owners!I had no intention of purchasing a newer vehicle anytime soon as we recently purchased a 5th wheel, that I tow with my '05 Ram1500 Hemi. But my Ram just isn't enough truck to pull the 5th wheel and the boat (Glastron SX 195 - 19.5' bowrider) behind it. (Tandem towing is allowed and many around here do, and if there are any tow nazis here, I've weighed everything fully loaded and am well within rear axle rating and GCVW, without the boat.) My wife has been driving a 1998 blazer that we've had for about 5 yrs and got it with 130k on it. I've replaced fuel pump, water pump, oil cooler lines, rad, the list goes on... It never left us stranded, but was really struggling as of late. I hadn't driven it in months and while I was on vacation over the holidays decided to check the brakes, fluids, etc. on her blazer... Well.. as soon as I started it and drove around the block I was embarrassed for my wife, and at myself for not realizing how poor of condition the blazer had gotten into while I enjoy my truck or motorcycle. I mean she never complains about it or anything..
I think this was on Friday, 12/30/11. That night I mentioned to my wife that I was in the blazer that day and it was in BAD shape.. She just looked at me and smiled. I told her to start looking online at SUVs she liked, that could tow, and that would fit within a budget I provided. We narrowed the field to 2 different Explorers (1 had 84k miles, 1 had 111k miles), a Durango (94k miles) and something else (I didn't like it so I must have blocked it from my memory.) We looked all weekend, and in Sunday's paper. We finally picked a dealer that had the most choices from above to start with, and went in Monday morning.
Upon arrival at the dealer we looked around and didn't see the top 2 or 3 picks we came to see.
We went in and spoke with a salesperson and told them the requirements and $$ amount we wanted to stay in. He looked a little concerned as there were not many SUVs in the lower price point I wanted to be at. We looked around and finally found the Explorer with only 84k on it and got ready for a test drive, but it was almost out of gas. The salesmen said he'd be right back and left to fill it.. about 20-30 minutes later he came over with some other guy who explained to us that the Explorer was messed up and they wouldn't sell it, but he found the perfect car for me! Then they lead us to a Lincoln Avaitor with 140k... I was not even interested, then they tried to put us in a GMC acadia. I need to tow a boat folks! At this point I told him thanks and we would be on our way, and started to leave. At that point he said I've got one more place to show you. These are cars that we recently took on trade, have passed the 169 point inepction, and are in line for final detail before they photo them and put the on the lot. I really just wanted to leave, it had been about 3 hrs at the dealer now, but new if I left I was done for the day and thought I'd spend 30 more minutes just making sure. We jumped in a golf cart and ran down the street a block or two to a lot of cars that were getting cleaned. As soon as we rounded the corner my wife saw the 4Runner and liked it. We looked, drove, crawled around underneath (not sure why but it makes me feel like I'm ensuring something..
) Then went in to make a deal.We picked up a 2002 4Runner with 118k miles. I paid a little more than I wanted too, but got $2800 on trade in for the '98 chevy blazer 4x4 with 191k miles and a tranny that barely moved.. and I was honest with them about the condition of the trade! Yeah me! They tried to go pretty high on the price, but I got up to leave. They said they wouldn't move on the price, but moved the trade from $600 -> $2800! The salesman about fell on the floor when the finance guy said he'd do $2800 to get the deal done. So I left happy. I sent the vin to the local toyota dealer today to try and find out as much as I can about it. I don't know if the timing belt or water pump have been changed or not?
My wife LOVEs the truck, and I think it should be fine to pull my boat, but I do need to weigh my boat on trailer, so far I've only weighed my truck/5th wheel combo. I'm assuming nothing, and not taking chances, the truck is in great shape so I will likely replace the rad with Koyo and then put an additional ATF cooler on since I plan to tow a boat in the Ks summers. So, this was a HUGE intro, and kind of all over the place, but I've read so much here in the last day that I just wanted to say HI and Thank you!! Any tips or pointers are appreciated!!
- nibs
