Life story: Mom, two kids, three hound dogs, like to go places that aren't the mall. Had a V8 AWD Volvo XC90 that I put ~25K+ miles/year on, and it was an all-weather mountain goat...buuuuut, it didn't totally agree with all the places I took it, even though it got us through them without ever stranding us. My mechanic also hated my guts. Like, a lot. Repairs (both related and unrelated to my choice of driving locales) became more frequent and expensive, so we traded it in - scratches, zip-tied skid plate, and all - on a 2013 SR5 last week.
Normally, I research the bejeezus out of a variety of makes/models before I choose one, but an immediate, expensive, time-consuming issue with the Volvo forced me to move fast on its replacement. My only real requirements were 4WD and space for every person and creature. Thus, I ended up with the 4Runner in a matter of hours.
...and I know next to nothing about it.
My brother had a 2001 4Runner (and now has an FJ Cruiser), but the 2013 is clearly a very different beast. I'm about 2/3 through the manual (yeah, I'm one of those people...), but what I'm really wondering is: What can I do with this thing, stock, without busting it? During the week, I'm carting kids and dogs and commuting to UT. On the weekends, we're in the hills and hollers. No rock crawling or extremely tight trails, but we see plenty of rocky, rutted-out hills, and we will soon be living only a couple miles from some pretty decent Jeep trails.
The Volvo did well as a capable all-arounder, but I'm looking for a *little* more out of the 4Runner...and hopefully much better reliability.
Normally, I research the bejeezus out of a variety of makes/models before I choose one, but an immediate, expensive, time-consuming issue with the Volvo forced me to move fast on its replacement. My only real requirements were 4WD and space for every person and creature. Thus, I ended up with the 4Runner in a matter of hours.
...and I know next to nothing about it.
My brother had a 2001 4Runner (and now has an FJ Cruiser), but the 2013 is clearly a very different beast. I'm about 2/3 through the manual (yeah, I'm one of those people...), but what I'm really wondering is: What can I do with this thing, stock, without busting it? During the week, I'm carting kids and dogs and commuting to UT. On the weekends, we're in the hills and hollers. No rock crawling or extremely tight trails, but we see plenty of rocky, rutted-out hills, and we will soon be living only a couple miles from some pretty decent Jeep trails.
The Volvo did well as a capable all-arounder, but I'm looking for a *little* more out of the 4Runner...and hopefully much better reliability.
