Purchasing a 2006 or a 2004? V6? V8?

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Minkman99

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Hello all! Thank you for taking this opportunity to read my thread! I am wanting to purchase a used 4runner. My fiance and I will be sharing this but it will be mostly my car. I drive around 20 miles to and from work. I know the v6 and v8 dont get much of a difference in gas mileage but i might want to get bigger tires and a lift later on in life. What should i get? V6? V8?
I also want to know the pros and cons to a 2006 and a 2004. They are both sr5 editions so that is not a problem. The 2006 has 130,000 miles on it and the 2004 has 93,000 miles on it. Should i look for any problems on them? This is my first car purchase and i just want to make sure I'm purchasing the right car for me and my future family! Thanks for all the advice!:jump:
 
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Minkman99 said:
Hello all! Thank you for taking this opportunity to read my thread! I am wanting to purchase a used 4runner. My fiance and I will be sharing this but it will be mostly my car. I drive around 20 miles to and from work. I know the v6 and v8 dont get much of a difference in gas mileage but i might want to get bigger tires and a lift later on in life. What should i get? V6? V8?
I also want to know the pros and cons to a 2006 and a 2004. They are both sr5 editions so that is not a problem. The 2006 has 130,000 miles on it and the 2004 has 93,000 miles on it. Should i look for any problems on them? This is my first car purchase and i just want to make sure I'm purchasing the right car for me and my future family! Thanks for all the advice!:jump:
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The 2004 would be considered low miles, while the 2006 would be considered high miles. Now, it's all in the maintenance, but if I could not find the records to the 2006 listed here, I would not be interested.
 
It all depends on what you are doing with the truck with regard to the V6/V8. A lot of threads comparing both engines, but if you are towing, V8!! The 2006 has the refreshed look with projector headlights, LED taillights, a few tweaks with the controls, and I think the V6 received a 5 speed tranny starting in 2005. The 2006 is very high mileage, so that is something to consider. Basically, as long as the previous owners have kept up with maintenance, you should be good.
 
Mark86 said:
It all depends on what you are doing with the truck with regard to the V6/V8. A lot of threads comparing both engines, but if you are towing, V8!! The 2006 has the refreshed look with projector headlights, LED taillights, a few tweaks with the controls, and I think the V6 received a 5 speed tranny starting in 2005. The 2006 is very high mileage, so that is something to consider. Basically, as long as the previous owners have kept up with maintenance, you should be good.
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What he said. Get the records for the 2006 and if they are good i would go with that. The projector beam headlights and LED taillights are worth it alone.
 
What should i be looking for in the records for the 2006? They gave me the carfax. the previous owner drove it from Phoenix az to louisville ky twice and the car is originally from Michigan so thats why its had so many miles. but like you said i dont know if the previous owner did the routine oil changes etc.
 
I swear this forum is screaming for a 4th Gen Buyers Guide...

Anyhow. Here is a great site which goes over the differences between the models of 4Runner. There are several. Some are cosmetic, some are mechanical.

http://www.top4runners.com/runhist/runhist42004.html

The V8 is the same power train from the venerable LandCruiser. The V6 is also a good engine. V8 = timing belt due around 90k miles. V6 timing chain. Apparently there may be some low possibility of head gasket issues on the V6.

If its a Michigan vehicle check the undercarriage for rust. The North (salty roads in the snow) are not kind to cars.

Also, check toyota.com/owners enter the VIN see what pops up.

Check the VIN stickers on all body panels, doors, hood lift gate etc. and make sure they match.

I really don't know why we don't have a buyers guide as a sticky. I must type this same information 2 or 3 times a week. :)

Happy Hunting!
 
Carfax is almost meaningless. If something shows up on a carfax then it's probably true....The problem is the stuff that DOESN'T show up on carfax. They only collect 5% of ALL possible that can be reported. So there's a good chance that if something happened to this vehicle that it was never reported. Carfax is nothing but a marketing ploy.
 
If you plan to tow anything, get the v8, if you are using it more for commuting and city driving, get the v6
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Depends on what you're towing. The V6 has no problem what-so-ever towing my 3,000lb pop-up. I agree if you're going to tow a 5000lb trailer several times a year...then the V8 might be worth it. The statement to get the V8 for towing is just too vague.
 
MikeInNH said:
Depends on what you're towing. The V6 has no problem what-so-ever towing my 3,000lb pop-up. I agree if you're going to tow a 5000lb trailer several times a year...then the V8 might be worth it. The statement to get the V8 for towing is just too vague.
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the v8 would probably get better mileage than the v6, towing that same trailer.

and, 130k is very high miles? you guys are nuts. that rig will easily go over 250k.
 
Minkman99 said:
Hello all! Thank you for taking this opportunity to read my thread! I am wanting to purchase a used 4runner. My fiance and I will be sharing this but it will be mostly my car. I drive around 20 miles to and from work. I know the v6 and v8 dont get much of a difference in gas mileage but i might want to get bigger tires and a lift later on in life. What should i get? V6? V8?
I also want to know the pros and cons to a 2006 and a 2004. They are both sr5 editions so that is not a problem. The 2006 has 130,000 miles on it and the 2004 has 93,000 miles on it. Should i look for any problems on them? This is my first car purchase and i just want to make sure I'm purchasing the right car for me and my future family! Thanks for all the advice!:jump:
Click to expand...

i have an 05 v6 and i tow a double axel trailer a lot, with the v6 4wd the gas milage drops dramatically despite the fact that i have plenty of power trailering or not, i mean drops between 9 and 12 mpg, so i do regret not getting the v8, esp now that you can't get one anymore! im not a mechanical guy but i have read with the v8 you should make sure the timing belt is changed at 100k.
"I shoulda had a V8!"
 
MikeInNH said:
Depends on what you're towing. The V6 has no problem what-so-ever towing my 3,000lb pop-up. I agree if you're going to tow a 5000lb trailer several times a year...then the V8 might be worth it. The statement to get the V8 for towing is just too vague.
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True, I've towed a motorcycle trailer a few times for my buddy with my v6, never had an issue. I should have said if you're doing a lot of towing, or plan to tow something big
 
I should have said if you're doing a lot of towing, or plan to tow something big
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I agree 100% with that.

the v8 would probably get better mileage than the v6, towing that same trailer.
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If you only tow 5 times a year for a total of 200 miles...is it really going to matter???
 
Okay guys. I went and test drove the 06 and 04. The 04 wins in my opinion! I drove it on the highway doing 63/65 and i got 23.5mpg! I loved it! I handled really well. However after driving it i asked for a Carfax. It showed an odometer rollback sign (whatever the hell that means) does this mean the car is a p.o.s.? How can i tell if this is true or not? Could i check the vin # on the engine? If so, where is the vin on the engine located? My thinking is the engine couldve caught fire or been replaced.
 
The 04 wins in my opinion! I drove it on the highway doing 63/65 and i got 23.5mpg!
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I take it you were using the trip computer to determine gas mileage. Sorry....but that's NOT the way to do it. Those are notoriously WRONG. I've seen mine tell me I'm getting 23mpg...but after I calculated it out...I'm getting less then 18.

Carfax. It showed an odometer rollback sign (whatever the hell that means) does this mean the car is a p.o.s.? How can i tell if this is true or not? Could i check the vin # on the engine?
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Possible OD rollback has NOTHING to do with the engine. The OD is stored on the cluster. Has nothing to do with the engine. So checking the #Vin isn't going to tell you anything. Possible OD rollback indicates that some repairs may have been reported to carfax and the later one actually had less gas mileage then what carfax thinks it has. This could be significant. My OD reset itself on it's own. There are about 4 people I know of this happened to. In my case my 4runner had 171k miles when it reset itself. It now has about 44k miles on the OD. So there's a chance that is what happened. You can also buy a used OD cluster on the internet with less mileage then what you currently have. This is one way of being very deceitful of lowering the mileage.

It may be very difficult to find out the actual mileage. Personally I'd walk.
 
Did you say the '06 has the V8? I would go with that if everything clears. I just bought an '06 SR5 V8 with 109,500 miles and love it. The power is amazing and it feels very solid. The interior seems brand new; the seats look like they're from a new car, not to mention the power seats that came on the SR5 V8 in '06.
 
I wouldn't think twice about buying a runner with over 100k if the vehicle was what you wanted. It can be hard to get service records, but if it drives well, you have the ability to check majority of the fluids -- and they look up to par, then go for it. If a timing belt on a v8 hasn't been done, that's a bargaining point to drop the price.
My biggest issues are accidents (structural damage), where the vehicle spent most of its life, and how well it was maintained -- which can be determined by giving the truck a good couple look overs, and a good test drive.

I'm about to pick up an 06 v8 limited with 103k on it. Wouldn't think twice about those miles.
 
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