Bluesky 07
Senior Member
My experience FWIW...as noted in my previous post, searched in metro ATL for a year, no luck. Found ours, an '07 Sport with 96K miles, in Nov 2014 at a dealership in Greenville, SC. It was listed at $19,700; we ended up getting it from Nalley Toyota in Roswell for 1K less because the Greenville dealer is affiliated with Nalley here. Nalley even transported it down here for us and was up front and fair about a problem that came up (explained below).
When we went to Nalley to pick it up, I asked the sales guy there why it's so hard to find 4WD 'Runners in Atlanta. He said, "This here that you're buying? When we get one like this, people driving by stop and buy them before we can even take the pictures to post online. We literally can't keep them on the lot." So we paid a bit more than what market would be in a lot of places, but it was actually a great deal IMO for this area, especially since the truck was absolutely cherry, shockingly so for 7 years of age and 96K miles.
So the bottom line takeaway is to broaden your search considerably and hope to find a dealer who's willing to work with you before you take the long drive to check it out in person, like the one the OP bought from.
Also, a general word of advice to everyone buying these days...check these vehicles very, very closely, especially if buying privately (dealers have more to lose). There's been flooding all over the country for months and we'd probably all be shocked if we knew how many of those water-damaged vehicles find their way into the used car pipeline. There are hints online on how to find hidden signs of flood damage.
Never a bad idea to have your mechanic check it over as well, and a responsible dealer will have no problem making the deal contingent on a satisfactory inspection. We figured out that the 4WD actuator was bad (thanks in part to this forum btw) and to their credit, Nalley fixed it even though the SC dealer should have found it when they took the trade. The Nalley guy said, "That fix is so expensive that we usually just send them to auction if those 4WD lights are flashing."
Their cost was $1,300 (it's $2000+ retail). We agreed to pay 1/3 of that, which we felt was fair. They gave us a good price on the truck before the issue was known and the sales manager said, "I understand if you don't want to pay any of it and we'll void the deal if that's the case, no problem. I can fix it knowing this truck will sell the next day for enough to cover the repair." He wasn't being a d**k, just being candid with us, which we appreciated, and we knew he was right.
