Thinking of a new vehicle for the wife

[Mtn.man]

[Ridge]

I agree with some of your points but if we bought less Toyotas, Hyundais Nissans the California workers would be building ford and Chevys

I'd rather Americans be building some quality vehicles, not ones that burst into flames 2 weeks after a collision, and GM's response is to park your vehicle outside so your house doesn't burn down.

[MED]

I thought I would share my experience with 4-Runners; actually, they were my brother's. He had a '90, '92, '94, and a '95 (all SR5s). My first observation on all four; the defroster didn't have enough force from the blower to defrost the entire windshield...WTF! Annoying as that was along with the rest of the cheap construction, it gets worse.

My brother kept the '95 thinking he would put miles on it and it would last him forever. In 2003, he limped this thing to my house with 120k, full of rust especially the tailgate, a CEL, and no power. I did a compression test; it had one dead cylinder and one mostly dead cylinder. I told him he had a head or ring issue; probably head because the heads were junk in these. He begged me to fix it because he was hurting financially so I relented and did it for him. After pulling the heads, I saw the two burned valves, and sent them off to the machine shop where the machinist sat in amazement that they were still usable because he usually threw these in the trash. My brother was one of the lucky few who got off easy because warped and cracked heads were common in these (link).

Yes, Toyota, the king of all who can do no wrong, put that shit 3.0 in their vehicles and there was a recall on them for blown head gaskets. If I took my 175k mile Jeep to the crusher tomorrow, I would still have my brother on total cost of ownership. Anyhow, he learned his lesson and stopped throwing away his money on these especially since I told him I would never work on one again; he sold it a couple of years after I fixed it. Whenever we hear about something going wrong with Toyota, it usually gets dismissed as did the issue about the random acceleration recall in this very thread. I guess my point is this; contrary to popular belief, Toyota's shit does stink, and their stuff breaks like everybody else's...you just get the privilege of paying more for it. I think my brother paid about 34k for that thing back in '95 and would have paid a lot more for it if I didn't come to his rescue...ridiculous! I don't know how much the new ones cost, but I am sure it is equally ridiculous.

Ironically, his '90 down payment was made with the money he got from selling me his low mileage '79 W72 WS6 Nocturne Blue Trans Am for $9,000. I have 40k miles on this car now and it is worth close to what he paid for the the original 4-Runner, which is kind of fun when I rub his nose in it. All that he has left to show for it is the $3,800 he got for that 4 Runner rust bucket he unloaded in '06.

[ruthabagah]

3rd gen 4 runner, were ok, 4th gen are amazing, 5th gen (current one) are terrible. I pulled a 5th gen (SR5 with a lift kit) out of a ditch last week end..... Guy got stuck because of the long wheelbase....

[Madeinhb]

I thought I would share my experience with 4-Runners; actually, they were my brother's. He had a '90, '92, '94, and a '95 (all SR5s). My first observation on all four; the defroster didn't have enough force from the blower to defrost the entire windshield...WTF! Annoying as that was along with the rest of the cheap construction, it gets worse.

My brother kept the '95 thinking he would put miles on it and it would last him forever. In 2003, he limped this thing to my house with 120k, full of rust especially the tailgate, a CEL, and no power. I did a compression test; it had one dead cylinder and one mostly dead cylinder. I told him he had a head or ring issue; probably head because the heads were junk in these. He begged me to fix it because he was hurting financially so I relented and did it for him. After pulling the heads, I saw the two burned valves, and sent them off to the machine shop where the machinist sat in amazement that they were still usable because he usually threw these in the trash. My brother was one of the lucky few who got off easy because warped and cracked heads were common in these (link).

Yes, Toyota, the king of all who can do no wrong, put that shit 3.0 in their vehicles and there was a recall on them for blown head gaskets. If I took my 175k mile Jeep to the crusher tomorrow, I would still have my brother on total cost of ownership. Anyhow, he learned his lesson and stopped throwing away his money on these especially since I told him I would never work on one again; he sold it a couple of years after I fixed it. Whenever we hear about something going wrong with Toyota, it usually gets dismissed as did the issue about the random acceleration recall in this very thread. I guess my point is this; contrary to popular belief, Toyota's shit does stink, and their stuff breaks like everybody else's...you just get the privilege of paying more for it. I think my brother paid about 34k for that thing back in '95 and would have paid a lot more for it if I didn't come to his rescue...ridiculous! I don't know how much the new ones cost, but I am sure it is equally ridiculous.

Ironically, his '90 down payment was made with the money he got from selling me his low mileage '79 W72 WS6 Nocturne Blue Trans Am for $9,000. I have 40k miles on this car now and it is worth close to what he paid for the the original 4-Runner, which is kind of fun when I rub his nose in it. All that he has left to show for it is the $3,800 he got for that 4 Runner rust bucket he unloaded in '06.

A lot has changed in 20 years. I have a 4th gen and love it. No issues.

[hurley842002]

I thought I would share my experience with 4-Runners; actually, they were my brother's. He had a '90, '92, '94, and a '95 (all SR5s). My first observation on all four; the defroster didn't have enough force from the blower to defrost the entire windshield...WTF! Annoying as that was along with the rest of the cheap construction, it gets worse.

My brother kept the '95 thinking he would put miles on it and it would last him forever. In 2003, he limped this thing to my house with 120k, full of rust especially the tailgate, a CEL, and no power. I did a compression test; it had one dead cylinder and one mostly dead cylinder. I told him he had a head or ring issue; probably head because the heads were junk in these. He begged me to fix it because he was hurting financially so I relented and did it for him. After pulling the heads, I saw the two burned valves, and sent them off to the machine shop where the machinist sat in amazement that they were still usable because he usually threw these in the trash. My brother was one of the lucky few who got off easy because warped and cracked heads were common in these (link).

Yes, Toyota, the king of all who can do no wrong, put that shit 3.0 in their vehicles and there was a recall on them for blown head gaskets. If I took my 175k mile Jeep to the crusher tomorrow, I would still have my brother on total cost of ownership. Anyhow, he learned his lesson and stopped throwing away his money on these especially since I told him I would never work on one again; he sold it a couple of years after I fixed it. Whenever we hear about something going wrong with Toyota, it usually gets dismissed as did the issue about the random acceleration recall in this very thread. I guess my point is this; contrary to popular belief, Toyota's shit does stink, and their stuff breaks like everybody else's...you just get the privilege of paying more for it. I think my brother paid about 34k for that thing back in '95 and would have paid a lot more for it if I didn't come to his rescue...ridiculous! I don't know how much the new ones cost, but I am sure it is equally ridiculous.

Ironically, his '90 down payment was made with the money he got from selling me his low mileage '79 W72 WS6 Nocturne Blue Trans Am for $9,000. I have 40k miles on this car now and it is worth close to what he paid for the the original 4-Runner, which is kind of fun when I rub his nose in it. All that he has left to show for it is the $3,800 he got for that 4 Runner rust bucket he unloaded in '06.

And your rant about 20+ year old vehicles with known head gasket issues, has what exactly to do with with the OP and his purchase of a brand new Toyota?

[sniper7]

My new Duramax says Proudly built by union 358 members in Flint Michigan.

Mine does too! It also says better than ford and and a shitload better than dodge on it.

[Haroldlutsen]

She wouldn't ride in it anyways. She prefers to ride her own bike. Been quite a few years since she has even ridden on the back of mine.

Good luck if should have not changed from your original question. To be clear I think most major manufacturers have a good products these days not limited to Japanese or American or otherwise. Sometimes I get upset thinking about all or manufacturing leaving for other countries and the loss of jobs. It also seems me that people to "no fault of their own" think buying foreign vs domestic makes no difference, I think it does help buying American maybe I'm wrong and it makes no difference. Once again good luck with your purchase and it's pretty cool having a wife that rides her own Harley it's a lot better riding for the both of you


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[ray1970]

To the gentkeman with the long rant a few posts up, if your brother paid that much for one back in 95 he really got screwed. The average price of a new vehicle these days is $32K. The new 4runners the wife and I were looking at were between $32K and $35K. I can't imagine they haven't increased in price over all those years.

Of course the ones for $32K were the basic models. Only had the standard equipment. You know, 4WD, 4.0 V6, automatic, power everything, Bluetooth, navigation, etc. The ones for $35K added leather seats and a sunroof. There are more expensive ones but they don't really have any extra features. Just fancy things like 20" wheels, a different grill, chrome door handles, third row seats, etc. Although they do have a "trail" model that has some stuff like locking diffs, manual transfer case and whatever.

[ray1970]

I think most major manufacturers have a good products these days not limited to Japanese or American or otherwise.

I'll agree with you on this. Just about any vehicle made these days is capable of going 200,000 miles or more. Seems most stuff from the 60s,70s, and 80s was pretty well worn out by around 100,000.