should i get a 4runner? (1 Viewer)

Hi
I want to get a 4runner @ under $20,000
from 2000 and up...
anyone has experienced this suv? or any other recommendation at this price range?
ps: anyone know a good site for selling used cars?

My wife and I just got a 2003 Kia Sorento EX 4x4 fully loaded with leather,power everything, sunroof, cd, etc. with 14,500 miles for just under $20,000.

Rates very well in Consumer Reports and most owners offer rave reviews on Edmunds.com etc.

I must say this is one of the nicest SUV's I've driven in this price range..Super smooth riding, VERY quiet, incredibly well put together car.

Best part is I still get the remainder of the 60,000 mile warranty.

I highly recommend you check one out.

Here's a pic of the exact one we got..



As for selling a car, we had awesome luck selling via www.autotrader.com They came out, took the pics, posted them online and in their magazine, and we had the car sold in 3 days.

Alfer

I owned a 2000 4-Runner for three years. I sold it to my mother-in-law to get a Honda Pilot. I really liked the 4-Runner while we had it. I drove it again about a month ago and it is a very rough ride compared to my Pilot. Before the Pilot, I couldn't really tell that it was built on a truck platform. After the Pilot, the truck platform was pretty obvious to me.

During my ownership, I never had any problems with the 4-Runner. The one thing that I didn't like was the lack of power. It was a Limited model with ~ 180HP.

20k in a 4Runner means used, and not new enough to be the current Euromarket small Landcruiser based model. Avoid pre-96 or so 3.0 V-6 models, kinda gutless, instead try for an 01 or 02 with the 3.4 V6.

I work in the service dept. of a largish Toyota dealer in central CA. 3.0 4runners were a bit gutless and had head gasket problems. Very early 3.4 models also had head gasket problems, not found from about 98 up. These 4Runners were damn near indestructible, but were truck based. They softened the suspension a bit too much for my taste from about 00 thru the end of that generation (02). Current 4Runners are not really truck based. They are body on frame but were designed from the ground up to be SUVs, they are not conversions of truck chassis. Mercedes ML series suvs are also body on frame dedicated SUVs, but not nearly as reliable as Toyota. Outside the US, the current 4Runner is designated as a Land Cruiser model, it's really more of an upscale vehicle than previous 4 Runners. The new (03 up) 4Runner is a class act with much better handling and ride qualities than the older ones, is still mfg only in Japan. I doubt if you'll find a used one for under 20k unless it's salvage title though.

If you must have a body-on-frame suv with good reliability you're pretty much restricted to the 4Runner or Nissan Xterra.

If you don't need offroad capability, just good all-weather on road performance, look into a used Highlander. This is a unibody suv, very much better handling than the non-current 4Runners, better fuel economy too, and an excellent long distance "road trip" vehicle with tons of room and a quiet ride with less floatiness than the last couple of years of the last generation 4runner. There was a version of the 4Runner for a very brief time designated as a Highlander, don't confuse it with the later true unibody one.

After driving a bunch of SUV's, I found myself liking TRUCK Based ones. The big Truck based Suv's are the 4 Runner and Grand Cherokee. Just this year I bought an 04 Grand Cherokee LIMITED 4x4 V8 with every option for just above $20k. Reliability is a concern but I have a warranty right now. So far so good.

As it was said, the only issue with the older 4 Runners are they are pretty much gutless power wise but IMHO about equal to the powr in the Sorento. However that said, they are pretty much bulletproof reliability wise in my experience.

You might want to consider a 2001+ Pathfinder. They are very good trucks, reliable and the ALL-MODE 4WD is pretty effective if you need to use it, and can be had for much cheaper than the 4runner. Also, it'll have a lot more punch than the Toyota's 183 hp engine vs the Nissan's 240 hp engine. MPG figures are pretty similar too in case you were thinking that it'll eat more gas (16/19 for the 4runner vs 15/19 for the Pathfinder). The pre-2000 Pathy models all come with a weaker engine so look for 2001 and up.

Just a suggestion