When was the last time you saw a two-door SUV? That was once the body style du jour and today’s 4Runner is bringing the sexy back. You’ll just have to decide if its price proves definitively that less is more.
You can pretty much count the number of modern V10-powered car models on the fingers of one hand. That pinky finger over there, the one with the extra long coke spoon nail, that would be yesterday’s . That’s fitting as, owing to its salvage title and no-man’s land registration status, fully 72% of you counted it out. Some of the rest of you felt its price was worth it if only for the parting out party.
Audi is famous for their AWD and for hanging inline 5-cylinder engines over their front axles. A…
Speaking of parting, Shakespeare once told me in a book that it really truly is sweet sorrow. For reals. Proving that to be the case is this whose present owner is seeking to sell only because he’s moving to find work and doesn’t really want to bring the truck along. That’s all kinds of sad, especially since he says he’s owned it for more than two decades.
I know you’re looking at the pictures of this 4Runner and are wondering what’s off about it. I’ll clue you in; it’s a two-door. Yep, they actually built ‘em like that back in the day. This is the second generation of two-door 4Runner, which means the rear cap is all part and parcel of the truck, and not removable like the one that came before this one.
That non-removability allowed for some funky window shapes, and in fact you might just see a little Merkur XR4Ti (Sierra to those of you non-Merkuians) in the greenhouse profile. That glass features factory tint, and underneath it all is a frame and running gear derived from the can’t-stop, won’t-stop Toyota Hilux pickup truck.
Here that means a 3VZ 3-litre V6, good for about 150-bhp, a 5-speed manual gearbox, and 2-speed transfer case for the 4WD. Right now it’s rolling on some big meats which are wrapped around chromed steel wheels for a little bit of bling. According to the ad the whole works also has a little over 231,000 miles on the clock.
Another ad factoid is that a lot of those have been racked up in daily driver duty. Some have been off the beaten path as the seller claims this to be a competent off-roader, going so far as to promote it as ‘not a pavement princess.’
How’s it look after all those years and miles have piled on? Pretty dang good. The body appears straight and there doesn’t seem to be even any surface rust in evidence. That’s likely owed to a life lived in the dry as a bone Southwest (the truck is advertised in Phoenix) which is also the reason for the clear coat bake-off on the hood and roof.
On the inside things are similarly well preserved, although the seller does admit that the driver’s seat having seen better days. Still, it’s not like you’d have to sit on an orange crate to drive the thing. There are also some cracks in the dash cap, again attributable to the Southwest sun. Everything else is said to work with the exception of the A/C, which this truck being in Arizona makes me feel real sorry for the guy doing the daily driving in it. I can feel the sweat from here.
Speaking of driving it, how’d you like to do so? If you would, you’ll have to come up with $4,500, as that’s the present owner’s present asking price. What’s your take on this fairly rare truck with its basket full of daily driven miles and a cool appearance? Is $4,500 a fair deal on this SUV? Or, does that make this a 4Runner that’s not 4You?
You decide!
Phoenix , or go if the ad disappears.
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