What sort of sedan do you drive dolsh? If it’s anything sportier or more powerful than a Nissan Versa, I’ve got bad news bud. You really don’t need anything more than that to get around in, sorry man, I said so.

Sounds like you need to stop trying to tell people how to spend their money, bro. Enjoy your Subaru and soylent.

Subaru’s not gonna cut it hoss

How about offroading in a 2wd van, with 3 doors? Where is your god now?

Yeah how about you kiss my ass, bud

We have 2 larger dogs and are anticipating a little one (and then more) in a year or so. I worry even an Armada might run out of room. Might just bite the bullet and go the minivan route for at least a few years until we’re thinking about a lot of outdoor stuff again. I do typically put my 4Runner to good use when…

Yeah that’s about what I figured, but honestly not that different from my 3.4L 4Runner that weighs substantially less. I’m sucking down regular at the rate of 17mpg in a highway-biased commute right now on 265/70R16 Grabber AT2s. Summer highway MPG is as high as 20, 21ish on all seasons. The other vehicle on my radar…

Nice! I was able to take an overnight test drive of an ‘05 with 85k miles 2 years ago and was very impressed with it as an overall package. What sort of MPG are you seeing with yours? I hate how they packaged the third row in the GX460 that followed, that and getting rid of the lever for 4wd hi/lo, but aside from that…

Year? Miles? I keep coming back to these as my wife’s next car and family truckster, thus allowing me to hang onto my ‘96 4Runner. She’d appreciate the pothole-impervious construction of a GX (although her Camry’s been a champ so far), and it’d be a massively better highway vehicle for long trips.

The rot is unpleasant and hardly surprising on this generation of Camry (the ‘92-’96 is leagues better in this regard), I’d say this would be bought strictly as the ultimate winter beater, albeit $2900 (to me at least) is beyond the standard “beater” budget. Saturate it with Fluid Film to arrest the rot as best I can,…

Thank you for your input, Euro-loser. I think I’m going to go shoot my guns now.

Okay the low-income crowd I can understand. I was more-so imagining someone taking a 7+ year loan out on a shiny new truck, they just love driving a big truck as much as someone else loves their sports car.

“I suspect some of these people would prefer to have smaller cars”

Definitely not. 

The 4Runner’s weak feeling low end on the 5th gens has more to do with throttle mapping than anything else. It could best be described as “always-Eco-mode.” I’m assuming engineers tuned it this way primarily to coach/force average users to drive more efficiently, in that way keeping people from moaning about poor city…

I knock down long drives in my ‘96 and find myself looking longingly at the comfortable and more highway-friendly 5th gens. Mine’s a beast offroad with the advantage of 1000lb less curb weight and less width, but when 99% of your miles are spent on slab getting there, modern comfort/power make a big difference.

Consider too what a 4runner used to cost back in the 90s. I looked up my ‘96 Limited, $33k in 1996 dollars. That’s right around $50k now! And that’s with manual sliders for HVAC control, just 2 airbags, and 100 less horsepower than we get now. Of course, it also weighed a whopping 1000lb less and has thicker…

I just after a 5th gen just like this (Trail/TRD with Premium package) to replicate the options on my current 3rd gen Limited: moonroof and easy to clean non-cloth seats and a locking rear diff. The one thing the 5th gen lacks IMO is some chrome bumpers with simple black plastic trim to better resist damage from ice…

“Kinetic Dynamic Suspension System, which constantly adjusts shocks”

This is incorrect. KDSS has nothing to do with the shocks, it is solely tied to adjusting the connection to the swaybar links, basically either stiffening said connection to reduce lean at higher speeds, or softening the connection to allow for better…

“automatic 4WD engagement with a knob, which is obviously not as cool.”

Specifically, it is a full-time 4wd system that is always engaged, with an option to lock the center diff to basically replicated a hard-split part-time system in 4-hi, and also a traditional low-range in the transfer case. 

The issue was the ledge formed by the ice when it broke through at my wheels, the ledge was about at axle height so I couldn’t get the rear wheels to hop over and onto it, or at least I didn’t try vigorously enough, safer bet was just a quick tow. I could have tried to keep going forward to climb back onto the ice but…