I had a Ford dealer tell me that the Ranger 4x2 I was looking at on their lot was a 4x4. The sales guy even got under the front of the truck with me and, pointing at the steering rack/tie rods said “see? front axle, this is 4x4".

Watchjrgo on the you tubes has already done an LS swap on one of these in similar condition. Granted... he broke it & hasn’t fixed it yet. But aside from John Ross’ ‘rolls smoke’, there exist a number of patina’d Rollers out there.

250 miles, and the ability to go another 250 miles in 30 minutes or less of either charging, or rapid battery replacement.

The opposite. Living/dating in an expensive zip code of Los Angeles a dozen or so years ago, most of my dates assumed I actually had money (spoiler alert: I didn’t). Many were shocked when I rolled up to meet them in a late 80's Toyota 4Runner with faded paint, red ‘mouse fur’ seats and an interior that smelled…

Thats freaking awful. You’re much more patient than I am.

$700/roll might be the price for the parts but I’ve signed off on repair orders for what amounts to $2k per linear foot for the tape once it’s been installed by a licensed Airframe and Powerplant (A&P) technician.

The Escape we were looking at was the base model, 2.5 4 cyl FWD SE or SEL or whatever was the absolute cheapest.
The CX-5 we went with was the 2.0 sport, 6 spd manual. Miata engine hauling around a 3200lb vehicle wasn’t a good recipe for acceleration though.
Handling was good, braking was good, a little loud…

Heh yeah the first thing this sales guy said when I rolled up in my pristine 3rd gen 4runner was “ready to get out of that Toyota and into a real car?”

This happened to my wife & I at a local Ford store 5-6 yrs ago. Long story but we started off w/a full disclosure to the sales guy “we’re not here to buy today, period. we’re here to comparison shop between the escape, rav4 and cx-5, we have no trade in, again we are not going to buy today.” This, by the way, worked…

Rare? Absolutely. I’ve seen 3 in my life, not including this one and I’ve been in the Toyota truck market since the late 90's.
Desirable? Not...really. The 3VZ has a poor reputation for durability, and the 2nd gen 4Runners are known in ‘the community’ to be the least desirable of the breed. The 2 door factor makes it a…

It is, and the 1st gen (84-89) 4Runners had this as well.

Yeah, at around 80mph, the wind noise, exhaust hole, and shaking/buzzing/rattling from everything in the car drowns out the lifter noise and piston slap. But after about 20 miles of that, it’ll rattle your fillings out.

When the radio cuts out for a minute and you actually hear the mechanical cacophony your 23 year old shitbox daily driver makes, realizing each of those noises has an associated dollar amount to it.

First thing I’d do is pressure-wash that crappy no-prep, single-coat, rattle-can black paint job off to see if its hiding anything insidious.

The number plate starting w/6Y- makes me think 2014. I registered 3 cars in CA from 2007-2009 and the highest sequence I got w/my number plates started w/6B-. I tagged another car in 2014 and received 7A- number plates.

This will probably get lost in the sauce here but I’ve used Reliable dozens of times shipping cars back/forth across the country for folks. They’re one of the best in the business next to InterCity Lines and the folks I’ve worked with from Reliable have been great. Kind of sucks to see them get this kind of press.

I love it, and still use their white lithium and silicone lubricants. However, I’ve stopped using blaster because I moved out of the rust belt & stopped buying rust belt cars.

I know it is technically a CUV, but I had a 2015 Mazda CX5 sport with a 6 spd manual and 2.0l 4 banger that didn’t have bluetooth or a reverse camera. It was pretty close to perfect for my wife & I living in a city. And it handled/braked better than a CUV had any right to.

Where is the Dakota? FCA has turned into the Internet Explorer of automakers. I’m sure they’ll come out with a (very underwhelming) Dakota right about the time demand evaporates for the segment.

Wouldn’t be the first time, won’t be the last.