Whoo hooo! My Lexus will be ~18 years old when I’ll be ready to make a lateral move in reliability / an upgrade in suspension suppleness to a Citroen

It’s a shame that Toyotas get no love from the aftermarket.

And if you do it now (as opposed to doing it when the cars were new) you could do a NA/T conversion on the 2JZ and use the AR-5 / 350z transmission to bring the bill of materials down substantially.

That’s true. it’s hard to tell whether we’re talking about tuning new cars or tuning the cars as they exist today.

Alright for the price of a few Dinan parts, you could go get a 2JZ-GTE and V160/V161 and swap it into your IS300. It’s a plug and play swap, I believe. And the running gear is quite good - it’s an easy 400 whp on pump gas with 400 whp.

that’s a dealership management problem. And it’s my problem because dealerships have carved out their existence thanks to crony capitalism.

I see the efficacy of a dealership for most people.

A city of 3,500 people and 18-22 full time officers.

It happens more than you think. My mom got pulled over (ostensibly for crossing over the white line to the shoulder) she’s 60, drives a highlander, and lives in a well to do neighborhood (and white if it matters).

You know, “I’m paying cash” should end the conversation but it doesn’t.

It’s the same thing as the late 90s/early 2000s SUV boom.

Awesome story! I love the mountain states!

A running motor in a $600 4Runner makes it not a $600 4Runner

Perhaps. But you’ll have to forgive me, I live in the midwest near an old ford plant. Toyotas are/were rarer here and we throw a ton of salt on the roads. And all the old trucks are worse for it.

Nah. It would just be a scathing indictment about Toyota frame rust.

Yeah, there are cheap 4runners out there. But here in the midwest, any 4runner listed for less than 2k has such bad rust it’s astonishing.

2nd’d. I bet a $600 4runner wouldn’t do this well. And you certainly couldn’t get parts as cheaply.

And then sell it 5 years later with <10,000 miles for 1/3rd the price :)

Perhaps you’re right. But the deal is the deal, it’s $2000 for the better brakes and suspension. I’d pay it - it’s worth it to me and probably a few other folks. I’d pay $2000 for excellent kit on each and every street bike I’ve ever owned. Perhaps the premium would be $1,500 if the forks were Showas. But that’s not…

All I can do now is just read what others have read and reconcile my own experience with Ohlins but the Ohlins on some Trimuphs does have that ‘magic carpet’ ride. And the hardware is very good. It’s not fair to compare things across price points, but I know that Ohlins fork seals last a lot longer than the seals that…