Thanks guys. I think I'm going to be real happy with it. I'm planning to take a day trip tomorrow to get some highway miles on it, and I'm hoping to also find some hills and dirt to play in a bit. I don't intend to do any serious off-roading with it, but I'd like to get a feel for its capabilities. This is the fifth 4x4 I've owned, and I always like to find out what their limits are.
I do plan to take good care of this one and hopefully get a lot of miles (and years) out of it. My next-door neighbor has a 4Runner with 300K miles on it and it's still running strong. (He's also a mechanic at a shop that specializes in Japanese cars, so he's maintained it well.) I've done some detective work on this one based on paperwork I found in the owner's manual, and it looks like it owned by an elderly lady in the Atlanta area. I suspect it's been driven pretty gently, and seen virtually no off-road use.
Good choice. How was your Carmax experience? Satisfied?
Suhweet! Yeah, I'd be interested in hearing about how the whole carmax thing went too.
I'm sold on CarMax. This is the second vehicle we've bought from them. There's no haggling on the price, there's no pressure to buy, and the cars are thoroughly inspected before they'll put it on the lot. They claim that only 1 in 3 cars passes their inspection. They guarantee straight frames and no rust or flood damage. You can see a vehicle history report on all of their vehicles (similar to CarFax) free on their website. They also have full service departments. Plus, they're a nationwide network, so if you see a car on their site in another town, they will transport it to your local CarMax (for a fee).
A while back we got an Acura RSX for LOML to replace the one that was wrecked by a drunk driver a couple of years ago. She loved her old RSX, and has never really liked the Honda Accord we replaced it with. Acura stopped making the RSX in 2006, and they've become very hard to find in stock condition. (They're popular among the Japanese car hotrodders.) We ended up finding one on the CarMax site and had it shipped from El Paso TX, about 4 hours away. It cost us about $100 to have it shipped, so we took a chance and tried it. The car was in great shape, and the issues we did find with it were fixed quickly with no hassle. LOML didn't like the tinted rear window, so they removed the tinting. I noticed the hood wiggled about 1/4" up and down when latched. They replaced the latch, and also the radiator mounting bracket it was attached to. I also noticed a bit of noise in the steering, and they replaced the power steering pump. All of the work was done under their 30-day warranty. (We also bought extended warranties for both vehicles. These days it doesn't take many trips to the shop to pay for a $1000 - $1200 warranty.)
Similar story with my new one. Used 4Runner Limiteds in my price/mileage range are hard to come by. I've been shopping locally, and everything was either much more than I wanted to spend or they had more miles than I was willing to start with. (4Runners hold their resale value remarkably well.) This one was in Bristol TN, and I had been watching it on their site for a while. It had everything I was looking for, but I was initially not interested in it, because it would cost me about $600 to ship it to Albuquerque. I was also watching a few others that were closer to me, but they were all higher priced (lower mileage) and they ended up selling pretty quickly. When my Lexus started making the racket under the dash, I decided to roll the dice and get this one transported to me before someone else bought it. First time I've ever paid $600 for a test drive, but based on our earlier experience with the RSX, I was pretty confident this one would be in great shape. So far, I have no regrets.
Nice looking ride, Vaughn. I have a feeling someone else might have something to say about you hauling wood in it.
Nah, I don't think she cares what I end up hauling in it. She knows I got it for carrying cargo.
The 4Runner seems huge and intimidating to her, so she's only going to drive it if she's forced to, like when her RSX is in the shop. She's also welcome to drive my Ranger pickup, but she has no idea how to operate a 5-speed manual transmission, lol.