cj_rezz

Hi Everyone,

You don't know me but I've grown to know most of you over the past few weeks as I've been living on these forums researching 4Runners as my potential next vehicle.

I currently drive a '92 Nissan Pathfinder XE 4x4 with 31x10.5 BFG All-Terrains. It's been a great vehicle. I bought it with 174,000 kms on it, drove it for 5 years to 231,000 kms with basically no fixing required other than regular maintenance (front and rear brakes for the first time in it's life, timing belt, water pump, thermostat, PCV valve, air filter, fluid changes, MAF cleans, tie-rod ends, swaybar bushings, you get the idea..). It's a very agile offroad machine. It's got great ground clearance, good approach and departure angles and true 4 wheel drive (none of this electronic 4x4 stuff). Basically it's a simple vehicle with the luxuries of fuel injection. Anyway, sometimes when it's cold out, the auto transmission won't go into reverse. I can shift into reverse but you step on the gas and the RPMs increase but the vehicle doesn't move. I'm starting to take this as a sign of the transmission starting to fail as I've read that reverse is often the first gear to act up in a failing transmission. If any of you have any insight as to other reasons why this is happening I'd love to hear it but it is a little off topic. Morale of the story is I'm worried that I'm going to have to put $3K into rebuilding the transmission in the next few years and I'm thinking it might be best to sell it now before that happens. Plus some body rust is starting to form and, much like some of the earlier model Tacomas, the frame has rusted so badly in spots that I can put a finger through the metal like pie crust. Unfortunately, Nissan isn't buying these vehicles back like Toyota did.

So I've done a lot of research and it seems like the 3rd Gen 4Runners are one of the best, if not the best, SUV of that time. Needless to say, I'm growing to love them the more I read about them. It seems like no one has anything bad to say about them.

I've been watching the used car ads around town and finally found a 4Runner that I like. It's a '99 Limited Auto (don't want a manual, I do too much rush hour driving) with the factory elocker!! The kms are a little higher than I would have liked (160000 kms) but I think I will be hard pressed to find another '99 limited w/ the elocker. I understand that 99's w/ an elocker are somewhat rare (although not as rare as the highlanders or a manual transmission). I want a limited cause I love the look of the color matched flares and the interior luxuries. I know I want a 99 w/ the 265 tires becuase this was the tallest 3rd Gen SUV. And I know I want the elocker (obviously). Plus having the option of driving in 2 wheel drive, all-wheel-drive, true 4 high or true 4 low is mind blowing. For driving around town in the winter, all wheel drive would be great and then shift into off road for fun in the snow or some 4 wheeling off road. Plus, no Atrac or VSC like in the 01-02s to mess around with.

I've attached a couple of pictures and would love to hear your comments, thoughts, suggestions. I've done the research and know what to look for on these vehicles when buying used (rear axle seals, smooth shifting into and out of 4 wheel, etc). The guy is asking $12,500 Candian. I ran the vehicle specs through the Kelly Blue Book Value and for a private sale, it recommends a price of $7,745US for a "Good" condition 4Runner. Converting this to Canadian dollars works out to about $9,061. Now, add a little premium beucause the used vehicle market doesn't have as much supply as the US market and maybe $11,000 would be a fair price? Keep in mind this is the only Limited I have seen for sale in the last few weeks. Everything has been SR5s.

I'm glad to see that there is such an active 4Runner community online just like there was for my Pathfinder. The Pathfinder forums saved me many dollars and added many kms to the potential life of my old truck.

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