so just did a trans swap on my 86 runner. The other day I was at Toyota getting some parts and was eyeing up the new tacoma and now I'm at a dilemma. Do I keep the old rusty beaten and abused 4Runner or buy a new Tacoma? Me and the rhino have many memories good and bad. Spent many nights trying to get stuck, even pulled out a few k blazers. Do I retire and part out the old girl and make room for new age electronics or keep her?

 

Unless you are made of money, purchasing brand new makes little sense.

Maybe good for the ego, but not generally wise financially.

If you could buy a brand new one for cash and then trade in for another new one every 18 months, or so, you might always have a pristeen truck for moderate continuing expense.

Most people I know can't do this. My dad used to.

I would keep the old truck and buy another nice one 4 or 5 years old to come a little into the 21'st century. My $.02

 

These thoughts run through my mind as well. I agree with millball, that buying new and in particular then thrashing the vehicle on a trail doesn't make much sense. For me, the sweet spot would probably be an FJ Cruiser or 4runner about 6-8 years old with around 100K miles. That would be new enough to be modern and have a lot of life left in it, but still old enough I wouldn't stress about putting a few dings and scratches on it.

But, a vehicle like that would run 17-20K, and for that kind of money I can do a boat-load of maintenance on the old '94 2nd gen. Right now she's running like a champ, so there's no real urgency to make a change. Neither the FJ or a newer 4runner would improve trail performance over the '94 without aftermarket mods, so that adds even more to the cost of upgrading.

At some point I'll jump, but not quite yet.

 

There comes a time to me it could be a few days a few weeks or months maybe a few years I really don`t know.

I have made up my mind when I can no longer do the majority of the work myself it is time to get something 2 or 3 years old

The amount of money I spend between Toyota , Napa, and other places on vehicle parts well exceeds most any payment.

I bought one new vehicle in my life that was enough.