What is good lifetime # of miles you can expect to get from a 2005 4 Runner w/ the V8? I was thinking that a minimum of 200k and with some luck 300k. But I wanted to know if that was unrealistic???

 

It's too early for empirical data for the 2005's (and that engine), but there are plenty of 2-3 year old 4Runners around that are well past 200k.

 

Hmm,2-3 year old Runners with that many miles still should be rare since I wouldn't figure too many owners would be racking up 70-100k miles a year.

 

I know, and "plenty of" is probably overstating it, but I remember a thread about a month ago where someone had a 2002 with 200k+ on it. From there, a couple of other folks piped in saying similar things. So, I figure that with the small slice of the populace that YT has the attention of, I extrapolated that there are "plenty of".

 

hasnt that v8 been kicking around in the tundra for years now?? im sure itll last to a minimum of 200-250K.

 

I believe the V8 has been in the Lexus models. Unless this is a revised version of it.

250K miles would be awesome! My other two cars (both American) only got 100k miles. What a rip off. At 2.5X as usage for the same price you need to have a very good reason not to go with a Toyota or something of similar quality!

Thank for the replies!

 

I thought the 05 V8 4Runner with the 4.7 has the VVTI in it and that is the difference?

There are some members over at TS with the new 05 Tacoma with the 4.0 who have 40,000 miles on them already.

 

Somewhat of a hijack but I've wondered the same about the 3.4 in the 3rd gen runners. When I first got on yotatech, I was amazed at the number of people claiming 200k+ mileage and even more. I got very excited as this is my first Toyota.

Recently, there have been a few threads on problems with the 3.4 motor after only about 150k mileage. Now I know there are plenty more of 3.4 w/ more than 150k original miles but the few that have posted up problems (Mr. Tibbs comes to mind) makes me wonder. BTW, Mr. Tibbs claims that all maintenance has been done.

I only have 97k miles on my '99 and I want to keep this thing forever. I may buy another car one day but still would love to have the runner for errands, as a back up or to keep as a DD. I'm hoping that Toyotas are as well built as they used to be as there are many 1st and 2nd gens with a ton of miles on the original motor and tranny. I'm holding my breath on the 3rd gens.

 

Mileage questions always come down to how well you take care of the vehicle and what kind of miles they are. 200k highway miles are a lot less taxing on an engine than are 200k city miles. And chances are good that you'll get more miles out of a rig if you flush/change all fluids (engine, tranny, diff, coolant, etc) every 50k miles than if you only change it every 100k miles.

Also, if you're willing to keep fixing things and keep it forevery, I'm sure you could expect to hit 500k miles. But at some point most people decide it's not worth fixing anymore. The question is, at what point will YOU say that? THAT'S going to be what decides how many miles you get out of it.

 

bla bla bla maintaince good millage good.... maintance bad millage bad... ya thats kinda a given.

 

Good point (ebelen1)....I have a friend who is a mechanical engineer for Mercedes-Benz. He told me that starting about 5 years ago that no car manufacturer makes cars with the same quality that perhaps they once did. He has an 90's Tacoma w/ the 4 cyclinder and swears by it. This is someone who could pretty much drive any Mercedes-Benz he wants (with the employee programs MB offers) and he is sticking with his old Toyota given his opinion on recent quality.

I think there is some truth to that but I also think that it is all relative. From what I know about Toyota's quality (my parents have 2 4 Runners going on 3) my thinking is that my friend's comment is analagous to the following: It was like when Curt Schilling pitched hurt in October 2004. He wasn't the same, but he was still the best pitcher out there.

 

Relative to other manufacturers, Toyotas may still be pretty good. Relative to my 87 4Runner, my 99 sucks.

This does bring up the question: How long will Toyota live off their 'legendary quality' name? Particularly since their quality is fading into just that: legend.

How long will it be before the buying population realizes that paying a premium for a Toyota is no longer worth the cost? For example, the money saved buying something else could go into a very strong maintenance agreement/extended warranty, and you'd still come out with extra cash.

My Acura mechanic, who drove an 87 Toy Pickup, and I came to the same conclusion some time ago: If somebody gave me $50K to spend on any new vehicle, and I had to pay for repairs/maintenance, what would you buy?

He kept his 87 pickup, I made the mistake of getting a 99 Toyota instead of a Dodge with a strong warranty.

 

A good warranty does not make a bad car good. Does Kia/Hyundai's 100k warranty make those vehicles look like a good "investment" to you?

Now that engineering can predict with reasonable certainty how long every part of a vehicle will last, manufacturers like Toyota don't have to overbuild as much to maintain quality. This ability also is used by manufacturers like Kia who just want to get it past warranty and not spend one dime more on the original build. And they are having a tough time with the warranty costs of that 100k warranty.

Problem is with guys like us who push the vehicle hard (as in off road) and skew the product life curves... The average person just racking up miles isn't the same.

Here's an example, I just saw this today in fact. Go look closely at the suspension parts of say, a 90-95 IFS front end, or a 95-99 Taco. Now, look closely at the suspension parts of the new FJ Cruiser below. The Prado has an excellent reputation, but I still cannot see those stamped sheetmetal parts holding up to real abuse Over Time like the old welded heavy(ish) steel parts have.

 

Good points.

I too have a gut feeling that Toyota quality will be slipping. Now that they have become dominant in the auto industry, I think it will be only natural that they will cut corners and cost and rely on their reputation of making good vehicles to get them by. That said, I would still have a Toyota over anything else out there right now. Maybe they will prove me wrong in the years to come.

I can't help but compare my 84 Camry to my truck, which is a 97 and not anywhere close to being called new. Both are excellent vehicles, but my truck is a little more crude in many respects to my car. I know it IS a truck, but I can tell it was not as meticulously built as my car-mechanical or otherwise.

 

Mercedes took that road. MB now has a terrible reliability record.