I’m picking this up tomorrow, before I get flamed, the guys at the dealership told me that the seats are grey that the pictures came out a little off!!!! LMAO.

http://www.hymanwholesale.com/vehicl...Virginia-23005

We had been looking for a beater to haul dogs and run around in, and something that she could drive to work in bad weather since her new Mazda 3s Sport SUUUCKS in the snow… Ive always has a small soft spot for the original Rav4, I dated a girl back in high school that had a new 96 Maroon 4x4 with a 5 speed, oh those were good times Anyway, I had looked at everything from double cab Tacomas to a Mazda Tribute, and kept going back to the Rav, they have a Camry engine, get a consistent 25mpg, and the one I bought has more options than I even wanted! I got it out the door for $7600 + tax, not bad considering the price of a clean 4 runner or double cab taco these days and it has a factory tow package for my motorcycle trailer and bike rack!

 

i'd say you did pretty good...always like them...needs a low range though

 

85k is pretty darn good for a '99! My 02 4runner already has more than double that (180k). Nice buy! BTW I love the purple seats

 

LMAO, I really really hope they are not purple, that was my first question I asked, he said they are grey that the pictures look purple, I bought it sight unseen, because it’s about 2 hours south of me so I put a $700 deposit on it and am paying the rest with cash when I get there, they told me that if I don’t want it I will get a full refund of my deposit! It’s really clean and has a clear carfax so I think I did pretty alright compared to the one we looked at, at the local Honda dealership, it was the same year, more miles, 2 accidents on the carfax and they were asking almost a grand more and it didn’t have a sunroof or the nice wheels! I’ll know in the morning!

 

or a locking center diff... so at least it's 4WD.

 

I was digging through the glove box and found the receipt for the 60k mile service; it was done at 64k but included the transmission and rear end fluid, power steering fluid, spark plugs etc. I also found the receipt for the timing belt and accessory belt job at 69,000! I found where it had the one rear quarter panel touched up at one time but nothing is bent or out of the ordinary underneath or behind the plastic panels. It runs along at 80mph with no issues, no shimmys or shakes and sounds good. It does have one issue that Im going to investigate, it seems to be idling at about 1400 RPM, I checked the throttle cable and throttle body, its snapping closed like it should so Im going to clean the MAF and change the plug wires etc. I might put a K&N drop in filter in it while Im at it… The tires are in good shape, the date code is June 2009, they have about 60% tread remaining but man are the loud. Ill eventually get new tires and shocks all the way around but I think all in all it was a great deal! I need to find another factory remote, it only came with one but Ill have to read up on how to program them, the FFC ID is BAB237131-022 and its gray in color but Ive read some misleading info on programming them. Im just happy that the interior is a nice dark gray, not purple like the pictures made it look !!!!

 

Bummer, I was hoping that you would get there only to find out that the seats and interior were purple . Sounds like a pretty sweet deal to me, especially since all of that maintenance was done recently.

 

that's a good looking RAV-nice find sir

 

Thanks, its working out pretty good so far, 26mpg compared to my 88's 15mpg is pretty nice. I’ve replaced the rear shocks with Bilstein HD's and the fronts with KYB GR2 series, Bilstein didn’t have the front struts I needed for the L edition so I had to go with the KYB's that have the removable cartridge, so far so good but if they fail I can slide the Bilsten kit right into them! I flushed the trans with 15 quarts of RedLine ATF, along with the rear diff and the transfer case, oil, plugs, wires, PCV valve etc and its running like new! The only thing its going to need is a headliner, its starting to sag behind the visors and in the rear cargo area but that can wait till it really gets bad, other than that the inside and outside are a solid 8.5 on a 1-10. Its had some minor paint work and has a few dings but it is 10 years old. The interior is spotless except for the headliner issue! I had it off road last Friday after I installed the new front shocks, for not having a low range it did surprisingly well! I had it on a washed out old fire trail and had it twisted up going through a washout with no problems at all, it doesn’t have a rear sway bar so the IFS droops really far, I had a front wheel off the ground pretty quick but the center diff took over and I pushed right through, not a 4runner or pickup but very capable, fun to drive, easy to park and gets great mileage for an SUV its size! Im happy

 

So.....when does the frame swap and SAS happen? Lol. I've always liked the earlier rav4 body - it would be sweet to convert one to a savage trail rig. Someday when they're cheap I guess...

I dunno about solving low range but I think there are lift kits and lockers/lsd available for the rav4. Might be something to look into.

 

You mean like this:

http://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/showthread.php?t=514048

I didnt buy mine to wheel it, I have my old Kawasaki KLR250 for that, it goes more places than my 88 4x4 ever went

 

^yeah, exactly...but actually finished. he gave up on it when it was soo close.