Need advice! Okay I'm 21 and in school and my Honda 1997 accord trans is going 'previous
was a 87 yota pickup 2wd".
I'm stuck making the decision between buying a 2006 altima with 120,000miles
and a 95 4runner v6 4wd engine rebuilt in the last 10,000 mile and the a/c doesn't work.
I know both sellers personally. Both are $2,500
I drive around 1000 miles a month back and forth from school and home

Gave it to my older brother with 80,000 miles on it when he was in need of a car. We found out a
year after we bought it it had survived 3 teens brutaly beating it up and down the high line, they
thought they killed it when they submerged it in a pond, but I brought it back to life.
paid $500 for it barely running, wrong year carb. I loved my yota, still miss it.

 

Write clearly and you may just get proper responses

 

The answer seems pretty clear to me

I might be biased though, I have only ever owned toyotas- same with my parents!

 

Im trying to find out what Im likely to see from a toyota dd.

 

Well I dunno what the 95 v6's are like, but my 87 4cyl runner is really nice to work on. Plenty of room in the engine bay and it's been teaching me a lot (to say the least).

My previous car, a scion xA, was an absolute nightmare in this regard. Everything was crammed in there and impossible to reach. Many hours of cussing and throwing tools to get something super minor done. Not into it. I imagine the altima would be along those lines.

I do think you'll get drastically better gas mileage with the altima. I'm not sure though. That would be a huge consideration for me with driving that many miles.

Even if I were driving that much, I would still take my 4runner over the scion any day or any scenario. And you'd never catch me driving a Nissan. Something about the exterior and interior design just irks me. Functionally the 4runner will allow you more utility. I.e. if you have to move or something like that, you'll have a lot more cargo space and the ability to strap stuff to the roof a lot easier. Really really handy.

 

I feel you on the Nissan design, I hear its really plastic feeling.

 

Nissan quality has gone downhill. My 1987 Sentra had absolutely no trouble for 5 years, but we changed to 4-door Honda when we had a our baby.

Nisan's now fall apart. Our friends' 2000 X-terra would just stall while driving, and Nissan experts could not even figure the problem out. We had a 2004 Sentra and things fell apart. Especially plastic parts.

Re Toyotas:
V6 3.0 engines are not as reliable as 4cylinder 22RE or 3.4 V6's.
If you wwant to work on your vehicles your self, I agree with Jennygirl. 22RE's are so much easier to work on, there's so much room and you can easily see things before they become real problems. It's hard to do that with more modern, crowded engine compartments.

 

Stay away from crowded engine compartments! Our 2000 Taurus with the 24 valve engine was the worst. It took me a whole day to change the alternator. Kinda like a breech birth delivery, you had to rotate it just so along the way as you eased it out the bottom of the engine bay.
You'll only get so-so mileage with a 4-runner. Maybe you should say, "None of the above" and look for something else with better mileage but not a b***h to work on. If you're frugal like me, you'll also want to visit your local self-service junkyards to see what models are in supply or not.

 

To satisfy requirements for UNCrowded engine compartment and decent mileage, try 80's Corolla, Civic, or Sentra.

 

Thanks for the input. I went with the Nissan, the 4runner became unavailable.
The owners friend had been storing it for him and his diesel broke down and was using
the 4runner in the mean time. I was in a crunch for a vehicle so you kinda have to take
what you get some times.