Scotty I’m looking to purchase a late 00’s model 4Runner with a V8. Any particular year better then the other? Should I be concerned with high mileage vehicles? 150k+? What can I expect repair wise around that mileage? Thanks!
Not what you're asking, but this could be helpful...
My personal experience shopping for used Toyotas was very eye-opening...
No exaggeration, I found over 3 dozen tampered odometers (some by a little, some by a whole lot). Carfax is unreliable too... I bought a Rav4 from the dealership with 4 service records at higher mileages than the odometer... The dealership's sloppy service advisor clearly was an idiot, 007 became 700, 97 became 98... He made a mistake and 4 months, later, covered up the mistake by making up mileages... CarFax just left the mileage fields blank on the dealer's report indicating a odometer problem!
Most of the ODO issues were on OfferUp. Craigslist was guilty too.
I have a cracked version of Techstream (v12 - v15) and used the "Vehicle Control History Report" that's part of the "Vehicle Diagnostic Report" category. It includes the odometer readings of when incidents occur. I believe it was available after 2006 and beyond. I hope so, at least. I confirmed that the odometer on my R4 was accurate.
Other resources I used, before having Techstream, VehicleHistory, Google, Google Image Search (that helped me bust some of the biggest crooks and find cars that were salvaged and had their titles cleaned by registering out of state...) and finally, I'd register the cars through the owners' portal at Toyota's website. Those airbag and other recalls helped smoke out a few things like off-insurance accident repairs, flood damage and odometer issues.
The YouTube channel, "A Car Care Nut," has a really nice series about the 4Runners. I hope you get a great one whose owner took care of her.
Escape now before it's too late!
That Techstream program must be interesting.
See below (and scroll down to that generation Model Years 2003-2009): watch for rust, 2008/2009 is the best if your budget allows (end of that generation and by then bugs/issues ironed out)
https://www.vehiclehistory.com/articles/toyota-4runner-years-to-avoid-good-suvs-with-bad-model-years
https://www.carparts.com/blog/toyota-4runner-reliability-and-common-problems/amp/
https://www.carcomplaints.com/Toyota/4Runner/
High mileage is not an issue (on Toyota’s especially) as long as the vehicle has been well maintained (on top of the engine oil and transmission fluid changes, in particular), and a good, independent mechanic like Scotty checks it out thoroughly (especially with a fancy scan tool) and gives the OK.
