I don't drive very much lately, but today I spent 4 hours behind the wheel in NY traffics, and I specifically counted... I saw six third generation 4Runners (96-02 production). I guess their reliability reputation is well deserved.

 

Yes, a few colleagues of mine are still driving 4Runners from the 1990s. They run forever if you take care of them....although the 80s-vintage ones before that had serious rust problems.

 

I'm kind of exercising an idea to get myself a 4runner, obviously a new one. These truckish things are growing on me in the sea of CUVs.

 

And I would get one of them now vs waiting for the next model...

 

‘Hard to know if Toyota will mess it up. My guess is this will be the last time 4R has full time 4WD. None of the trim levels aside from Limited has auto. Hopefully and fingers crossed the 4R is still made and imported from Japan

Its crazy to think that Toyota had multi mode 4WD for the first two gen Sequoias and the last two gen 4Rs. But not anymore….would it kill them to just reuse the transfer case part

 

Except I really have no need to get a car now, especially with these prices. If I did, it would pretty much sit and collect dust.

 

I would actually get it with 2WD for the simplicity sake, just to see which one of us kicks the bucket first lol.

 

I have always wondered…what Lexus LS430 trim do you have? Sucks that it has a timing belt…I’ve got one on my 4.7 Never liked thet idea that it is a belt and not a chain

The part time is actually more complicated. The full time is not. Both my full time systems can do everything the part time can…but when not in 4WD lock (same as part time) my full time system does not disconnect it still stays in 4WD but there is never a worry if it will ever go back in 4WD

When you put a part time 4WD 4R in 4WD, it is the identical thing to my 4WD system when I decide to lock the transfer case.

 

They have some serious hard use advantages, the underpinnings are also abnormally strong and well designed in general. Expensive.....but very good at their job.

 

Yeah I just don't get it. The new one is supposed to tempt me to get one, it just doesn't. The load floor and no IRS just kills it on top of a regression in mechanical features

 

The outgoing Sequoia is a superior design. But the town crier’s, they all wished for new power trains and new this and new that. So Toyota phoned it in with the rear end cargo. What Toyota should have done, is cancel the Sequoia. And import various trims of the Toyota Land Cruiser. If you’re not gonna bother making it truly for the American market, Toyota should’ve given us the import version

 

Belt is 1000% better, it will NEVER wear out or have any issues if you just change it and it's designed to be done so it's fast and easy.

I am now seeing SO MANY chain cars with issues it has solidified my flip from "belts suck, you need to change them" to basically every single chain system gets slack issues and requires engine out to replace the whole system. It's way more expensive and takes longer to do and honestly they only give like 30k miles more than the 1st belt.

It's disturbing but I have now seen it on every VW engine, the LS460, the Chevy 3.6 like crazy, the eco boost and NA ford V6s, all the Honda chain drive engines, all Hyundai engines, etc you get the point. It was shocking to me since I came from domestic pushrod V8s that NEVER have chain issues, I always thought belts suck till I worked long enough to tally belt failures vs chain stretch.

The hesitation issues on the 1UR are from chain stretch causing too much noise OR from valvetrain shock damaging the valve guides. The ford 5.0 has the exact same issues with greater frequency but the reason for the issues is identical. The Mercedes M273/156 also many issues stemming from the chains and DOHC system vs the older M113

Now I'm convinced that belts are better, they also transmit less wear/shock into the cams and crank.

 

The year is 2022. Never again would I buy a timing belt motor that needs to be changed. Period.

 

Are you looking to get it for off-roading? I don’t think its great at just sitting in traffic etc.

I will be looking at 4 door Wrangler in one of the top trims - there are millions of options and cool colors for them plus the retain their value very well. I see a ton of the new and old ones so they must have decent reliability, obviously not like 4runner.

 

The issue with belts is the cost to replace them. $1,500 every 90k miles for a maintenance item is a lot, and you get to the point like I am with the old ES300 where it just doesn’t make sense to replace the belt because of the cost vs the car’s value, so you ride it out on an old belt and if it breaks, well there is the end of the car.

I find it hard to believe that 30k miles more than the life of the belt I’m going to have chain problems, so 120k everybody has chain problems? I just don’t see that in reality at all