Goodbye to the Perfect 4Runner

May 31, 2023


If you have been keeping up with the blog over the last couple of months, you've probably realized that I have an unhealthy love for what most people would see as a normal 2006 4Runner. If you want to read about why it is so special (to me), this post will explain it.

My driveway has space for 3 (4 if you include my wife's CX-5) cars at any given time, meaning I have room for 2 permanent vehicles and 1rotating one at any given time. That said, 1 car would have to go away for the 4Runner to have driveway space or the 4Runner would have to go. I did a formal analysis to see which car would be kept/sold:

  • 2006 Mazda Miata
    • In short, the Miata cannot be replaced by a second off-roader/tow-machine/Toyota V8 because I would miss having a sports car WAY too much. I am also convinced that for sub-$15,000 I cannot buy a better sports car that I could reliably daily and thrash in the mountains.
  • 2011 Lexus LX570
    • This was the real debate and I conducted a formal analysis to really validate which car would be better. That formal analysis can be referenced here (I put WAY too much time into this) revealing the 4Runner was the winner based on my point-based criteria
      • 4Runner with 70.7/100
      • LX570 with 68.1/100
    • I left one part out of my analysis though; which car is best for your daily use and your wife to use when needed. That additional point value pushed the LX570 over the 4Runner
The decision was made to keep the Miata and LX570 and sell the 4Runner. My friend Jake offered to help me detail the 4Runner (thank you for the help). The 4Runner's detail (which included a wash, wax, and then clay bar) made the 4Runner look better than it deserved. Here were a couple of images from after it was detailed:






The 2006 Toyota 4Runner turned out to be the cleanest 236,000 mile example I had ever seen. Did it hurt to sell? Absolutely. I listed the car for $10,300 and within 5 days it was sold for $9,500. In total, including registration, repairs, and miscellaneous other items I was in the 4Runner about $7,200. While I do think I probably could have gotten a little bit more, the new owner really warmed my heart; it was going to a new 17-year old driver for her first true car (came from the family 1996 4Runner with 400,000 miles). I had the opportunity of selling a new driver my first dream car, seeing her face drop when she hit the throttle (V8 has torque compared to the old 3.4L in the 3rd Gen 4Runners), and subsequently hit the brakes (which I had just changed) to immediately stop bring a grin to her parents faces.

So now that I don't have any projects (sold the Seadoo), it's time to prep for the Cannonball Run and do some repairs on the LX570 and Miata!

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