So I bought a unicorn... I like to think of it as the Type-R Integra of offroad vehicles

So I paid too much money this morning for a unicorn.  Why did I do it?  I guess I have a soft spot for manual transmission oddballs.

Without further ado... 

A 1999 Toyota 4Runner 4x4 Sport with a five speed and an electronic locker.  It was at the local copart auction with damage to the left front door and front fender.  I bought it from State Farm for the princely sum of $2,800 plus fees.  It has a recently replaced timing belt based on the underhood sticker.  It is clean inside and out and has a set of Goodyear Duratracs on it.  I looked it over before bidding and the A/C works as does all of the accessories.  No check engine lights.

Could it replace my Wrangler?  I was thinking this would do everything the Wrangler does and I can sell the wrangler for 13k ish.  

I bought a green door and a green fender today for $275.00 delivered.

nice!

Nice!

Maybe you could say you paid too much but I doubt it will drop in value much from here if you take care of it. 

Check the insides of the frame rails, they rust out pretty hard. I helped my dad fix his a few years ago, right before he drove it into a guard rail and totaled it...

Nice find. And yeah, unless you are an extreme rock-crawler, a 4Runner can certainly do pretty much anything your wrangler can (and do it with more reliability and comfort). My 4Runner was so far superior to my XJ (granted, not a wrangler), I didn't miss the Jeep for one single moment.....

Around here you could double your money before the day was over. Folks go nuts over those.

barefootskater said:

Around here you could double your money before the day was over. Folks go nuts over those.

This. Throw a $100 Amazon Roof Rack on it and it's a $6k "overlander" all day long around here.

Jeep in question.  6 speed Sahara.

Looks great!  I love the color combo. 

Depending on the miles that could easily be a 2x flip. Very nice score.

200k, I figure if I don't keep it, I would ask $5900.00.  They are super hard to find with a stick, an e locker and the v6.

In reply to pimpm3 :

You change cars more often than I change underwear. Plus your cars are newer.

Man, if it wasn't so hard to get R titles up here, I'd want to go into business with you. Even after shipping them north, doubling the money on so many of these toys you pickup would be no problem

I had the day off work so I decided to work on the 4runner and my challenge Camaro.

I bought a green fender and a door for $275 delivered from car-part.com.

New door lined up great!

The fender worked great as well but I somehow forgot to take an after picture. 

I put in new door speakers while I had it apart.  It still had the original ones and they sucked.

Dropped it off for an oil change at my buddies muffler shop.  It has a slight exhaust leak that I sm going to have him fix.

Are the new panel good enough that it can be "no paint" needed? 

That is an awesome truck, I had a SR5 sport, should have never sold it.

I always wanted to source a supercharger for it. My cousin had a supercharged manual Taco, bitchin' 

John Welsh said:

Are the new panel good enough that it can be "no paint" needed? 

Good enough for me! 

That’s a great color and a awesome price. They go for 5-6k up here all day. 

Damn. Great deal!  That's just about the only SUV I wouldn't mind having. 

That is super cool looking. Love how it is set up.

OjaiM5 said:

That is an awesome truck, I had a SR5 sport, should have never sold it.

I always wanted to source a supercharger for it. My cousin had a supercharged manual Taco, bitchin' 

I had a 2000 4x4 TRD taco, 3.4 with the TRD blower. I had a lot of fun with it, launching in 4 high and pulling the transfer case to 2 high before I had to shift into second. It would really launch.

Down side was that despite what Toyota said, it needed to be tuned. Later versions got a 7th fuel injector. Mine would only run without pinging on Shell premium. I had to change the plugs every 2000 miles due to fouling. 

Yeah, with an E-Locker, that's a steal.

Even with a branded title you can probably make money if you decided to sell it.

I washed and waxed the 4runner today, it came out pretty good for a 20 year old 4x4.

Since the last update I have installed a new fan clutch, changed the oil, added a TRD shift knob and installed a 3 spoke Celica steering wheel.

I have been using it for truck stuff and it hasn't skipped a beat.  I am probably going to throw a set of Old Man Emu springs on it and a set of Bilstein 5100's in the near future.

Very nice.  You could probably double your money selling that in Denver.  Those are high dollar vehicles around here.

barefootskater said:

Around here you could double your money before the day was over. Folks go nuts over those.

Just had a friend buy one with 200+k miles on it for north of $5k. It was pristine outside and just had the trans rebuilt. They sell like hot cakes in good condition and people know the engines last an eternity in these things.

Im very intrigued at the manual. What transmission is it?

I was about to buy a similar one a couple years ago, manual, e-locker, but in black. I was all ready to go buy it in the morning when I received the text that he sold it. Was pretty pissed but what can you do.