At $22,500, Is This Custom 1985 Toyota 4Runner A Front Runner?
With its thirteen-inch lift and 37-inch tires, a running start may be required to get up and into today’s Nice Price or No Dice 4Runner. Let’s decide if its price makes it worth the effort.
Matthew Gray Gubler And His Toyota 4Runner | My First Car
Yesterday’s 1994 Chevy Lumina Z34 was a cool coupe with a bit of sporty flair. It was also a very clean car with no obvious issues and a reputation for not going south any time soon. At just $4,000, that latter factor impressed more so than the former, earning the Chevy a solid 76 percent Nice Price win.
Speaking of trouble-free Chevys, you don’t get much more muss and fuss-free than the like-a-rock reputation of the Small Block Chevy 350 CID V8. Marry that with the compact and equally reputationally respected Toyota 4Runner, and you might just have yourself a winning combination. We’ll just have to see.
According to its ad, this 1985 Toyota 4Runner has been “highly customized” and carries not just an SBC V8, but a GM automatic (likely a three-speed THM-something). That works through a 4WD system with a 5.29:1 rearend, although the ad isn’t specific whether that is Chevy-sourced or from the house of Toyota.
Keeping that drivetrain on the up and up, the truck has been lifted 13 inches and rolls on 37-inch Interco TSL knobbies. Side scraper bars with steps help with getting in and out of the tower of power truck. The increased height looks to give the truck excellent approach and departure angles.
The updated mechanicals have been matched with an aesthetic refresh that includes brush guards, chrome accents on the body, and wilderness scenes etched into the glass on the windows in the cap. A good bit of attention has been paid to the cabin, as well. There, you’ll find a slew of dash-top gauges, fresh upholstery, a repositioned shifter for the trans, and a bass box in the boot. It’s all clean and, save for the space-eating speaker housing with its untamed wires and exposed amp, all very tidy.
Taking a gander underneath the truck and under the hood shows what appears to be a clean install of all the adopted hardware. The seller—Steve— says in the ad that the truck is “Mechanically sound and great condition.” The work undertaken on it must not be that old either, as Steve says there are only 700 miles on the motor. The chassis shows 151,000 miles, but this being a Toyota and almost completely refreshed, those miles shouldn’t matter all that much. The title is clean, and the asking price is $22,500, a recent reduction, Steve claims, from $25K.
What’s your take on this thoroughly updated rock crawler and that $22,500 asking? Does that seem like a fair price for a turn-key custom 4Runner with Chevy power? Or should Steve keep updating the ad with a still-lower price?
You decide!
Twin Tiers, Pennsylvania, Craigslist, or go here if the ad disappears.
H/T to It’sMeMario for the hookup!
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