Hi, my name is Steve and I am married with one son. In case you couldn’t already tell, I also own a Toyota 4Runner. I’m hoping to share with you my journey to finding my way into a 4Runner, and share with you the experiences that I have already had, and all the experiences that I hope to have with my family.
About a year and a half ago, my wife and I were in the market for a new vehicle. We had a baby on the way and needed to get something bigger than her Mazda 3. We were originally shopping around for Toyota Highlanders, but something inside me sparked a memory of my childhood fondness for the Land Cruiser. A quick Google search later and…well…at $86k that was out of the question! So, I continued to look at Toyota’s lineup and came across the 4Runner. At the time, I knew what a 4Runner was, but I didn’t “know” what it was yet. Intrigued by it’s aggressive and more masculine look over the Highlander, I did as every man does — I researched. As I read more and more about this vehicle and heard positive review after positive review, I knew it was time to bring it up to my wife.
After a couple weeks of her looking through all of the options on a Highlander, I admit, I was nervous to bring up the fact that I was growing more fond of a different model. When I asked her if we could also take a look at 4Runners, she was hesitant to start. Then I started rambling off everything I had already read about it: “It’s more rugged, it’s one of the most reliable vehicles known to man (really it just might be), it’s got an unheard of value retention, it’s safe, and oh yeah did I mention that it’s rugged?”
My wife, still a skeptic, shot back, “well what about gas mileage?”
Me: “Slightly lower, but this is a rugged (there it goes again), body on frame truck, so really, the mileage is pretty good considering.”
After a little back and forth, she at least agreed to go check them out on the lot and give one a test drive. I didn’t realize it at the time of the conversation, but this moment was a turning point that would change the way that we can see the world. It may sound extreme to say that, but you will understand why I say that in my later posts.
So, we finally get back to the dealer and they happen to have a few used 4Runners on the lot. Being frugal, we first started there. “How come these used one’s are so expensive still? This one is 3 years old!” The light was now being shed on my earlier bullet point — great value retention!
4Runner: 1 Highlander: 0
Walking back to the sales offices to check out if they had any new ones on the lot now, my wife now agrees that after seeing the 4Runner in person, “it’s a lot more bad-ass looking than a Highlander.” Subjective, of course, but I just so happened to be in agreement.
4Runner: 2 Highlander: 0
The dealer has 2 new ones on the lot now so we go take a look. All of the sudden, like a kid on Christmas, my wife’s eyes got so big when she saw what would be her future truck. I know she was screaming on the inside trying to make sure we still had negotiating power after our test-drive. Sitting in it and driving it, she knew it was the one. Now we just had to get it down to our price! We actually stepped away from the table, which was really hard for us to do. Fortunately, a couple days of suspenseful waiting, and we got that call to come on back and we got our new 4Runner!
Please follow and like us:
