Looking for a Car

Boy that's a tough one Aaron. I'm glad your wife is fine but I guess you have your work cut out finding the right car at the right price. Before all this crap with the Toyota's accelerator sticking I was the biggest Toyota fan in the world. We have a 2004 Land Cruiser with 90K, which I just used to pull a trailer across the country and back, a 2001 Lexus RX300 with 125K, and a 2005 RAV4 with about 40K miles. Every one of them have been rock solid and every one of them are snow monsters. We've had some bad winters up here over the years and none of them have stopped any of these cars. I've had to get out in the middle of the night in all kinds of weather while on call and there's nothing I would have rather had in my garage than a Toyota. Then the accelerator thing...Aarghh!!!
 
Norm said:
Boy that's a tough one Aaron. I'm glad your wife is fine but I guess you have your work cut out finding the right car at the right price. Before all this crap with the Toyota's accelerator sticking I was the biggest Toyota fan in the world. We have a 2004 Land Cruiser with 90K, which I just used to pull a trailer across the country and back, a 2001 Lexus RX300 with 125K, and a 2005 RAV4 with about 40K miles. Every one of them have been rock solid and every one of them are snow monsters. We've had some bad winters up here over the years and none of them have stopped any of these cars. I've had to get out in the middle of the night in all kinds of weather while on call and there's nothing I would have rather had in my garage than a Toyota. Then the accelerator thing...Aarghh!!!
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Norm, we've always and almost exclusively driven Toyota vehicles with zero issues. BTW, they just replaced the accelerator assembly on my Tacoma a couple weeks ago but I never had a problem with it regardless. I'll still buy another one tomorrow if I had to get a new car too! :tup:
 
FZ1inNH said:
Norm, we've always and almost exclusively driven Toyota vehicles with zero issues. BTW, they just replaced the accelerator assembly on my Tacoma a couple weeks ago but I never had a problem with it regardless. I'll still buy another one tomorrow if I had to get a new car too! :tup:
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That probably goes for me too. I love them. The other docs can have their Beemers, Audi's, and Mercedes. Most of them have had one issue or another or whined about the maintenance costs.
 
Get on craigslist and check the upper mid west if you are looking for a decent deal on a truck we have tons of 4x4's for sale out here and run in some of the worst weather in the country without a hickup.
 
25 years and going

FZ1inNH said:
Norm, we've always and almost exclusively driven Toyota vehicles with zero issues. BTW, they just replaced the accelerator assembly on my Tacoma a couple weeks ago but I never had a problem with it regardless. I'll still buy another one tomorrow if I had to get a new car too! :tup:
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Like a Timex or the energizer bunny my Toyota keeps going (1985 Tercel)

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What do you think room for 1 more? :eyebrow: I could make you a smokin' deal on a slightly used Tercel.... Oh wait it has 199,000 km. on it.
 
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BroHay said:
I call :bs: -- that thing does not even look like it has been driven.....:poke:
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No :bs: It has 25 years of Canadian weather on it. I just take care of my stuff. Why do you think I still have a FZ 600 (1986) that looks so good. and note the "boom box" on the wall. I have had that since 1981 and it still works fine (except for the cassette deck, the rubber drive wheels have dried out). You can expect the FZ 1 to still look great when I am too old to ride.
 
Well... got the new (to me) ride.

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It's a 2001 Outback VDC... H-6, Automatic... and as far as options... well... it looks like someone at Subaru had the "Options" screen open on their computer screen and fell asleep with their nose on the enter button... this thing has EVERYTHING.... You know sometimes when you look at your dash, you see a spot for a switch and wonder what switch could go there.... likely some option that's not installed... yeah... there are no such places on this car... Leather, heated seats, McIntosh 11 Speaker stereo, heated wipers, heated mirrors, dual sun/moon roof(s), etc etc....

Now... when I got it, there were a few problems...before bringing the car back to Boone, I replaced the front left axle, trans pan gasket and both trans filters, changed the oil, replaced the plugs, fixed an exhaust leak, "fixed" a VDC Off light (VDC System works perfectly now)... put 4 new tires on it... but... even after all of that, I got it for less than half price of book value...

However, while fixing the exhaust, I got to looking around and noticed that something didn't look right from the back on the underside of the car.... after some looking... and more looking... and thinking... it finally hit me like a ton of bricks... the ENTIRE rear sway bar assembly was missing... bar, brackets, end links.... all of it... not there... but... no worries... I actually just placed the order for everything I need back there... all brand new parts... for $123.03 shipped...(If anyone with a Subaru needs parts... I can point you towards a great website....)

So... overall... I'm very happy with the car... it drives wonderfully... the H-6 is surprisingly peppy... it's snapped my head back a few times unexpectedly... I'll probably end up putting on a set of Brembo rotors and Hawk HPS pads when it's due for brakes... which should be a long time from now... The previous owners were dog owners and smokers.. so I do have a bit of cleaning on the interior to do... but that's no biggie... I think I might try to go find some offroad / muddy situation to get into this weekend...
 
va_rider said:
Well... got the new (to me) ride.

subie.jpg


It's a 2001 Outback VDC... H-6, Automatic... and as far as options... well... it looks like someone at Subaru had the "Options" screen open on their computer screen and fell asleep with their nose on the enter button... this thing has EVERYTHING.... You know sometimes when you look at your dash, you see a spot for a switch and wonder what switch could go there.... likely some option that's not installed... yeah... there are no such places on this car... Leather, heated seats, McIntosh 11 Speaker stereo, heated wipers, heated mirrors, dual sun/moon roof(s), etc etc....

Now... when I got it, there were a few problems...before bringing the car back to Boone, I replaced the front left axle, trans pan gasket and both trans filters, changed the oil, replaced the plugs, fixed an exhaust leak, "fixed" a VDC Off light (VDC System works perfectly now)... put 4 new tires on it... but... even after all of that, I got it for less than half price of book value...

However, while fixing the exhaust, I got to looking around and noticed that something didn't look right from the back on the underside of the car.... after some looking... and more looking... and thinking... it finally hit me like a ton of bricks... the ENTIRE rear sway bar assembly was missing... bar, brackets, end links.... all of it... not there... but... no worries... I actually just placed the order for everything I need back there... all brand new parts... for $123.03 shipped...(If anyone with a Subaru needs parts... I can point you towards a great website....)

So... overall... I'm very happy with the car... it drives wonderfully... the H-6 is surprisingly peppy... it's snapped my head back a few times unexpectedly... I'll probably end up putting on a set of Brembo rotors and Hawk HPS pads when it's due for brakes... which should be a long time from now... The previous owners were dog owners and smokers.. so I do have a bit of cleaning on the interior to do... but that's no biggie... I think I might try to go find some offroad / muddy situation to get into this weekend...
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Congrats Aaron! Best of luck with it. It's nice to see you scored all the options on this baby.
 
Norm said:
Boy that's a tough one Aaron. I'm glad your wife is fine but I guess you have your work cut out finding the right car at the right price. Before all this crap with the Toyota's accelerator sticking I was the biggest Toyota fan in the world. We have a 2004 Land Cruiser with 90K, which I just used to pull a trailer across the country and back, a 2001 Lexus RX300 with 125K, and a 2005 RAV4 with about 40K miles. Every one of them have been rock solid and every one of them are snow monsters. We've had some bad winters up here over the years and none of them have stopped any of these cars. I've had to get out in the middle of the night in all kinds of weather while on call and there's nothing I would have rather had in my garage than a Toyota. Then the accelerator thing...Aarghh!!!
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Don't let some blown out of proportion BS about sticking accelerators turn you off from Toyota. In the rare cases that this happened it was due to idiotic owners stacking floormats and not securing the floormat to the hook built into the floorpan and subsequently getting the bottom edge of the pedal stuck under their pile of floormats, and that could happen on any car. My fiancé has a 2008 Prius which the dealership did the "recall" on, all they did is shave part of the bottom of the accelerator pedal off. Toyota realizes the recall is a bunch of BS but they do this anyway as a PR thing. American car manufacturers were just tired of Toyota being on top for so long so they decided to take a lie and run with it. Don't let folks give you crap about not supporting our country by buying Japanese either because Toyota employees thousands of American workers at plants right here in the US.
 
My 2007 Tacoma was part of the accelerator recall. They replaced the entire assembly, the controller, arm, pedal (which is now rounded on the backside so nothing can possibly hook behind it) and the linkages. Mind you, I never had a problem with it. They did this while the truck was actually there for warranty work due to a CV boot failure. They ended up replacing the right front axle, CV joint, boot, wheel bearings and spindle. Extremely thorough! :D
 
FZ1inNH said:
My 2007 Tacoma was part of the accelerator recall. They replaced the entire assembly, the controller, arm, pedal (which is now rounded on the backside so nothing can possibly hook behind it) and the linkages. Mind you, I never had a problem with it. They did this while the truck was actually there for warranty work due to a CV boot failure. They ended up replacing the right front axle, CV joint, boot, wheel bearings and spindle. Extremely thorough! :D
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I Never had a problem with Toyota's customer service. We've actually owned three vehicles from them. (2004 Tacoma, 2005 Tacoma, 2005 Scion TC). One story I remember; Shortly after getting the 04 Tacoma 4x4 TRD, I went out and preran the hell out of it. Mud, water, hills, rocks, the whole nine yards. The next morning when I sat in it, the shocks squeeked (imagine that). Brought it in for service, they said, "No problem." Replaced all the shocks, control arm bushings, and shock boots. No charge.
 
Aaron, congrats on the new ride!

You didn't mention how many miles are on it. Also, beware of the front brake rotors. I have a friend with the same model and year and has replaced them almost annually due to warping. Just be aware of it as it's a common problem.

The car looks super clean on the outside. All the best of luck with it.

I just saw this post and was going to suggest a high mileage Lexus IS 250 AWD, but I don't think there are too many out there for $7K.
 
Congrats Aaron. That's a great looking car. I wish you many miles of driving it in good health to you and your wife.

Raven, thanks for that. I do love my 3 Toyotas and expect they'll be around for a long time.
 
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