Tacoma, 4Runner or Pathfinder?

[BrunoPuntzJones]

Some old woman hit my Exploder and killed it

Was in perfect shape and never had any problems with it (was a 97 with 100k miles). I figure at most I'll get $4k from her insurance. I don't like having debt, and don't want to pay more than $2.5k-3k out of pocket. So figure under $7000. Maybe $8k if it's really a good deal.

I was originally looking at early 90s Land Cruisers. Reliable, ride great, and great off-road. But gas mileage of 12mpg makes me go soft.

I think I've settled on a Tacoma, 4Runner or a Pathfinder. Mid to late 90s.

The 4Runner is just a Tacoma with a shell pretty much right?

Reliability is really important. Everything else, not so much.

Prefer and automatic and 4x4.

Any improvement with the v6 over the 4 cylinders?

Needs to be a go anywhere, do anything vehicle that I can drive daily.

Suggestions?

 

[DougK62]

If you want something cheap and you had a good experience with the Explorer then why not get another one? I think you'd get a lot more bang for your buck.

 

[TimeKeeper]

Before you sign the check, read through the disclosure.
You can negotiate your compensation including days you miss your work and etc.

My collegue had his 2 year old car totaled due to illegal left turn from incoming traffic .
When the other insurance going to pay him 20K for his car, he insist that he doesn't want money, but want an exact same car at exact same year at exact mileage with exact color and exact maintaince record.

To the end, they pay him the bluebook value + 5000 for the compensation.


I am not saying you should make profit out of this incident, but sometimes, you know your car worth more than the market value. ( Besides, when you buy a used car, there are chances you have to spend extra on the maintaince or parts replacement. )

 

[BrunoPuntzJones]

Explorers have had a history of transmission problems, and my grandmother drove the one I have for the first 55k miles of it's life and was well maintained, so I felt better about it. Another one hasn't entered my mind.

And yeah I've already worked up a list of what I think I should get for it. Price, fuel that was in there, registration that had 10 months left, sales tax, my sound system, remote start, etc. $4k was a conservative guess. Plus when she hit me all the gold wiring I used evaporated!

 

[nismotigerwvu]

The Pathfinders of that era were beyond bulletproof. My parents had a 93 that turned 300,000 miles on the factory motor/transmission/most everything with no major breakdowns and a good 80,000 of said miles were done offroad (where the car got the nickname "Mountain Goat" from looking awkward but going everywhere) before they sold it. I still see it running around from time to time and razz my Dad about it being 100 times more awesome than the Cherokee he replaced it with.