My First Car - 1998 4Runner 5 Speed

Figured I might as well start documenting the life of my 1998 4Runner - so here it is!

She was bought brand new in 1998 by a family friend who had it special ordered. It came from the factory with a 3.4L V6, the SR5 package, 4x4 & a 5-speed manual transmission. If only he had ordered a locker - damn !

They enjoyed the truck for a few years, and in 2006 when my older brother turned 16 it was bought for his first car. He daily drove it all throughout high school, college and well after. I remember being a kid and riding in the back with him blasting some early 2000's rock. Good times!

When I finally got my stuff together as a teenager and got my license there was no other car I wanted. I had to have the 4Runner. I had dreamed of owning it for years and I honestly couldn't even begin to tell you why. My senior year of high school I decided it was time to try to buy it from him. After talking to my brother about it over and over he agreed to sell it to me and I bought her from him with 146k miles on the clock nine years ago on January 15th, 2013. First thing we did was rip off the stock running boards, and I took the first picture of my new (to me) first car!




I drove it as it was for a few months, falling in love with it more and more as I drove it. I wheeled it on some mild dirt roads as is, but really wanted to get it lifted and capable to do whatever I wanted with it.



After saving up funds from my first job I was able to start looking online at a lift and some new wheels and tires. In April of 2013 I was scrolling through craigslist where I found some 265/75/16 BFG K01's mounted up on 16" Mickey Thompson Classic III's for $200 bucks plus stock tires! Blown away that I even found this deal, I messaged the guy and met him at our local Toyota dealership where we did the deal. Other than the fact that they rubbed at full lock, I couldn't be any happier!




With my new shoes on the 4Runner, I forked out the other $200 to buy a cheap spacer lift kit on eBay. Within a couple of weeks I was ready to do one of my first big mechanic jobs. Thinking back on it now, we totally had no idea what we were doing. I remember my buddy stepping on the lower control arm to try to get the shock bolt to line up. Ohh how far I've come as a mechanic lol.

Despite having no idea what we were doing, we successfully got the spacers on and were extremely happy with the end result - and better yet no more rubbing!



With the lift on (albeit a really s***ty one) I found the 4Runner to be extremely capable. After I graduated a month later from High School, I was able to go out and do some longer trips in the 4Runner. We went everywhere - all over Tucson and even beyond. In June of that year I took my first long road trip up to the White Mountains where we have a cabin. I remember the first time driving on the highway - how nervous I was let alone going by myself. Despite my nervousness I knew that the 4Runner would get me there, and it did with no issues.




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While I was waiting to hear back from the insurance company on whether they would fix it or not, I saved some money to fix it myself just in case. With the news that the insurance company was going to fix the fender and the bumper, I went out and used my money to buy a brand new OME lift kit and some tires! With the OME kit on, I spent every free moment I had going on adventures or planning one. Here's a few pics from all the trips we took:





Then in 2015, 50k miles and three years since I bought her I made the awful decision to let her go. There were a few issues, and I had somehow talked myself into wanting something bigger and more badass.

And on November 13, 2015 I watched the new gentleman get in the driver seat and drive away. My first car - gone. All of those high school and college memories going with it. My first "build" driving away off into the sunset never to be seen by me again.

Since I sold it in 2015, I have been through the following cars never loving one as much as I loved that 4Runner.

• 1994 Ford Bronco
• 1984 Jeep CJ-7
• 1994 Toyota Pickup
• 1991 Jeep YJ
• 1980 Toyota Pickup
• 1989 Jeep Cherokee XJ
• 1987 Toyota Pickup (KLF Special!)
• 1978 FJ40
• 1990 Toyota 4Runner
• 2000 Toyota Tacoma
• 2004 Toyota Tacoma

With every car I owned I advanced my mechanical skills, especially the eight months I owned that CJ-7. It was a total pile that I replaced almost every thing you could think of. Every time I got a new car I just couldn't seem to enjoy it or love it as much as my 4Runner. They were all too different. I found myself yearning to have it back.

Even with it gone I would keep up with it. I'd run a CarFax every year to make sure it was still on the road and not in a junkyard somewhere. I saw it was sold in 2018 and it went from Albuquerque to Boulder City in Nevada.

I ran my most recent CarFax in December of 2021, and after many nights spent laying awake I figured it was time to see if I could get it back. It was now or never.

 

Just an FYI, they couldn't be special ordered from the factory. In 98 you could ask the dealer to do a search for you. They usually could find you a near exact match somewhere and have it shipped in. But you had to take whatever was in the country or allotted to that dealer or on the next boat from Japan.

American car companies are different. You could order them from the factory however you wanted.

 

Once I made up my mind to get the old girl back, I started by trying to call the gentleman that I sold it to, hoping he had the new owners information. Tried the number and unfortunately a girl picked up saying she knew nothing about it. Not a great start honestly!

Back in August I had posted a few pictures of it on the Toyota 4Runner forum hoping maybe a member had spotted it. Ideally the new owner would be using it as I did so I'd think someone would find it. I BUMP'd the thread and nobody had seen it so that was turning out to be a dead end as well. I did have the Title # on the CarFax and thought about calling the Nevada DMV but I knew they would never give out any sensitive information.

After all of this research I thought about hanging up the hat as finding this thing on my own was going to be next to impossible. I thought about it for a few days and decided that my last hope was to find a PI that had access to the Nevada DMV. I made a call to a local PI up in Las Vegas who told me that it was possible and they would look into it.

The next day I got a call from them with the owners name and a number! I was ecstatic - it was still on the road driving around. I called the owner who's name was Robert on the phone, and nervously waited for him to pickup. Would he be interested in selling it? Was it even in good shape or was it destroyed? So many questions went through my head. He finally picked up the phone, and after the initial explanation on how I found I made him an offer. He had bought it to be his son's first car so he wasn't sure if he'd let it go - but told me he'd send me some pictures and would talk to his son about it.

Ten minutes after we hung up he sent me a picture of the old girl:




To my amazement - she was still in really nice shape! The previous owner decided to very badly rhinoline all of the bumpers and the bull bar, and replaced my awesome MT Classic wheels with some 17" wheels off of a FJ Cruiser. They also installed a pretty hefty roof rack made by Whitson Metalworks. While I didn't like some of the changes, I was just happy that it was still in really nice cosmetic shape.

I waited another two days, very nervously when I got a text from Robert saying that his son agreed to sell her back to me. I booked a one way ticket to Las Vegas with my girlfriend and two friends to make a little trip out of this.

I flew into Vegas on December 18th where Robert picked us up from the airport and drove us to a nearby Chase Bank where his son and the 4Runner were waiting. After an extremely nostalgic test drive I paid them and drove off to the hotel where we'd hang out the rest of the weekend. We left Sunday morning and made the 7 hour trek home to Tucson where the 4Runner did awesome! In the six years I sold it only 50k miles were put on it and Robert took great care of it. Aside from the changes I noted above it was in the exact same condition inside and outside as it was when I sold it, save for a few small dings here and there.

This was also my older brother's first car, who regretted not buying it from me back in the day when he could've. Over the years we've both talked about how cool it would be to find the old 4Runner so when I did find it I kept it a complete secret from him and my family. The night we got back from Las Vegas we had already planned a family dinner so I drove the 4Runner over there. I parked it outside and told him that I needed a hand grabbing something I got from Vegas. He came out and I opened the garage door where the 4Runner sat in the driveway.

He was pretty pumped that I bought a 4Runner, and I told him I bought "our 4Runner". He was still pretty confused until he opened the passenger side door and saw it was a manual - and then he completely freaked out. It was a moment that I'll never forget. Usually when I buy a car I would hear my family gripe and say "oh why the one you have is so nice" - this was the first time they didn't say anything. They all knew what this truck meant to my brother and I.

Now that I had it back I sold my Tacoma and was ready to build this thing up the way I always wanted to when I was a kid with no skill or money.

 

Great story, welcome to the forum William.

 

great story...you can go home (again) welcome to the forum