Buying first 4runner tomorrow potentially

If you do plan to get it, please have your mechanic thoroughly inspect it before you purchase it because it's always an as is sale, and buyer beware. Make a smart decision.

 

Those mini trucks typically can’t be registered - states are starting to crack down on people that think they were clever, and leaving people with a vehicle that can’t be used on public roads. I wish that you could dependably register them - I’d love one.

Civic hatchbacks and the Kia sportage aren’t “cool” cars. They’re basic transportation - unless someone has ruined them in the name of being cool.

 

You’re thinking of kei trucks. The mini trucks that he is talking about are the Toyota trucks, Nissan Hardbody’s, Mitsubishi Mighty Max etc. from the 80s and 90s

 

Nobody should be using those as their primary daily driver.

 

You could get a decent Camry 09 - 12 for that price. Unless you are 100% off-roading.
I just got a 2012 Camry Hybrid for my college grad. For similar.
Winter time. Use dedicated snow tires instead of all-seasons.
High tech runs smooth. Eye Catcher

 

Mechanical considerations set aside, I would not do business with that seller. Hard pass. Too many red flags.

 

Way too many red flags. Guy sounds like a scammer in all his text messages. Delete and ignore. Look for a 3rd gen 4runner with a 3.4 v6. You can tell he repainted the whole frame underneath. He’s probably trying to hide rust.

 

Go check out and DONT buy it. I’d love to hear how the trip went! Bonus “likes” for pictures and maybe even video of this guy! Tell him you are taking short videos of the vehicle to send via text to your mechanic.

 

Point 4. Point 4. Point 4. I didnt get this advice until I was much older, and buying my first house, but it applies to FSBO cars too. This guy has one 4runner to sell, but you have every other 4runner in the world to buy. "Someone is going to steal it..." gtfoh. Dont let this idiot rush you into buying his junk

 

Hahahaha oh boy do I have a story.
Before I start the story, I’m going to mention a couple things:
1. He claimed he had receipts on hand ready for me to look at
2. Also claimed that I was beating a lot of other sellers, and he was giving me first chance before other people came that day.

So I went with my friend who drove me and we get to his house and he’s sitting on a pit bike smoking a cigarette. He has multiple cars in his driveway and a bunch of junk parts and stuff laying around, super messy garage. His little dog is in the truck the whole time with the window down which I thought was strange.
He’s cross-eyed and has a load of deadhead stickers around his garage, which explained a lot considering he didn’t seem fully “grounded”.
He just lets us look at the car, I couldn’t really tell if there were leaks since he sprayed the whole car off right before we came. My friend and I look through the car find a bunch of shooters in the center console, some wires that were cut when you pull the back seats down, and a lot of junk in the car itself. We check out the engine and everything seemed fine.
I ask the guy about the receipts he had, and he starts saying his fiancé has them and needs to get them together. Keep in mind I asked him to get them together beforehand. He says his fiancé is busy in the shower and I said I’d be fine waiting. In the meantime he lets me test drive the car and didn’t come with me which I thought was strange. He did take a picture of my license which I don’t know now if it was a bad idea or not for me to give it to him.
I test drive the car and realize it’s pretty much on empty. The throttle response was horrible which I expected for a car this old but I would constantly have to press the pedal to the metal going around turns from a complete stop. I put $20 in the tank at a gas station and drove it around a bit more. The gears shifted fine and everything seemed fine except for the throttle response which was horrible. Please let me know if I’m just sounding stupid here haha.
We drove the car around for a good 25 minutes and then brought it back, and he was sitting on his porch working on his pit bike.
I ask him if I can drive it on the highway and he starts pressuring me saying, “Look dude I have other people coming to see this thing and I need daylight for that”
He kept going on about that and then I said what if I come drive it tomorrow on the highway? He said sure if you can give me a deposit. I didn’t want to give him any money at this point and I hadn’t brought any with me, so I told him that I’ll think about and that I’ll call my mom and be back.
My friend and I walk over to our car and while we’re talking to each other about how weird this guy is, another person pulls up and walks over to his driveway. At first I thought this was another person interested in the 4runner, so I decide to listen in on their conversation from a little distance away.
Some detail: Owner’s name is Curt
I overhear Curt and the new guy that showed up talking and I realized it wasn’t about the car, but I still couldn’t tell what they were arguing about. At some point, the new guy says he’s calling the cops and Curt is just saying he doesn’t know what he’s talking about. At this point Curt notices I’m listening to them because my friend and I were laughing at how absurd the situation was. It was honestly the last thing we expected haha.
Curt starts saying to me, “Hahaha this dude is crazy, I’ve never seen him in my life I don’t know this guy etc.” He walks over across the street to an 00’s mustang that’s parked and he gets in and tells me “I have to run an errand, I’ll be back” and he floors it down his street. It was the funniest thing I’ve ever seen this year especially because his car’s acceleration was horrible while at the same time loud.
My friend and I start laughing and decide to talk to the guy that showed up. He tells us that he is here to get his friend’s car back (the friend was on vacation).
Curt had apparently given the friend a deposit of $500 for a car, some kind of Pontiac and had promised to pay the rest. I guess he never ended up paying and now this guy was here to get the car back. He had the title of the car with him so we believed him and he had a key too but the car was blocked in by other cars in Curt’s driveway
Another thing that was funny was Curt had left the top of the Pontiac down, and it had rained so the car was soaked. The friend wasn’t too happy about that haha. He eventually left after waiting a while because he didn’t want to bother dealing with his friends car.
My friend and I decided to wait around a little more to see what would happen, and Curt had left his garage open and his dog was still in the car which was strange. Us being the dumb 19yo we are, we decided to sneak around in his garage and we found all sorts of strange stuff mostly junk though.
I’m pretty sure no one was home so he was lying about his fiancé being busy haha.
We left and we were pretty happy despite leaving without a deal because the whole experience was hilarious.
Also the guy that showed up told us he looked Curt up and he found charges of GTA, burglary, and forgery. He thinks that Curt was “title-hopping”, which I’m not familiar with but here’s a shitty explanation:
Basically Curt gets cars but never switches the title over, instead claims it’s missing or he only has a picture of it. I’m not sure what there is to gain from doing this if someone else could explain it’d be appreciated

 

That’s one crazy story and a crazy twist. I would stay away from that dude and his 4Runner. It sounds to me like a $7000 headache.

I would look for a 3rd gen 4Runner. Those are gems.

 

Don't even need to know the long story to know the seller was a tool. Anyone that talks like that can go find another sucker.

 

Fun read though. You'll be a much wiser shopper after this lol!

 

Yep. One of the advantages of being an old guy is easily recognizing patterns in human behavior. That guy set off all the scammer alarms in just a few initial texts.

 

Damn, crazy story. But I would be a little concerned about him having my license number and address. Not sure what you can do about it now, but maybe keep an eye on your credit report and make sure nothing funny happens.

 

Im sorry man but this sounds like a scam. I would personally stay away.

 

For OP's future reference, don't give up your ID. The answer to that one was "why don't you come along with me on the test drive".

 

Glad you didnt buy it. I dont mean to preach to you, but damn, man..chalk it up to youth all you want but this was just mistake after mistake after mistake. Giving him your address, nosing around in somebody else's garage, continuing to engage with him after you left, bringing up his criminal record you got secondhand from another stranger? You don't know this guy. Block the number and move on already.

 

OP, everything about this guy from the get go screamed run away. I don’t know why you would spend so much time and effort dealing with this guy. And never give your I.D. to anyone. My Father helped me with my first car buying experience, I didn’t appreciate his advice at the time, but I sure do now! Everyone here gave you good advice, take this as a learning lesson and move on now. Be careful and good luck to you.

 

I remember going to see a 1st gen Tacoma from an offerup post. Tacoma looked great. Had a new paint job and owner said he just put new tires on it.

I showed up to look at it in person and he literally painted over the old green oem color with a gun metal grey color with NO prep work whatsoever. Literally just took a spray gun over old paint. The grey was already flaking off on some parts of the truck showing the green underneath. Door jambs werent even painted. Then he failed to post a picture of the front of the truck because he was trying to hide the huge rusty dent on the front. Also, the “new” tires he said he just put on were all chewed up from offroading. Like… fucker they arent new anymore. He wasted my time, he made the truck look great in pictures and talked about how good it was in the description.

I told him I wasnt even gonna make any offer on it. Then he told me he would go down on price and I said no. While i was leaving getting in my car he chased after me and gave me an even lower price. I told him, “naa just keep it”

 

This will end with a Judge Judy episode if someone buys it. Lol

 

Sadly, that show is off the air!

 

I'm sorry that this guy wasted your time, but he did serve a purpose. He exposed you to one variation of a questionable seller. You walked away from the "deal" and saved yourself many a headache.

I would love to see a few pictures of his "$5 million dollar house."

Speaking of pictures, I don't think I'd allow a private seller to take a pic of my license. I wouldn't object to showing it to prove I had a license, but he doesn't need to have my info "on file" for the rest of his life. That could be problematic if the guy decides to be a jerk.

Thank you for sharing the rest of the story. It was amusing.

 

Incredible, keep us posted.

 

this should be a sticky


thanks OP for the story and the laugh

lots of really good folks here who won’t steer you wrong

a lot of sites you get know it alls but here the guys and gals are pretty good

Thanks for a most enjoyable 15 minutes of fame

Later eh
Jefferson

 

So what was his username anyways?