Co-worker Sent me this

He's thinking of buying a 4Runner. Told him I think that's a good deal.
https://www.bennetttoyotapa.com/used-Allentown-2023-Toyota-4Runner-TRD+Off+Road-JTEPU5JR0P6168690

 

I paid almost the same for a 4x4 SR5, except mine is a year newer with almost identical miles. Looks like a good deal to me.

Only potential negative I see is that it spent a winter in NE as a rental, so maybe had salt exposure? (no idea if they use salt on the roads up there).

 

So you bought a 2024 W/those miles on it?? Interesting I'll tell him you got an SR5 for same $$$ Thank you!!
He & I live up here so yes it has & will see "winter" here IF we get snow!! Last winter was like fall I bought new ATV last spring & want to plow snow like I did W/old one!!!!!

 

I bought mine near Cincinnati, OH. SR5 4x4 w/ 24k miles. It was also a rental from Arizona. It was listed at 41k, I got them down to 39k.

It was Nov 30th... I'm lead to believe that last day of the month is good for that.

 

One final point I missed, mine was Toyota gold certified.

It doesn't look like that TRD pro is certified at all.

 

Yeah he mentioned Not Certified which for such lo mileage wonder? Where do you see it as a rental?

 

carfax

https://www.carfax.com/VehicleHisto...kcUr5TYmcyUuEG5fHG_pgxOWcHgQqIyIybx1EE2vyO-hI

 

Rental...

 

Yeah I saw that after I replied, Bought in Fl. but reg. in Me.? I know rentals sell vehicles. Wonder why it's at a dealer, auctioned??? I still would never trust a Co. that has a Fox as a "Spokesperson/Mascot". Why I buy new.

 

Yeah, when I was looking for mine I found that a LOT of the late models for sale on dealer lots are former rental fleet. I'm willing to bet that almost all '23 and '24 currently for sale are former rental.

Not many people would trade in that new of a 4runner.

 

I texted him rental his responses "Yikes, Not a fan of Rentals, Thanks"

 

I am in conversation currently with the dealer trying to make a deal. So far at $41.5 and I am trying to overcome the "It's a rental".
What's the harm? Wouldn't the fact that it's a CPO help the rental case?

 

I assume you're the said coworker mentioned. Lol
I've had a previous rental before in a couple cars. 1 very good deal and 1 pos. So just be weary and extra diligent in checking it out. The CPO isn't bumper to bumper so it doesn't cover everything.

The rental is being brought up as a negative cuz most people dont give a shit about rentals and trash them.

 

Of course through my continued searching of getting back into a 4runner, I come across this Lunar Rock for $47k (<51k OTD). Carfax looks better in terms of a 2 owner PA vehicle. Advise on if this is worth pulling the trigger without going through the negotiation hassle?

https://shorturl.at/RMRBV

 

Hence the term, Drive it like a rental....

 

Exactly! If you're at 41k OTD you're not doing bad i don't think

 

Looks pretty fair to me, I paid 39 k out the door. 23 SR5 , 10 k on the clock, rental car turn in . Had I found that back in March I would have jumped on it.

 

Not $41k OTD. So far, on the white one, I am dancing with them at $41.5 + TT and fees. Most likely $45k OTD +/-.

Or do I go down the route with the Lunar Rock at about $50k OTD?

 

No this is not my co-worker & that white rental is not CPO either.

 

Correct. Not said co worker.
So is "Gold certified" not CPO? I must of misunderstood the terminology.

 

That Gold wasn't on there when I 1st looked at it.

 

Would you recommend I maybe steer clear of the white one and maybe pursue the LR for 5k more? Worth the piece of mind?

 

Not sure what the Gold Cert covers?

 

I updated the gold standard sticker on rhe website once I saw you mentioned it wasn't there

Any other certified stickers you want??

Good luck with purchase op

 

I'll give you some of my thought process, since I just went through this recently.

I wanted the latest model I could afford, and I wanted the Toyota Gold certified. In fact, I found that the Toyota Certified shopping tool my preferred tool for looking for a car:
https://www.toyotacertified.com/?siteId=Tcom_topnav:TCUV_Home

I found that a lot of dealerships were listing vehicles on their website for more than Toyota was listing them.

Also, the certification provides a pretty nice warranty on top of any remaining warranty from the new vehicle. (I think gold cert includes a 7 year powertrain) Also, don't overlook that if the car has less than 25k on it (and I think 2023 or later) that it still is eligible for Toyota's free routine maintenance. I took mine in (w/ 24k miles at purchase) for the 25k service. The service manager looked the car up and told me that since the rental company had not used any of the Toyota services, he put mine in as a 20k service, which included more maintenance than the 25k service (tire rotations, oil changes, etc).

Trim levels are subjective, IMO. What features on a higher trim level do you want. For me, the SR5 provided everything I wanted, and let me hit my price point with a 2024 car w/ 4WD. The rest of the bells and whistles didn't matter to me.

As far as rental vehicle: my reasoning is that as long as it wasn't in an accident there wasn't much a driver could do to these things. With an expected life span of 300k miles, 20-25k of rough driving isn't going to do much to them.. it isn't like they are manual transmissions that can burn the clutch up.

Lastly, go drive the thing. Make sure all the buttons do what they are supposed to do. I can't imaging buying a car online, and I also don't think you are going to get much in the way of movement on price without actually being in their face.

The things dealers hate the most is "Let me go get lunch and think about it". The closer I got to the door, the cheaper it got.

 

Keep in mind as well when dealing with the bigger chains like Autonation and Carvana that they have the ability to move cars all over the country. I recall when I was looking that a lot of Carvana vehicles advertised here in AZ were from NJ, Ohio, Pennsylvania etc. I don't recall as much of that with Autonation but I also can't say just how many of their ads I dug deeper on. I remember being struck about "why would I buy a rust belt vehicle when I live in a rust free area?" They might be banking on naive AZ customers not even considering rust. And do the rental companies do anything proactive on rust prevention? I doubt it. It's probably not a major structural problem in 2-3 years but you guys tell me, isn't it better to start that stuff sooner rather than later?

 

Yes, that is a point I paid attention to as well. I live in a rust belt area, and I passed on 2 4runners because they had spent a winter up North. The one I bought was from Arizona.

The carfax will provide where they have been registered and serviced, so you can get a pretty good bead on where they have been.

Of course, as soon as I brought it home they salted the roads... I'm planning on getting an undercoating done this year.

 

This... Is where I figured this out as well.

 

All points well articulated. Thank you to you both.
I plan to reach back out to them tomorrow and gauge interest if they are willing to work with me. It's a 3 hr drive one way and the preference is to have 75% of the deal completed virtually. So far, the 2 managers that I spoke with have not come through on their commitments agreed on in regards to the conversation I have already had. I'll give them 1 more chance to convince them that I am highly motivated to complete a deal by Tuesday afternoon. It's really going to be up to them if I am an important prospect. If not, then I will pivot to Reading PA dealer and save a 1 hour trip.

 

Good luck @jimig1!