Robinhood150

I got an email last night from a woman who is looking for help with her son's 88 4runner. He lives in the seattle area. I thought you guys could give her and her son some advice on what to do with the truck. Maybe you guys in seattle could even help out? FYI, I'm also going to give her the link to this post.

Heres her first email:

Can you advise us on how to sell an older model 4Runner in need of major repair? I don't know what year it is but it is somewhere in that 93 to 98 range. My son bought it right after he left the Navy. It has been stolen twice. From what I understand, the people who took it did a bit of rough 4-wheeling with it and ended up cracking the engine block. I don't know how it was missed at the insurance inspection but now he's stuck with a vehicle he can't drive and he can't afford to fix. He has a wife, two little ones and limited income. They live in Marysville, Washington. I'm in Minnesota. He has no computer to do this search himself so I'm helping in any way I can.

What would you advise them to do? He's in financial dire straights. I believe he should try to sell it since there is no way he is going to have enough money at one time to get it fixed (needs a new engine) and are already in debt too deep to get out any time soon. We're helping them meet their living expenses but they are going to have to replace their car soon. They simply cannot afford to fix the 4Runner and we can't afford to help them out with that kind of cash at once. They are in the Seattle area. We're desperate to help them out of this jam so I'm going anywhere I can for expert advice.

If you had more details, do you know anyone in Washington State or that area who would be interested in a vehicle cheap?? Is just the body worth anything? Are there off-road clubs or organizations we should check with? What would you do if you were in his situation?

Thank you for any time and consideration you can give me. Your website looked like you know your stuff. And with a name like Robin Hood, I thought you might be prone to responding to the downtrodden and a plea for help.

Christi


Her second email:

I talked to my son last night and he said it's a 1988 4Runner. It's a 4 cylinder which is why they hoped to fix it - good mileage. It has new tires, new transmission, new breaks and the body and interior are in excellent condition. The color is sort of a silver/silver blue. There is no way they will have the money it will take to replace the engine any time soon so we advised them to try to sell it to help get them out of some of their debt. If you post this, we'll take any advice we can get. They are in the Seattle area so hopefully someone will read the post and be able to offer advice.

I cannot tell you how relieved it was to see your reply. Thank you again.

Christi

Weasy2k

Bump comon guys....anyone looking for a new trail rig.....! take out the tranny and pop in a 3.4+5 spd or something =] I would but i dont have the money as well!
Damn this things come at the worst times for me....plusim in vancouver canada so i dont think i can buy a car down thier and bring it up....or can it....anyway this is a bump to the ole runner....maybe some pics from the ladyw ill help!

Oh and ill post this in ttora if you havent allready or you can do that yourself if you wish!

Robinhood150

BTT.

Yeah, that's a good idea about ttora. I'll do that.

MTL_4runner

Weasy2k, you should be able to buy it and bring it up without any problems as long as it is less than $10,000 book value in Canada.....and no it won't matter if the engine is blown or not.

I am sure someone will buy it as a good trail rig provided it is in good condition. She might also try parting it out and see what she can get for it on eBay. Might actually get some decent cash out of all the parts but it does take some mechanical knowledge to take pics and describe the parts.