help me buy an SUV

[NTIman]

where do you draw the line between "this is old" and "it's OK that it's old because it will run forever".... i know 'yotas are pretty beast but i just don't know what to expect i guess, since i KNOW i'll have to buy old to afford it.

You definately need to take a good look at it either way. It seems like the older ones would take a ton of abuse, but the newer ones aren't quite as beefy. If you find a Toyota that has been taken care of, and all the maintenance items have been regularly checked, its a safe bet that it will be a decent vehicle. You can tell a ton about them by giving them a thorough lookover. Check for a lot of rust on the frame (obviously). a lot of 4 runners come from up north where rust seems to eat them alive. Also, if you have the chance look at the Transfer case actuator. A lot of times the water and rust will play hell on them, and its not especially cheap or easy to fix. Make sure that if you test drive one, you test drive it for everything, 4wd operation in all transfer case modes,etc... you don't want to forget about something like that, and then pay an assload when you find out its broken the first time it snows.