Project Mall Runner

[ScottyB]

still getting used to seeing this hoss in our garage but it followed us home.  first new car we've ever bought.


2019 TRD Off Road, basically a no option car aside from a dealer-installed clearbra on the entire hood, mirrors, and door edges.  we fell into this one.  the plan was to replace the xterra within the year, but our local high-volume toyota dealer was running the national 0% APR deal until September and was locally pricing these final-year 'runners very aggressively to allocate space for the upcoming 2020 MY's which have some big changes.  when i say aggressive pricing, i mean after talking back and forth with the online sales manager they gave us $2000 under MSRP, and then when we got serious they came at us $1000 under invoice which came to $35.5.  MSRP is $39.5, we drove off paying $37.5 out the door including $2k GA sales tax and their $450 admin fee.  i feel...like it was pretty well bought.  no other dealer in the entire state could/would get within $1500 of invoice.  

the used market on these wasn't even an option.  'runners with 20k miles on them going for barely a few thousand less than new?  with a 1 year warranty?  forget that nonsense.  to get a body on frame SUV we looked at old GX470's and final year Xterra Pro4X's as well, but the GX's were just too told (and Jen doesn't identify as a lexus driver, ha) and the Xterra's weren't as good a buy as i thought they'd be with the Pro4X's holding value even with 40-50k miles.  Jeeps were out, FJ cruisers out, the old 4Runner V8's were too old too.

"the back windows go all the way down!  and i get my own vents!"  my son pointing out the truly important features


anyway, its an April '19 build date so it didn't sit long, and i think it went on one test drive before us (8 miles on the odo when we took it out).  i just don't think anybody wanted a cloth interior, dedicated off roader in black/black without skipping straight to the TRD Pro trim.  it was sitting and they needed it gone.  but for us, perfect.  we like simple, we like honest, and the T4R is very much the spiritual successor to the Xterra.  it has everything you want and nothing you don't, as long as you like a full frame SUV that gives up the bells and whistles to get you further off the pavement as a utilitarian device.  i think it will be the absolute perfect combo for pulling our modest teardrop trailer to parts unknown and taking us far from camp and back again.

back in black *cue guitar riff*.  that's how my wife rolls.  this'll be our 3rd black SUV in a row.  and guess who's always gonna be cleaning the damn thing?


so this thread is not, honestly, going to be much of a project.  we specifically opted for the Off Road package so that we wouldn't have to do much to it - just go out and get it dirty - and let the factory kit do its job.  i see some sliders, skidplates, a mild lift (one of the reasons we opted out of the KDSS suspension) and upgraded tires in the future, and we need some factory roof crossbars.  so maybe we should call this an adventure thread?  its going to leave the pavement more than your average city boy SUV and i think it'll make for some great stories.

speaking of factory kit...here's what makes it an "Off Road" trim vs the standard SR5 (what you would call a base model)
• rear locking diff
• multi-terrain select (fine tunes throttle mapping, traction control, and ABS for specific terrain)
• crawl control (essentially off-road low speed cruise control that engages a higher wheel slip sensitivity)
• physical transfer case shift lever

i insisted on the diff and this was the only way to get it.  all 'runners get factory traction control called ATRAC that's pretty baller and will get us through 90% of what we encounter via acting like an e-locker aka individual wheel slip control.  i'm not impressed with the weaksauce tires but we can fix that.

these 'runners get a lot of flak for being priced beyond what they really are - essentially churched-up trucks with 2010 tech in them.  and i don't think that's unfair.  but i do think they're the last of their kind, and i think their claims to cast-iron assembled-in-Japan reliability are well earned due in large part to sticking to what they know and keeping the tech BS to a minimum.  i see it as a 15 year investment and that's money in the bank to me.

so, join us, won't you, as we explore the appalachians and hopefully the lower 48 to follow in the coming years while we put TRD's finest hardware to the test.  i'd also be happy to go over how i shopped the car, some tactics i used, and the negotiation process fwiw.