Novak Conversions Jeep Wrangler TJ radiator

Daily Driver Dilemma

Shank said:
Ideally having a 3rd... vehicle would be ideal (I know not financially logical).
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Personally, for a household of 2 people + kids I think it's foolish to have any less than 3 vehicles. Obviously you both have jobs, so what happens when a vehicle goes down for reason X? What if that's long term? If you have two vehicles, and one is down, now you both have one vehicle to split, and hope it doesn't get taken out too. Having a spare, sometimes vehicle will provide that insurance. Also, any vehicle used off-road should be considered a toy, and not used as daily transport.

To the financial aspect, that is up to you and how you want to build your hand. You really need to decide how much money you want to tie up in liabilities, and what problems they are to solve. The best thing for you to do is to throw away your hopes and dreams, and use math on paper to figure this out. Being self-employed has trained me to look at things like daily drivers as appliances with operational cost. I know my money printer work car (a Civic) cost approximately $0.20-0.25 per mile to operate, while my truck cost about 3X that. About 5 years ago, I bought a 10 year old Civic for my wife to drive just to get her out of my truck. Operational cost differences from the truck vs Civic paid for the Civic in about 3 years. After that period, it has been saving us money, and I still have the truck to do truck stuff and long trips, which it is great for, plus my actual expenses are reduced compared to when my wife was daily driving my truck.
 
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BlueC said:
Personally, for a household of 2 people + kids I think it's foolish to have any less than 3 vehicles. Obviously you both have jobs, so what happens when a vehicle goes down for reason X? What if that's long term? If you have two vehicles, and one is down, now you both have one vehicle to split, and hope it doesn't get taken out too. Having a spare, sometimes vehicle will provide that insurance. Also, any vehicle used off-road should be considered a toy, and not used as daily transport.

To the financial aspect, that is up to you and how you want to build your hand. You really need to decide how much money you want to tie up in liabilities, and what problems they are to solve. The best thing for you to do is to throw away your hopes and dreams, and use math on paper to figure this out. Being self-employed has trained me to look at things like daily drivers as appliances with operational cost. I know my money printer work car (a Civic) cost approximately $0.20-0.25 per mile to operate, while my truck cost about 3X that. About 5 years ago, I bought a 10 year old Civic for my wife to drive just to get her out of my truck. Operational cost differences from the truck vs Civic paid for the Civic in about 3 years. After that period, it has been saving us money, and I still have the truck to do truck stuff and long trips, which it is great for, plus my actual expenses are reduced compared to when my wife was daily driving my truck.
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I completely understand. The only logical thing is to get rid of the diesel truck, it is a maintenance liability. Keeping a spare vehicle is something I’ve always done and likely will continue to do.

Trust me I have a spreadsheet factoring monthly cost and 6 year cost that divides out payment, insurance, gas, maintenance, depreciation, etc. I have been running the numbers. The wife currently has an 8 minute commute. With her new position involving up to 45 minutes of commuting and multiple start/stops I have less tolerance for an older vehicle leaving her stranded.

I’ve strongly considered getting her a preowned toyota awd suv but you’re damn near paying brand new prices.
 
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Shank said:
I completely understand. The only logical thing is to get rid of the diesel truck, it is a maintenance liability. Keeping a spare vehicle is something I’ve always done and likely will continue to do.

Trust me I have a spreadsheet factoring monthly cost and 6 year cost that divides out payment, insurance, gas, maintenance, depreciation, etc. I have been running the numbers. The wife currently has an 8 minute commute. With her new position involving up to 45 minutes of commuting and multiple start/stops I have less tolerance for an older vehicle leaving her stranded.

I’ve strongly considered getting her a preowned toyota awd suv but you’re damn near paying brand new prices.
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They have any deals like this out there?

https://www.cpr.org/2024/07/26/how-...ease-a-nissan-leaf-ev-for-19-dollars-a-month/
 
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Apparition said:
They have any deals like this out there?

https://www.cpr.org/2024/07/26/how-...ease-a-nissan-leaf-ev-for-19-dollars-a-month/
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I’ve been watching for ridiculously cheap leases and just using them as a beater but nothing amazing locally.


Slight update, we both drove a brand new TRD Tacoma. It was decent but space wasn’t ideal for carseat and we honestly both like driving our 4Runner better. Not really sure where to go from here but the 1/4 million mile 4Runner might just have to make a cross country trek.
 
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ColoJeep said:
If it's been maintained , you will be just fine.
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I’ve had it for only about 12,000 miles. It’s my “trial” Toyota as I would only ever buy American vehicles before. Few items need replaced but overall no issues.
 
Shank said:
I’ve had it for only about 12,000 miles. It’s my “trial” Toyota as I would only ever buy American vehicles before. Few items need replaced but overall no issues.
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If the 4Runner does it for you, why not just find a lower mileage 4Runner?

Shank said:
I would only ever buy American vehicles before
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Hasn't Toyota been the "most American made" truck on our market for a while? Also, 70% of Honda's sold in the US are built here in the US. I'm guessing Toyota does similar. So which country have you been buying vehicles from? 🤔 :sneaky:
 
Shank said:
I’ve had it for only about 12,000 miles. It’s my “trial” Toyota as I would only ever buy American vehicles before. Few items need replaced but overall no issues.
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We have two , a 98 4runner and a 04 Tacoma both with 3.4 V-6 both with 240000 miles . They are reliable and work well.
That said , if I had to punch through 3' snow drifts I would choose our TJ's every time .
 
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BlueC said:
We had two of that gen back when they were new. Good vehicles, but those V6s were a little thirsty with the gas. Have you seen the market for those 4Runners lately? :oops:
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Ours with the 4spd.auto gets 16-18 mpg , where the Tacoma TRD with a 5spd manual get 21 pretty regularly.
Yeah , the cost for these is stupid high , but with the cost of new used ones being 40 - 60K It's all relative.
 
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ColoJeep said:
Ours with the 4spd.auto gets 16-18 mpg , where the Tacoma TRD with a 5spd manual get 21 pretty regularly.
Yeah , the cost for these is stupid high , but with the cost of new used ones being 40 - 60K It's all relative.
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That was my experience with the toyotas. The auto has quite a large mileage and power penalty.

Newer larger heavier ones with the 4.0l get aweful mileage.

I've had a 99 trd tacoma for 20 years. It hasn't wanted much at all for parts or maintenance in that time. I don't need it and it sits sometimes for years at a time.but always comes back ready to go. It is hard to think of getting rid of such a reliable vehicle. Even when I get offered more than I bought it for.
 
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I think I have severe mental issues.

My wife drives about 18,000 miles a year. When my duramax blew head gaskets I sold it to a friend. I then bought a half ton hemi ram for my wife to drive as we wanted/need a truck. She likes all the features but is tired of the truck. She is now back to the 4Runner.

The crazy thing is we both like the 260k mile 4runner way more than the 40k mile truck. The Toyota is just dead predictable, drives the same way every single day. It was rock solid on our cross country trip pulling the travel trailer.

Besides fluids and a lift, the only thing I have done to it in 2 years is brake calipers in the front.

Now that I drive the Ram I want to off the truck and figure something else out…
 
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Maybe try to find the same gen 4Runner with lower miles? Is yours rusty?

I had a neighbor that used early 2000s Chevy 3500s with the 6.0L V8 for his business. He loved those trucks, and when he wore one out, he would just find another almost identical lower mileage one and drop his service bed onto the back of it. He said they were a "known quantity" he could depend on for his business after owning a few newer trucks that spent more time in the shop than on the road.
 
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jeepguy03 said:
Maybe try to find the same gen 4Runner with lower miles? Is yours rusty?

I had a neighbor that used early 2000s Chevy 3500s with the 6.0L V8 for his business. He loved those trucks, and when he wore one out, he would just find another almost identical lower mileage one and drop his service bed onto the back of it. He said they were a "known quantity" he could depend on for his business after owning a few newer trucks that spent more time in the shop than on the road.
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I’ve considered finding the wife a lower mileage one and keep driving this one.


This one is about 95% rust free. Id venture to guess there is a lot more rusty 2023’s driving around than this one.


Funny, I actually am considering picking up an early 2000’s Chevy 2500 for similar reasons. I had a 2004 rust bucket Duramax that I bought to flip and loved driving that truck.
 
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Shank said:
I’ve considered finding the wife a lower mileage one and keep driving this one.


This one is about 95% rust free. Id venture to guess there is a lot more rusty 2023’s driving around than this one.


Funny, I actually am considering picking up an early 2000’s Chevy 2500 for similar reasons. I had a 2004 rust bucket Duramax that I bought to flip and loved driving that truck.
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They were good trucks, i'd just avoid the Duramax at this point. You will be hard pressed to find one that hasn't been completely destroyed by mods that isn't a ridiculous price. My friend owned an 04 and the truck itself was good but he also did head gaskets, turbo, injectors, and a transmission. I think the gas 6.0/4L80 is where it's at.
 
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