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Hello all, Hated to do it, but had to put my 86 Toyota 4x2 pickup up for sale because my wife and I just bought a lovely Champagne 01 4Runner SR5. Would love to keep the pickup, but it needs too much work and I do not want to have to insure a third car only to be used rarely. I'm sold on Toyotas forever, and I am probably going to buy a Tacoma or Rav4 once my little Mazda pickup (183K and still running perfectly) goes downhill. What I want to know is: now that I have bought my first 4Runner (i did not have a mechanic look at it - it was just so darn clean and I got it from a Toyota dealership), what inspections can I make to verify it is a strong vehicle? It has 70K on it, the previous owner put a little lift in it, and the undercarriage looks clean as a whistle. Zero rust and runs flawlessly. Thanks

Thank you so much for the replies. I was hoping you guys would say something like you did.

Hello all, I have an old Toyota pickup and am about to sell it locally and need help with the selling price. I hate to sell it as it has served my wife and I very well for a very long time, but we have graduated to an 01 4Runner and am obviously loving that truck. It was our main car through college and became our backup car/camping truck the last five years. I am sold on Toyota forever until their quality goes down (do not see that in the near future). The blue book on the 86 is hard to estimate due to so many little things to consider about the truck. I was hoping you all could give me a nice figure to stand by when I put it up for sale: It is a white 1986 4X2 pickup, long bed, xtenda cab, 22R engine, carbed. 172,850 mi. No power anything, just the standard model with a fully functional interior with cassette player, no AC. Interior is clean, again everything functional: wiper controls, heater is good, seatbelts, seats lean, etc. The body has some issues. The tailgate does not work and is up and locked. The rear bumber is still attached very well, but it is bent downard. There are alot of rusty scratches in the bed. There is a rusted out hole just in front of the gascap lid (a small bird nested in it one summer about five years ago when the truck sat for the summer!!). The hood has a nice dent on it, and the headlights are fully functional but very much out of alignment. The steering is quite worn (lots of play in the steering wheel). The suspension is a worn and the right rear suspension makes noise over bumbs. The winshield wiper sprayers are working very well, but the passenger windshield wiper is missing and there are two very noticeable cracks in the windshield. I put a new battery in it around June 2005. The tires are not completely bald, but they only have a few thousand left on them. I do not remember when the last clutch was put in, but it seems very good, as it shifts perfectly with zero slippage. And probably the worst thing regarding the body is that the driver's exterior door handle does not work. You have to reach inside through the window and open the door from the inside door handle. In the winter, I just keep the little "cigarette" window unlocked all of the time and just reach through there. It does not bother me one bit, but will be an immediate issue with a potential buyer. The main problem with the truck: is the engine was running superbly until a gas leak out of the carb (actually the gas is spraying from underneath a conical-like part coming off of the carb) started about 300 miles ago. The truck starts up fine, but as it warms up the engine starts to run quite roughly especially at idle. It will even stall if left at idle long enough (2-3 minutes). It starts back up perfectly, but still runs rough until the engine cools down. And we never bothered to get the tags updated in the last year. I am very sure it would pass emissions once the engine is running like normal again, but it may look like I am trying to sell an un-passable truck. When the engine is running well it drives very pleasantly. It even does extremely well on dirt roads. I drove it up into the mountains many times this summer loaded down with a full crop of camping gear. I plan to sell it "AS IS." Now, this little truck sounds rough, and it is in a lot of cases, but she still has alot of life left in her. A little TLC and attention, and it work make a perfect little work truck or first car for a teen. I believe it's a mechanic's special. The problems are plenty but very easily fixed by someone with even the littlest amount of knowledge of working on these vehicles. It has alot of potential, and that is hopefully how I am going to "pitch" it to potential buyers. KBB.COM has a "fair" rating of $1050, which allows for body and minor engine issues, but the engine issue is a little more than minor. But if someone could easily fix the gas leak, we all know this little classic has 50K + more left in her. I was hoping to get $750 - 800 firm out of it. I live in Denver, which has a higher standard of living and housing prices. So with all of that, what do you think I can get for the little girl? She's been dear to my heart for a long time, so I wanna respect it by getting as much as I can for her. AND if anyone out there is close to Denver, you are welcome to throw a bid at me.