No Car Can Hide How Dangerous It Is Like A 300,000 Mile Toyota 4Runner

I’m back home in Detroit for a wedding, and instead of getting a press vehicle, I did what I usually do: I borrowed a car from my friend Jamie. This time, instead of his 2004 330,000 mile Mazda MPV minivan or his 2006 350,000 mile Pontiac Vibe, I have his fourth-gen Toyota 4Runner, and though it has 280,000 miles on the clock, it reminds me a lot of the 265,000 mile Lexus LX470 I once owned. Why? Because it drives like a dream in a way that very, very few 250K+ mile cars can; it’s really remarkable. What’s also remarkable is how the impressive way the car looks and drives contrasts with what lurks below its shiny body.

I don’t like to stereotype, but I will say that many of the best high-mileage cars I’ve ever driven happen to have been Japanese (the three I mentioned in the last paragraph, for example), and I’d say the very best of the best have been 4.7-liter V8 Toyotas. Though I think timing belts are garbage, the timing belt-equipped 2UZ-FE engine found in my old Land Cruiser was absolutely sensational for something that had 265,000 miles on it; it sounded like a brand new engine. That motor, combined with an Aisin automatic transmission, decent overall build quality, and nice exterior paint, yielded a vehicle that felt to me almost like it was new. Think about that for a second: A 265,000 mile car that feels similar to a new car!

I have driven more reliable cars than that Land Cruiser or the Toyota 4Runner that is the subject of this article. Any of my Jeeps equipped with the unkillable and truly reliable 4.0-liter straight six bolted up to an Aisin AX-15 manual will run and drive longer than these Toyotas and with less maintenance, but boy, they sure as hell won’t look as good doing it. And maybe that has to do with how Toyota owners tend to maintain their cars vs. how Jeep owners do, and it could also have to do with the residual value of a Toyota vs. that of a Jeep.

I won’t pretend to know all the factors in play, but what I will tell you is that there are undoubtedly more good-looking, ridiculously high-mileage Toyotas than there are decent-looking, ridiculously high-mileage Jeeps. I don’t think anyone will argue against me, there.

That brings me back to my friend Jamie’s 4Runner. This thing is an absolute cherry. The black paint looks great even after over 20 years, the interior — whose seats I assume have been freshened up, though I bet most of the rest is untouched — looks gorgeous. The body looks completely rust free.

And then you get behind the wheel. The 4.7-liter 2UZ-FE just sings. There’s a tiny exhaust leak that I can hear when the engine is cold, but once the vehicle has been running for a few minutes, the driving experience makes it seem like the vehicle just came off the showroom floor. The engine is silky smooth, and will accelerate the 4Runner faster than I expected; the five-speed Aisin A750E shifts perfectly, with no weird crashing or stuttering; the seats are cushy; the steering is tight. Yes, much of this has to do with how well Jamie maintains his cars, but some of this is just classic Toyota 4Runner/Land Cruiser.

If you pay the money to maintain them, the things just drive and drive and drive, and they do so in a way that has swagger. Their ability to not look like shit despite having gone through 260,000 miles of salty, slushy, icy Michigan Wintry Hell is unparalleled.

The result is that few vehicles ever made hide their danger like a Toyota 4Runner can.

Again, look at how nice this machine looks. It’s so shiny, its suspension stands perfectly level, the interior is awesome. My partner who’s with me on this Detroit thinks it’s a surprisingly nice machine, and she’s right! Except, she hasn’t looked underneath:

It looks like the Titanic down there! The frame is completely rotted out, especially the bottoms of the box-sections and the body mounts.

Look at how much rust Jamie pulled out of his frame!:

This, by the way, is not atypical for a body-on-frame Toyota. It wasn’t that long ago that Toyota agreed to spend over $3 billion recalling 2005–2010 Tacomas, 2007–2008 Tundras, and 2005–2008 Sequoias do to frames that were prone to severe corrosion. Toyota actually replaced the frames of these vehicles in what has to be one of the most absurd recall of all time (I mean, you’d think the company might as well just give the owners new trucks, but somehow frame replacement made sense). A few years ago there was news of a Class Action suit against Toyota due to 2003-2009 (fourth gen) 4Runners rusting out prematurely, and looking at Jamie’s vehicle, I understand why.

The vehicle looks so damn good, and it drive so well. But hot damn is it a rustbucket! Some of this is just a product of this vehicle having been driven in ridiculously adverse, salty, wintry conditions in Michigan and Illinois (seriously, even the brake lines rusted out), so I’m not going to go so far as to say “Toyota frames are rusty garbage,” but I will say that nobody can maximize the contrast between how badly rusted a car is and how beautiful it looks and drives like Toyota can with a 4Runner.

I mean damn, I could not believe my eyes when I stepped out of that smooth-running 4×4 and slid underneath. Luckily, Jamie has completely replaced all the brake lines, and fixed some of the rust:

But still: Yikes!

The Toyota 4Runner Traces Its Roots Back To A Long-Forgotten Camper

Here’s How Toyota Transported The New 4Runner To Its Debut

I Crawled Under The 2025 Toyota 4Runner To Look At The Hardware. Here’s What I Found