We had a 4Runner, it was a rare purchase vs. lease*, we tend to do the latter for the "family" vehicle, that way there's a car that's always under warranty (so no surprises ...), and the "disposal" is simple. At that point, I was kind of, it's a T4R, it should last, let's do it with a 5 year plan, and I knew with a new baby, our current beach/snow habits, it was going to be abused
It was very solid, had the 4.7 V8, AWD of course
Held up well, it did require a 75K service, which is a timing belt/pump/etc., service, the V8 uses belts, the bulletproof V6 uses chains, that's a $1300 service, but factored in over 5+ years, not too bad TCO, we had our special shocks/suspension blow out, OEM would've been $3K, we went with Bilstein 5100 HDs, ~$600, needed new calipers, an oil cooler, again, still decent TCO at 6 years, and it towed, snowed, drive through the ocean, scaled mountains, got vomited in / 1000s of lbs of McD's consumed (10s of lbs lost under seats ...)
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Our current, well, according to some text messages just now we have two currents, hahaha, more on that later, but the one in the driveway is a Dodge Durango RT, AWD, loaded with tow, black top, B&O audio, etc., it's a 6 seater (in our cap chair configuration), tows a ton, the RT has slightly more sporty suspension, slightly lower, it has the 5.7L Hemi, that's the 360/390 output (there's an SRT with the 6.4L), it was solid too, almost 3 years old today, and only had a couple of small, under warranty fixes.
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We cross shopped another 3 row, explorer ST, nice with the 21" Perf Pack, quick, gave the Hyundai/Kia twins a review, they're killing it, backordered for weeks, really flipping the content-to-price ratio.
Finally, we decided we don't care about a 3-row/6-7 seaters any longer (why do we really need it, it was always to accommodate someone else ...), have never owned a Jeep myself (Dad had one) we were looking at Grand Cherokees, which as you probably know, share quite a bit of tech/chassis, with the Durango, pretty cool, mid-range models have the (same) 5.7L as an option.
FWIW, the current Grand Cherokee has not been updated for MY21, but the new Grand Cherokee L (L = Long Wheelbase), which is a 3-row is new, has the option for the new uConnect 5 10" display, newly designed exterior, interior. The Wagoneer is just a beast, way too big for our needs, $60K entry level, hell, the 6.4L Grand Wagoneer flavor tops $100K.
However, the wife had a hankering, I sort of did too, the little G is into it, it's new, it's old, it's super cool, it's very "beachy",
it's small step towards the future, we wound up with a Jeep, it's being delivered today, er, I guess big reveal when it arrives, hahaha, I convinced them (or they kind of took it upon themselves, same difference ...) to drive it up to us from Orlando for free
*This is one of the great misunderstood ownership models, as soon as I hear, "well you don't own it", I know the person isn't quite clear on the concept. Here's a kicker: you can sell your leased car, it's got a residual value (heck, that's determined up front), we have a Carvana offer for $7000 over the RV, we're not turning it in, we're selling it to them, that's money in our pocket, like equity, like a conventional finance
