Learning from My Philosophy: The Importance of Maintenance and Care

I learned a valuable lesson recently that I want to pass on to all my viewers out there. It's a story about an old 2001 Toyota 4Runner that was brought to me as a trade-in for another vehicle. The dealer who sold it to us had wrecked the car while delivering it, but they paid for the damage and fixed it up again. To our surprise, the car has been running perfectly fine ever since.

This experience taught me the importance of regular maintenance and care when it comes to your vehicle. You can't rely on a dealership or a mechanic to take good care of your car once you've driven it off their lot. That's why I always say that if you want to keep your vehicle in good condition, you need to learn how to change your own oil, do your own maintenance, and make sure everything is done right the first time.

I remember when I used to have a driveway where I would work on my car. I'd take it apart, clean it out, and put new parts in it. I'd make sure the engine was properly gassed up with the right type of oil for it. And you know what? It worked like a charm. I never had any problems with my car, and it ran like a top.

But nowadays, many people don't have the time or inclination to do their own maintenance. They'll just leave it to the professionals, hoping that they'll take good care of it. Well, let me tell you, it's not always that way. I've seen plenty of vehicles come through my shop that had been neglected and abused by their owners.

Take this 2001 Toyota 4Runner, for example. It's a real gem of a car. Look at its condition - the paint job is still excellent, despite being over 20 years old. The interior is clean and free of stains. And the engine? It's still running smoothly, with only minor issues to speak of.

Of course, there were some problems with the car that needed attention. The front struts were leaking, which made it bounce a little when I took it for a spin. But overall, the vehicle handled like a dream. It was stable and responsive, with plenty of clearance underneath it.

As I drove around in this 4Runner, I couldn't help but think about how well it's been maintained over the years. The engine runs smoothly, the transmission shifts like a charm, and the brakes work like a top. This car has been well cared for, despite its age.

Now, let's take a look at what the computer says. We can check the live data to see if there are any issues with the vehicle. Ah, yes - it looks like everything is in order. The long-term fuel trim is only 0.82%, which is remarkable considering the car has over 386,000 miles on it. And the short-term fuel trim? It's adding just a tiny bit of fuel, at 2.3%. Not bad for an old engine!

We also take a look at the misfire counts - zero across the board, from 1 to 6. That means there are no issues with the spark plugs or the ignition system. And finally, we check the total fuel trim, which comes out at 1.02 out of one. That's almost perfect.

Now, I know what you're thinking - how does this compare to my own vehicle? Well, let me tell you, I've had my fair share of troubles over the years. But if I'm being honest, this 4Runner is in better shape than I am. And it has 386,000 miles on it! That's a lot more mileage than I have on my own vehicle.

Of course, there are always exceptions to the rule. If you're considering buying a used vehicle with high mileage, you'll want to do your research and make sure everything is in order before making a purchase. But if you find a good deal on a well-maintained car like this 4Runner, don't hesitate - it's worth taking a chance.

In conclusion, my philosophy on vehicles is simple: maintenance and care are key. If you want to keep your vehicle running smoothly for years to come, you need to be proactive about its upkeep. Take the time to learn how to change your own oil, do your own maintenance, and make sure everything is done right the first time. And don't be afraid to take on a little extra work - it's worth it in the long run.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enno anybody who knows anything about cars and those cameras can last a long time but people say oh they're boring I don't want a boring camer well let's see they really don't look boring anymore they really up their designs Wheels he averag is about 37 the Top's about 40 plenty of power and great gas mod and it has tried and true technology first of all it has a real key ah and under the hood it has a 4cylinder inline engine connected to an automatic transmission that is not a CVT it is not one of those cvts that shift weird feel weird it is an 8-speed transmission an actual automatic transmission now in the past when Toyota started putting multi-speed automatics some people wh I don't like the way it feels they go for gas mileage yes and the earlier ones sometimes they'd hunt between gears we'll see how this one go but all the newer ones that I've tried out they don't have the hunting problems that the old one does understand one thing about Toyota they build something and they gradually work at Perfection they've been making Camry's a long time they see something's wrong they fix it the original Camry's yes they were kind of ugly they did run forever they tried different variants when they tried those Saras that were kind of fancy ones some of them were convertibl but their basic four-door Transportation car has just basically gotten better and better as time goes on they find problems they perfect them they're not like the Americans who well that model didn't work let's throw that away let's try something else no they have a different philosophy in Japan they want to gradually improve how they make things now granted in the past they weren't much on style well they certainly have gone way past that and their style has changed immensely nice interior black and chrome and of course it's a fordor plenty of room in the back and at the same time have really good combo of rideability and handling some people who really want handling yeah you wouldn't buy this you'd buy the Camry TRD it's got a much stiffer suspension Corners like a scalded ape I mean they really are fun to drive but I took my wife in a ride in a TRD she hated it and she's driving a 20-year-old Lexus she likes a nice smooth ride I take her for rides in regular Camas she loves it's just that the TRD has a really setup suspension system so you can Zoom around like a lunatic that's not Toyota's Market with this Camry it's for people want a nice four four- car that can run forever I see them all the time 5 6 700,000 M on change o every 5,000 miles these things will generally last indefinitely this 2.5 L engine is excellent of course it's got a timing chain on it and the small problems that Toyota had ages ago like my grandson's 2007 Camry that's got that horrible four-cylinder engine that they made for a few years that burnt oil like mad that's way in the past these aren't oil burners and as we go inside star her up I notice they've improved their interface here it used to be it set up too high now from where I sit it doesn't block the window at all it's more integrated I would like it a little bit lower myself I would have designed it a little bit lower but that's what Toyota's doing fancy automatic transmission you go eco mode normal mode sport or if you want you can shift it yourself very easy to use and since it has an actual automatic transmission you are actually shifting gears this isn't a CVT that's pretending to shift gears to the marvels of modern computers and hydraulics this is actually shifting gears we'll try it out later now the seats are full leather but they're very comfortable and this stuff tends to lay quite some time I really like the combination because nothing Wears Like fabric so the stuff you're sitting on is really comfortable but it's still got a leather look to it and I personally kind of like this it doesn't have a sunroof because I personally think sunroofs are the dumbest thing on Earth what do you want a sunroof for it just gets heat in and anyways with a solid roof you're safer that's part of the strength of the vehicle a solid roof I would rather have a solid roof over my head than some stupid sunroof that might shatter if something bad happens you can see it's got the automatic high beams you can turn the traction control off if you want simple setup hea and air conditioning I hate when they have all this stuff hidden up here on the computer we got to scroll through a bunch of crap to get the heater of the AC on this to me makes more sense there's the defrost automatic you can set the temperatures very simply turn it off if you want turn it on again then when you change the speed you just push the button here you're not pushing your fingers all over much easier to operate let's take it for a spin as smooth as can be decent backup camera nothing outrageous but yeah it's a decent camera typical camera smooth just like a dream like I say these don't hunt for Gears and this is just a normal it's not a TRD but you want to zoom around there's another one they're everywhere same color too so you can get 40 miles G on a highway it's getting 37 around the city with a regular transmission you don't have to sacrifice power and smoothness for a CVT this is power and smoothness and it's an actual automatic like I said and that's a good down the rad we'll try the old brakes ABS Works phenomenal and here we go to our little drag strip we're almost there makes a nice throaty sound too it's not Dull like the old cameras it's leaves a little bit of sound and nobody's behind us so we can come to the stop and we'll turn the traction control off and here we go smooth shifting listen to it you can barely feel it shift like I said these new multipeer Transmissions Toyota has they got most of the pugs out them but just for Giggles let's put in manual shifting here we are in second gear oo that was pretty fast down shift hey it down shifts quick look at that hey I got to say the manual is not like the older ones they kind of a time lag this thing is crisp it shifts manually smoth smooth now when it's an automatic yeah it shifts perfectly smooth then but if you want to have a little sporty fun just put it in the manual shifting and you can see it's got Lane departure because see it's warning us warning warning do not drive over the yellow line warning warning well I'm getting older maybe I need that now I don't know then again my wife said I needed it years ago well in my defense it isn't that easy to drive fast film talk and think at the same time without running in into something and as we come to a stop nice and smooth and look it's not turning itself off I love that I hate that auto start stop I find it annoying and I think Toyota understands that many Americans find it annoying so this doesn't have it I love that most of them you can turn them off by pushing the button but you got to keep pushing the stupid button I have it in eco mode Let's see what that does I don't know it doesn't seem Eco to me it's still got plenty of pickup some of those Eco modes are slow hey it didn't slow it down one iota it's got the modern conveniences right there it's telling you the speed limit and unfortunately you can also see it from the passenger side so my wife would see how fast I was going over the limit well you can't have everything usually the heads up display this doesn't have anything you can't see from that side so I would rather have a heads up display that has a speed limit on the whe wind shield where I can see it and my wife can't now even though this isn't the Camry TRD with the really trick suspension this thing still is fun to drive in the twisties it still has pretty crisp handling no particular over or under steer of course it's beeping at me now cuz I'm not using the turn signal while I'm playing around now watch I'll put the turn signal on now it won't beep cuz it knows I have my turn signal on so I guess that system won't help those crazy people that are driving down the high road with a turn signal all the time because it won't peep at them if they go over the line cuz they have their turn signal on so machines can't keep fools from themselves realize that they're not Miracles fools will still continue being fools whether computers are advising them or not so there you have it a 2022 Camry now the owner traded in a Mustang that had 14,000 Mi not because the Mustang was falling apart but because he didn't like 13 mil a gallon anymore and he's getting almost 40 on this thing and he says this is just as much fun to drive around it really handles quite well and I do have to say for all the people that wh about Toyota multi-speed automatic transmissions hunting for Gears and not feeling right this feels perfect whether it's by itself extremely smooth or putting in manual and really zooming it that's what impressed me because the older ones you shift them up and down manually there'd be a a little bit of a weight sometimes even a second before it it go up or down in gear felt SL slashy this didn't feel slashy cuz realize this is not a CVT transmission it isn't doing Fake Gear changes cuz cvts don't have gears it is changing actual gears it's going 5 six 6 54 whatever says in a dash what it is but it actually works like most things Toyota it doesn't look boring it doesn't drive boring and really he's got 30 grand into this thing the average car is now 49 grand for a new one h pretty good deal if you ask me 2022 Tacoma SR5 now of course they're not giving him away he paid 33 for this but still this is a 4cylinder version and for him it's a little low on horsepower this four-cylinder engine has like 158 horsepower the V6 on the other hand has a whopping 278 horsepower a lot more horsepower but then again you got to consider the early Toyota hux is head only 78 horsepower so you know it's good enough to get down the road it's not a race truck by any stretch of the imagination although with the V6 it is relatively quick and this is the SR5 4x4 it's a very good four-wheel drive system tried intrud and Toyota he got uh in the mid 20s on the highway gas mod you're just as good as you're going to get in a conventional engine gasoline and I like it cuz it's still got a key it's an Mizer key but it's got a key I don't like the keyless remotes these are much harder to steal cuz you got an immobilizer in the key but also a cut key you got to have a key keyless remotes people can copy them you don't need a key they don't have a key computer stuff can be done you can't make a key out of a computer it's got to actually be done so it's a safer system now it is an SR5 so you get into the back here and it's rather small doesn't have doors that open so it dog doesn't like it now I realize one thing this is a Tacoma that was made in Mexico notice it doesn't say Mexico but it says Guan well that is Mexico oh it does say Mexico there it is made in Mexico it even says it and I hide in it and it turns out that the charge port doesn't work a customer buy one of these Mexican made Tacomas and there's the radio didn't work so they got to fix that but it just kind of shows you if you understand Toyota quality is the big deal with Toyota but you make them in Mexico you're not going to have the same quality that's just the way it goes stuff made in Mexico the quality is just not as good as the Japanese that's just a fact there's no way out of it you look at the bronos sports that are coming out of Mexico the quality of them not so great now the quality of the actual Broncos which are made in the same Bronco Factory in Michigan that they always made them seems to be a much higher quality of course those are different vehicles too because the Bronco sport is unibody it doesn't have a frame with the body bolted on where in the case of the Bronco made in Michigan that has an actual full frame and in the case of this Tacoma you can see underneath yes it has a full frame they didn't cheese out it's got a full solid frame it's not a joke truck it's a real truck and as you can see from the front here it's got the axles for the front cuz it's four-wheel drive and then it's got a big differential in the back for the rear now the owner of this truck says it's an interim vehicle he wanted to build up his credit so he wanted to buy it on credit and he really wants to get the big Ford for doing plowing but he made a very smart choice because he admits if he's going to get the big Ford maybe if the prices come down this will hold its value it certainly will I've actually had customers buy these things new a couple years ago and they traded them in and they got more money than they paid for it in the first place with these prices gone high high if you want to fiddle around with trading Vehicles it's a lot easier to do than it used to be it used to be you'd lose your shirt you bought a new truck and then traded it in two or three years later you'd lose your shirt but in the case of this no he bought a solid vehicle it's going to hold up for ages but on the other hand one of my sons was thinking about getting a four-wheel drive trucks off he gets tired of this thing and he wants to get a Ford maybe I'll buy it from him for my son truth be told this a pretty Spartan vehicle it's a Tacoma pickup but they can run forever everything in them is tried and true now as you can see it's old school but old school Works look at this what's this it still has a power steering pump on it and I like that Simplicity most modern vehicles have gone to electronic power steering you get a tiny bit better gas mileage but when they break they cost a fortune these power steering pumps I've seen them last half a million miles on Toyotas I'll take dependability myself you can see it's for Sona there's plenty of working room but then again it's a Toyota and you probably won't have to work on it other than changing the oil and filter here's kind of a funny thing usually when you buy a new Toyota you got those cool batteries fancy Japanese not this one's made in Mexico you can see this battery came from taming Guam it's not the fancier ones I guess they want to say money whenever they can so they're putting a Guam battery in instead of a Japanese one truth be told I've had customers get Mexican made Toyota Tacomas 250 300,000 Mi they're still going down the road it's not like the engines and Transmissions are made in Mexico they're just put together there let's take it for a spin it's a Toyota of course it's going to start up there's no arguing that and it's a base vehicle so you know you get a tiny little backup camera nothing gigantic but I mean what the heck now being a 4x4 it's high up in air so giant burm here that keeps water from going in the yard is no problem for it and it actually rides over it quite smoothly well floor here you can see it's not a RAC truck by any stretch of the imagination but it's not supposed to be either if you want power and speeding at the com you get the V6 but then again you're going to pay a lot more sometimes as much as 10 to1 15,000 more with the way prices are today so here we go down to the road and of course it handles perfectly fine fine it's it's a pickup truck and four-wheel drive works great have all those crazy lights and everything like the forge if you remember the Bronco that I did that was just too much every time you put the key in close the door on the Bronco a bunch of rocks rolled up on the screen turned into a Bronco and jumped up in the air and there was outer space music and stars and the main Dash to look at this is old Tech that's new tech but I imagine this thing is going to outlast the new tech quite a distance you want a basic truck you really can't go wrong with this if this is a big enough truck for what you want now he doesn't think it's big enough for his plowing and stuff and with all the weight of a plow he's probably telling the truth but I don't know it really didn't snow that much this year in Rhode Island now I do have to say the owner of this truck is a little bit crazy as far as I'm concerned because he bought this as an interim truck to build up his credit before he gets a big Ford you could drive this thing forever I would never use it as an interim truck I would just keep it and drive it forever but for his situation if he does want to get a big Ford put a plow on it what the heck he probably get more money than he paid for it if he gets rid of it in a year and decides to get the Ford truck cuz really it's not a towing truck by any stretch of the imagination it is an allaround four-wheel drive little pickup truck that can go just about anywhere since it is a 4x4 and being a Toyota it'll probably last forever now this is a new one it's 2022 but hey my son's old dinosaur with 200 something th000 miles the plastic liner on that is still in good shape and it doesn't even have a top on it and contrary to the goofball politicians in this country I don't see electric vehicles taking over anytime soon I have been asked by a lot of my customers do you think I should buy a gasoline car maybe I should buy an electric car let me tell you I guarantee you this thing will be driving down the road decades from now it's not going to be the end of gasoline here in the United States this is a 2001 4Runner now of course the 4Runners just started out as a pickup truck you can still see a little bit left in it and then they became very popular SUVs now the main problem that I see people having with buying a used Forerunner as people say they want too much money for them they're just too expensive but then expenses in the ey of the beholder guy bought this thing when it only had 19,000 M on it in 2002 was a used vehicle and as we can see as we go inside now this baby has 386,000 mil on it and take a listen to the engine as we start it up start dry up even though it's cold we'll put it in Drive doesn't shake at all smooth as can be if you put a blindfold full on me I couldn't tell you if this was a new truck or an old truck that's how well built these things are now granted this one was made in Japan but it certainly was well made in Japan for people who are wondering what to buy personally for all around vehicle this setup is the best as we look onto the back we can see it's Classic rear wheeel drive big old axle in the back rear wheel drive and check this out the frame solid can be the only Rusty part hey that's the addon tow hitch the original stuff is still solid it's the add on one that wasn't made as well as a Toyota product that's got rust but that's just a covering and it's superficial that's still real solid metal it's nothing to worry about it's just cosmetic and really unless you spend your life crawling under your vehicle do you really care what it looks like under there as you look under the front it is not a front-wheel drive vehicle you can see that there's no axle coming in the front I'll shoot the other side so you can get a better view there you can see there's no axle in there although you can see there's a hole there they can build them you can add it on if you really wanted to go through a lot of use but really most people they don't really need all-wheel drive it's a good stable vehicle with rear wheeel drive unless you're one of those off-roaders you live out in a mud hut somewhere with potholes and mud Road these are perfectly fine the majority of my customers with them never take them off the street so you're really kind of throwing your money away going all-wheel four-wheel drive and unless you live in a big snow belt and you're worried about that then go right ahead you'll find that these plain rear wheel drive ones will cover most situations you're going to get into and of course realize less is better if you're not going to use it don't buy it they cost more you get worst G mileage two wheel drive ones are perfectly fine now since all the four runners are made in Japan yeah they're not going to be cheap cost money to make good vehicles in Japan 300 something th miles on this listen to the engine check it out now that's idled down a little solid engine still really quiet the exhaust sounds perfect now you might say oh it's smoking oh yeah it's cold out today that's kind condensation it's got to smoke when you start when it's cold outside people smoke too when it's cold and some people say look water's coming out something's wrong no in this case absolutely nothing's wrong when you bring gasoline which is basically carbon and hydrogen one of the byproducts is H2O water vapor all cars will give a certain amount of water off when you start them out first because they're letting water out plus they have metal exhaust systems when they cool down they have a tendency of absorb caring water vapor when they heat the water's going to come out somewhere so that's normal this thing doesn't lose coolant doesn't have a blowing head gasket you're going to see that on any car and you're going to see the smoke when it's cold outside cuz it's cold and the combination of the water vapor inside the exhaust and hot exhaust you're going to see smoke now if you want a solid vehicle these far Runners are for you they're still made with solid frames so they're unlike any other SUV PR ially out there they're still on a solid frame now the six-cylinder engine puts out 183 horsepower it's not a racing machine but it wasn't designed for that it's a nice truck frame very solid reliable vehicle 380,000 miles whatever this thing has it's a lot of miles to have it still running as good as it's running now the new or course have a little bit more horsepower but they're never meant to be speed demons therefore reliability and you can still talk stuff this thing could tow up to 5,000 lb it's a basically truck turned into an SUV and they kept it old style and me I like old style reliability solid frames never going to come apart these are vehicles that you could drive forever if you wanted to If eventually the engine or transmission wears out you can replace them they sold so many of them if you're like me you go to a junkyard buy a salvage one you can get rebuilt ones you can do whatever you want they do have a tendency of lasting so long that you really don't have to do much to them at all in most cases except changed the oil and the only bad thing that ever happened to this was he took it to a toot dealer for oil change and they wrecked the car but they paid for the damage and fixed it all back up again and that was years ago still going perfectly fine and that hilarious story just follows My Philosophy entirely hey learn to change your own oil doing your driveway make sure it was done right you got the right oil in it and you don't have some young kid or Real Lead Foot mechanic driving it around and smashing it up and I mean look at the quality of it it's old it's got a ton of Miles the paint in the Finish is still an excellent shape the Japanese care and sure if you look here you can see a little fading but that's not even the car's F somebody left something Square out here in the rain you could buff it out if you really wanted to so let's take it for a ride see how it goes what there we go nice stable handling now this does bounce a little I'll give you that it's got the case of the bouncies but I already knew that cuz I checked in the front struts are leaking they're all leaked out hey you know 380 something, miles you expect to put struts on eventually now you notice you're plenty high enough in the air here you got lots of clearance yet it's still stable doesn't feel like it's going to tip over like a cheaper made SUV he does with too much body roll now as I said it's no race car he will take off from a stop I mean it accelerates it's nothing rocketing about it but you hear how smooth that transmission still shifts it still shifts like a dream with all this mileage it's all that this thing is I would have no quams of jumping in it turning the keys and driving a thing from Tennessee to California back at at least after I put struts back on it new ones I'd like to have a little bit better handling if I'm driving all the way to California and when you're just cruising around hey it's reasonably quiet you know let's face it it's based on a truck chassis but it's reasonably quiet vehicle ride's quiet the engine's quiet it's just a big heavy nice riding fullframe SUV now if you don't believe my analysis let's see what the computer has to say you can't hide from the computer data blah blah blah we'll see what comes up and we'll start the diagnosis all right it does good the only code it has is the ABS system those things often break when the cars are that old c1224 that there's no signal open or short now that code means that the right rear wheel speed sensor isn't giving anything out so it's probably gone bad a lot of guys will live without it h when it get this old the ABS doesn't work all that great anyway so we just reverse verts to non ABS normal braking and this thing seems pretty fine to me driving it around and stopping I have no problems at doesn't pull it stops nice and fast doesn't have any problems now since that was the only code let's check live data that gives me some really good idea what kind of shape the vehicle is in and here we go we'll go through the data now for a car with that kind of gas mileage the long-term fuel trim is only 0.82% some of them I'll see 15 or 20 that's hardly anything it's subtracting just a tiny bit of fuel and the short-term fuel trim it's adding 2.3 that's kind of remarkable considering how old this vehicle is I mean look at the fuel trim 99.15% Almost 100% pretty good for something with 380,000 miles on it and if you remember from my other videos if any of this data is orange there's a problem I don't see any orange yet we look at the misfire counts zero across the board 1 through six I don't feel any and the computer just says yes Here We Go Again total fuel trim 1.02 that's out of one so it's almost perfect I got to say this whole 4Runner is in better shape than I am sure I'm 67 I'm older than it is but it does have 386,000 miles on it I don't know how many miles I have on me though the odometer broke a long time ago even though this is a 2001 with 386,000 Mi it's still an excellent vehicle and in most cases if somebody's trying to sell you a vehicle with 386,000 Mi people are going to say you must be out of your mind to buy a vehicle with that kind of mileage in this case if you got a good enough price you'd be out of your mind not to buy it so if you never want to miss another one of my new car repair videos remember to ring that Bell nno anybody who knows anything about cars and those cameras can last a long time but people say oh they're boring I don't want a boring camer well let's see they really don't look boring anymore they really up their designs Wheels he averag is about 37 the Top's about 40 plenty of power and great gas mod and it has tried and true technology first of all it has a real key ah and under the hood it has a 4cylinder inline engine connected to an automatic transmission that is not a CVT it is not one of those cvts that shift weird feel weird it is an 8-speed transmission an actual automatic transmission now in the past when Toyota started putting multi-speed automatics some people wh I don't like the way it feels they go for gas mileage yes and the earlier ones sometimes they'd hunt between gears we'll see how this one go but all the newer ones that I've tried out they don't have the hunting problems that the old one does understand one thing about Toyota they build something and they gradually work at Perfection they've been making Camry's a long time they see something's wrong they fix it the original Camry's yes they were kind of ugly they did run forever they tried different variants when they tried those Saras that were kind of fancy ones some of them were convertibl but their basic four-door Transportation car has just basically gotten better and better as time goes on they find problems they perfect them they're not like the Americans who well that model didn't work let's throw that away let's try something else no they have a different philosophy in Japan they want to gradually improve how they make things now granted in the past they weren't much on style well they certainly have gone way past that and their style has changed immensely nice interior black and chrome and of course it's a fordor plenty of room in the back and at the same time have really good combo of rideability and handling some people who really want handling yeah you wouldn't buy this you'd buy the Camry TRD it's got a much stiffer suspension Corners like a scalded ape I mean they really are fun to drive but I took my wife in a ride in a TRD she hated it and she's driving a 20-year-old Lexus she likes a nice smooth ride I take her for rides in regular Camas she loves it's just that the TRD has a really setup suspension system so you can Zoom around like a lunatic that's not Toyota's Market with this Camry it's for people want a nice four four- car that can run forever I see them all the time 5 6 700,000 M on change o every 5,000 miles these things will generally last indefinitely this 2.5 L engine is excellent of course it's got a timing chain on it and the small problems that Toyota had ages ago like my grandson's 2007 Camry that's got that horrible four-cylinder engine that they made for a few years that burnt oil like mad that's way in the past these aren't oil burners and as we go inside star her up I notice they've improved their interface here it used to be it set up too high now from where I sit it doesn't block the window at all it's more integrated I would like it a little bit lower myself I would have designed it a little bit lower but that's what Toyota's doing fancy automatic transmission you go eco mode normal mode sport or if you want you can shift it yourself very easy to use and since it has an actual automatic transmission you are actually shifting gears this isn't a CVT that's pretending to shift gears to the marvels of modern computers and hydraulics this is actually shifting gears we'll try it out later now the seats are full leather but they're very comfortable and this stuff tends to lay quite some time I really like the combination because nothing Wears Like fabric so the stuff you're sitting on is really comfortable but it's still got a leather look to it and I personally kind of like this it doesn't have a sunroof because I personally think sunroofs are the dumbest thing on Earth what do you want a sunroof for it just gets heat in and anyways with a solid roof you're safer that's part of the strength of the vehicle a solid roof I would rather have a solid roof over my head than some stupid sunroof that might shatter if something bad happens you can see it's got the automatic high beams you can turn the traction control off if you want simple setup hea and air conditioning I hate when they have all this stuff hidden up here on the computer we got to scroll through a bunch of crap to get the heater of the AC on this to me makes more sense there's the defrost automatic you can set the temperatures very simply turn it off if you want turn it on again then when you change the speed you just push the button here you're not pushing your fingers all over much easier to operate let's take it for a spin as smooth as can be decent backup camera nothing outrageous but yeah it's a decent camera typical camera smooth just like a dream like I say these don't hunt for Gears and this is just a normal it's not a TRD but you want to zoom around there's another one they're everywhere same color too so you can get 40 miles G on a highway it's getting 37 around the city with a regular transmission you don't have to sacrifice power and smoothness for a CVT this is power and smoothness and it's an actual automatic like I said and that's a good down the rad we'll try the old brakes ABS Works phenomenal and here we go to our little drag strip we're almost there makes a nice throaty sound too it's not Dull like the old cameras it's leaves a little bit of sound and nobody's behind us so we can come to the stop and we'll turn the traction control off and here we go smooth shifting listen to it you can barely feel it shift like I said these new multipeer Transmissions Toyota has they got most of the pugs out them but just for Giggles let's put in manual shifting here we are in second gear oo that was pretty fast down shift hey it down shifts quick look at that hey I got to say the manual is not like the older ones they kind of a time lag this thing is crisp it shifts manually smoth smooth now when it's an automatic yeah it shifts perfectly smooth then but if you want to have a little sporty fun just put it in the manual shifting and you can see it's got Lane departure because see it's warning us warning warning do not drive over the yellow line warning warning well I'm getting older maybe I need that now I don't know then again my wife said I needed it years ago well in my defense it isn't that easy to drive fast film talk and think at the same time without running in into something and as we come to a stop nice and smooth and look it's not turning itself off I love that I hate that auto start stop I find it annoying and I think Toyota understands that many Americans find it annoying so this doesn't have it I love that most of them you can turn them off by pushing the button but you got to keep pushing the stupid button I have it in eco mode Let's see what that does I don't know it doesn't seem Eco to me it's still got plenty of pickup some of those Eco modes are slow hey it didn't slow it down one iota it's got the modern conveniences right there it's telling you the speed limit and unfortunately you can also see it from the passenger side so my wife would see how fast I was going over the limit well you can't have everything usually the heads up display this doesn't have anything you can't see from that side so I would rather have a heads up display that has a speed limit on the whe wind shield where I can see it and my wife can't now even though this isn't the Camry TRD with the really trick suspension this thing still is fun to drive in the twisties it still has pretty crisp handling no particular over or under steer of course it's beeping at me now cuz I'm not using the turn signal while I'm playing around now watch I'll put the turn signal on now it won't beep cuz it knows I have my turn signal on so I guess that system won't help those crazy people that are driving down the high road with a turn signal all the time because it won't peep at them if they go over the line cuz they have their turn signal on so machines can't keep fools from themselves realize that they're not Miracles fools will still continue being fools whether computers are advising them or not so there you have it a 2022 Camry now the owner traded in a Mustang that had 14,000 Mi not because the Mustang was falling apart but because he didn't like 13 mil a gallon anymore and he's getting almost 40 on this thing and he says this is just as much fun to drive around it really handles quite well and I do have to say for all the people that wh about Toyota multi-speed automatic transmissions hunting for Gears and not feeling right this feels perfect whether it's by itself extremely smooth or putting in manual and really zooming it that's what impressed me because the older ones you shift them up and down manually there'd be a a little bit of a weight sometimes even a second before it it go up or down in gear felt SL slashy this didn't feel slashy cuz realize this is not a CVT transmission it isn't doing Fake Gear changes cuz cvts don't have gears it is changing actual gears it's going 5 six 6 54 whatever says in a dash what it is but it actually works like most things Toyota it doesn't look boring it doesn't drive boring and really he's got 30 grand into this thing the average car is now 49 grand for a new one h pretty good deal if you ask me 2022 Tacoma SR5 now of course they're not giving him away he paid 33 for this but still this is a 4cylinder version and for him it's a little low on horsepower this four-cylinder engine has like 158 horsepower the V6 on the other hand has a whopping 278 horsepower a lot more horsepower but then again you got to consider the early Toyota hux is head only 78 horsepower so you know it's good enough to get down the road it's not a race truck by any stretch of the imagination although with the V6 it is relatively quick and this is the SR5 4x4 it's a very good four-wheel drive system tried intrud and Toyota he got uh in the mid 20s on the highway gas mod you're just as good as you're going to get in a conventional engine gasoline and I like it cuz it's still got a key it's an Mizer key but it's got a key I don't like the keyless remotes these are much harder to steal cuz you got an immobilizer in the key but also a cut key you got to have a key keyless remotes people can copy them you don't need a key they don't have a key computer stuff can be done you can't make a key out of a computer it's got to actually be done so it's a safer system now it is an SR5 so you get into the back here and it's rather small doesn't have doors that open so it dog doesn't like it now I realize one thing this is a Tacoma that was made in Mexico notice it doesn't say Mexico but it says Guan well that is Mexico oh it does say Mexico there it is made in Mexico it even says it and I hide in it and it turns out that the charge port doesn't work a customer buy one of these Mexican made Tacomas and there's the radio didn't work so they got to fix that but it just kind of shows you if you understand Toyota quality is the big deal with Toyota but you make them in Mexico you're not going to have the same quality that's just the way it goes stuff made in Mexico the quality is just not as good as the Japanese that's just a fact there's no way out of it you look at the bronos sports that are coming out of Mexico the quality of them not so great now the quality of the actual Broncos which are made in the same Bronco Factory in Michigan that they always made them seems to be a much higher quality of course those are different vehicles too because the Bronco sport is unibody it doesn't have a frame with the body bolted on where in the case of the Bronco made in Michigan that has an actual full frame and in the case of this Tacoma you can see underneath yes it has a full frame they didn't cheese out it's got a full solid frame it's not a joke truck it's a real truck and as you can see from the front here it's got the axles for the front cuz it's four-wheel drive and then it's got a big differential in the back for the rear now the owner of this truck says it's an interim vehicle he wanted to build up his credit so he wanted to buy it on credit and he really wants to get the big Ford for doing plowing but he made a very smart choice because he admits if he's going to get the big Ford maybe if the prices come down this will hold its value it certainly will I've actually had customers buy these things new a couple years ago and they traded them in and they got more money than they paid for it in the first place with these prices gone high high if you want to fiddle around with trading Vehicles it's a lot easier to do than it used to be it used to be you'd lose your shirt you bought a new truck and then traded it in two or three years later you'd lose your shirt but in the case of this no he bought a solid vehicle it's going to hold up for ages but on the other hand one of my sons was thinking about getting a four-wheel drive trucks off he gets tired of this thing and he wants to get a Ford maybe I'll buy it from him for my son truth be told this a pretty Spartan vehicle it's a Tacoma pickup but they can run forever everything in them is tried and true now as you can see it's old school but old school Works look at this what's this it still has a power steering pump on it and I like that Simplicity most modern vehicles have gone to electronic power steering you get a tiny bit better gas mileage but when they break they cost a fortune these power steering pumps I've seen them last half a million miles on Toyotas I'll take dependability myself you can see it's for Sona there's plenty of working room but then again it's a Toyota and you probably won't have to work on it other than changing the oil and filter here's kind of a funny thing usually when you buy a new Toyota you got those cool batteries fancy Japanese not this one's made in Mexico you can see this battery came from taming Guam it's not the fancier ones I guess they want to say money whenever they can so they're putting a Guam battery in instead of a Japanese one truth be told I've had customers get Mexican made Toyota Tacomas 250 300,000 Mi they're still going down the road it's not like the engines and Transmissions are made in Mexico they're just put together there let's take it for a spin it's a Toyota of course it's going to start up there's no arguing that and it's a base vehicle so you know you get a tiny little backup camera nothing gigantic but I mean what the heck now being a 4x4 it's high up in air so giant burm here that keeps water from going in the yard is no problem for it and it actually rides over it quite smoothly well floor here you can see it's not a RAC truck by any stretch of the imagination but it's not supposed to be either if you want power and speeding at the com you get the V6 but then again you're going to pay a lot more sometimes as much as 10 to1 15,000 more with the way prices are today so here we go down to the road and of course it handles perfectly fine fine it's it's a pickup truck and four-wheel drive works great have all those crazy lights and everything like the forge if you remember the Bronco that I did that was just too much every time you put the key in close the door on the Bronco a bunch of rocks rolled up on the screen turned into a Bronco and jumped up in the air and there was outer space music and stars and the main Dash to look at this is old Tech that's new tech but I imagine this thing is going to outlast the new tech quite a distance you want a basic truck you really can't go wrong with this if this is a big enough truck for what you want now he doesn't think it's big enough for his plowing and stuff and with all the weight of a plow he's probably telling the truth but I don't know it really didn't snow that much this year in Rhode Island now I do have to say the owner of this truck is a little bit crazy as far as I'm concerned because he bought this as an interim truck to build up his credit before he gets a big Ford you could drive this thing forever I would never use it as an interim truck I would just keep it and drive it forever but for his situation if he does want to get a big Ford put a plow on it what the heck he probably get more money than he paid for it if he gets rid of it in a year and decides to get the Ford truck cuz really it's not a towing truck by any stretch of the imagination it is an allaround four-wheel drive little pickup truck that can go just about anywhere since it is a 4x4 and being a Toyota it'll probably last forever now this is a new one it's 2022 but hey my son's old dinosaur with 200 something th000 miles the plastic liner on that is still in good shape and it doesn't even have a top on it and contrary to the goofball politicians in this country I don't see electric vehicles taking over anytime soon I have been asked by a lot of my customers do you think I should buy a gasoline car maybe I should buy an electric car let me tell you I guarantee you this thing will be driving down the road decades from now it's not going to be the end of gasoline here in the United States this is a 2001 4Runner now of course the 4Runners just started out as a pickup truck you can still see a little bit left in it and then they became very popular SUVs now the main problem that I see people having with buying a used Forerunner as people say they want too much money for them they're just too expensive but then expenses in the ey of the beholder guy bought this thing when it only had 19,000 M on it in 2002 was a used vehicle and as we can see as we go inside now this baby has 386,000 mil on it and take a listen to the engine as we start it up start dry up even though it's cold we'll put it in Drive doesn't shake at all smooth as can be if you put a blindfold full on me I couldn't tell you if this was a new truck or an old truck that's how well built these things are now granted this one was made in Japan but it certainly was well made in Japan for people who are wondering what to buy personally for all around vehicle this setup is the best as we look onto the back we can see it's Classic rear wheeel drive big old axle in the back rear wheel drive and check this out the frame solid can be the only Rusty part hey that's the addon tow hitch the original stuff is still solid it's the add on one that wasn't made as well as a Toyota product that's got rust but that's just a covering and it's superficial that's still real solid metal it's nothing to worry about it's just cosmetic and really unless you spend your life crawling under your vehicle do you really care what it looks like under there as you look under the front it is not a front-wheel drive vehicle you can see that there's no axle coming in the front I'll shoot the other side so you can get a better view there you can see there's no axle in there although you can see there's a hole there they can build them you can add it on if you really wanted to go through a lot of use but really most people they don't really need all-wheel drive it's a good stable vehicle with rear wheeel drive unless you're one of those off-roaders you live out in a mud hut somewhere with potholes and mud Road these are perfectly fine the majority of my customers with them never take them off the street so you're really kind of throwing your money away going all-wheel four-wheel drive and unless you live in a big snow belt and you're worried about that then go right ahead you'll find that these plain rear wheel drive ones will cover most situations you're going to get into and of course realize less is better if you're not going to use it don't buy it they cost more you get worst G mileage two wheel drive ones are perfectly fine now since all the four runners are made in Japan yeah they're not going to be cheap cost money to make good vehicles in Japan 300 something th miles on this listen to the engine check it out now that's idled down a little solid engine still really quiet the exhaust sounds perfect now you might say oh it's smoking oh yeah it's cold out today that's kind condensation it's got to smoke when you start when it's cold outside people smoke too when it's cold and some people say look water's coming out something's wrong no in this case absolutely nothing's wrong when you bring gasoline which is basically carbon and hydrogen one of the byproducts is H2O water vapor all cars will give a certain amount of water off when you start them out first because they're letting water out plus they have metal exhaust systems when they cool down they have a tendency of absorb caring water vapor when they heat the water's going to come out somewhere so that's normal this thing doesn't lose coolant doesn't have a blowing head gasket you're going to see that on any car and you're going to see the smoke when it's cold outside cuz it's cold and the combination of the water vapor inside the exhaust and hot exhaust you're going to see smoke now if you want a solid vehicle these far Runners are for you they're still made with solid frames so they're unlike any other SUV PR ially out there they're still on a solid frame now the six-cylinder engine puts out 183 horsepower it's not a racing machine but it wasn't designed for that it's a nice truck frame very solid reliable vehicle 380,000 miles whatever this thing has it's a lot of miles to have it still running as good as it's running now the new or course have a little bit more horsepower but they're never meant to be speed demons therefore reliability and you can still talk stuff this thing could tow up to 5,000 lb it's a basically truck turned into an SUV and they kept it old style and me I like old style reliability solid frames never going to come apart these are vehicles that you could drive forever if you wanted to If eventually the engine or transmission wears out you can replace them they sold so many of them if you're like me you go to a junkyard buy a salvage one you can get rebuilt ones you can do whatever you want they do have a tendency of lasting so long that you really don't have to do much to them at all in most cases except changed the oil and the only bad thing that ever happened to this was he took it to a toot dealer for oil change and they wrecked the car but they paid for the damage and fixed it all back up again and that was years ago still going perfectly fine and that hilarious story just follows My Philosophy entirely hey learn to change your own oil doing your driveway make sure it was done right you got the right oil in it and you don't have some young kid or Real Lead Foot mechanic driving it around and smashing it up and I mean look at the quality of it it's old it's got a ton of Miles the paint in the Finish is still an excellent shape the Japanese care and sure if you look here you can see a little fading but that's not even the car's F somebody left something Square out here in the rain you could buff it out if you really wanted to so let's take it for a ride see how it goes what there we go nice stable handling now this does bounce a little I'll give you that it's got the case of the bouncies but I already knew that cuz I checked in the front struts are leaking they're all leaked out hey you know 380 something, miles you expect to put struts on eventually now you notice you're plenty high enough in the air here you got lots of clearance yet it's still stable doesn't feel like it's going to tip over like a cheaper made SUV he does with too much body roll now as I said it's no race car he will take off from a stop I mean it accelerates it's nothing rocketing about it but you hear how smooth that transmission still shifts it still shifts like a dream with all this mileage it's all that this thing is I would have no quams of jumping in it turning the keys and driving a thing from Tennessee to California back at at least after I put struts back on it new ones I'd like to have a little bit better handling if I'm driving all the way to California and when you're just cruising around hey it's reasonably quiet you know let's face it it's based on a truck chassis but it's reasonably quiet vehicle ride's quiet the engine's quiet it's just a big heavy nice riding fullframe SUV now if you don't believe my analysis let's see what the computer has to say you can't hide from the computer data blah blah blah we'll see what comes up and we'll start the diagnosis all right it does good the only code it has is the ABS system those things often break when the cars are that old c1224 that there's no signal open or short now that code means that the right rear wheel speed sensor isn't giving anything out so it's probably gone bad a lot of guys will live without it h when it get this old the ABS doesn't work all that great anyway so we just reverse verts to non ABS normal braking and this thing seems pretty fine to me driving it around and stopping I have no problems at doesn't pull it stops nice and fast doesn't have any problems now since that was the only code let's check live data that gives me some really good idea what kind of shape the vehicle is in and here we go we'll go through the data now for a car with that kind of gas mileage the long-term fuel trim is only 0.82% some of them I'll see 15 or 20 that's hardly anything it's subtracting just a tiny bit of fuel and the short-term fuel trim it's adding 2.3 that's kind of remarkable considering how old this vehicle is I mean look at the fuel trim 99.15% Almost 100% pretty good for something with 380,000 miles on it and if you remember from my other videos if any of this data is orange there's a problem I don't see any orange yet we look at the misfire counts zero across the board 1 through six I don't feel any and the computer just says yes Here We Go Again total fuel trim 1.02 that's out of one so it's almost perfect I got to say this whole 4Runner is in better shape than I am sure I'm 67 I'm older than it is but it does have 386,000 miles on it I don't know how many miles I have on me though the odometer broke a long time ago even though this is a 2001 with 386,000 Mi it's still an excellent vehicle and in most cases if somebody's trying to sell you a vehicle with 386,000 Mi people are going to say you must be out of your mind to buy a vehicle with that kind of mileage in this case if you got a good enough price you'd be out of your mind not to buy it so if you never want to miss another one of my new car repair videos remember to ring that Bell n\n"