How Much Do 5th Gen 4Runners Depreciate?

And once vehicles go out of warranty, they will be sold significantly less. Due to the repairs now being on the customer and inspections don't have to be done for warranty purposes.

 

That's what used car dealers bank on. It's a numbers game, and sometimes the right guy comes along, sometimes they don't. You're right.

 

Quite simply you missed it, a new 2018 through maybe 2020 would be the sweet spot, but its 2025 now. That said there are tons of excellent used 4Runners, 5+ yrs old, no rust, low milage even high milage. Depends on the funds you have, what trim you want and what you are willing to do to it.

I'm personally bias toward 2018-2019 TRD because they don't have any of the nanny systems and they were before parts shortages and massive changes in the industry. So though a newer 2023 may seem appealing with lower milage, no rust, i would still look for a ~2019 or older.

 

The prices of the 6th gens might help keep the 5th gens value higher. The dealer had a 25 SR5 on the lot, a few options and a msrp of $52k. They also had a 25 Off Road, $56k, no sunroof.

 

The price increases in general have been pulling up used car prices. Now you can over-price them and still make a 10 year old car look like a bargain. With 4runners it’s even worse since it’s specifically sought after for its reputation.

Even for someone looking for a shiny new 6th gen that doesn’t care about why the 4runner has a good reputation, it’s hard to ignore the option of a nearly new 5th gen, considering how much the 6th gens have gone up.

 

And we can't blame the 6th gen pricing on tariffs either, just simple consumer idiocy willing to support longer and longer loan terms.

 

My 3rd gens I totaled were all really clean and 300k+. Insurance always gave me more than I paid used for them. If you're trading, you're just giving it away. My last 3rd gen doubled in value and my 5th generation seemed under valued according to book price. I would think they would go back up considering new 4runner prices. I just like not having a perpetual car payment.

 

CarMax just offered me $35,400 for my 2020 Limited with 37K miles, and in getting the quote I disclosed that there was damage to one body panel.

This truck stickered for just under $50K when I bought it in June 2020, but I paid $44,700 before tax etc.

So after 5.3 years and 37K miles of ownership, the CarMax value is about 29% below sticker and 20% below what I paid.

Thus if I sold it now it would have cost me only about 2K per year to own. Not bad!

PS -- which is yet another reason I'm keeping it. It's not just an incredibly useful and durable tool, it's a good investment economically. It's delivering a lot of value for very little net cost.

 

If you think that's impressive, you missed the spring tax season. Around May they were offering me sticker for my 2 year old 23 ORP so I would technically have made money except for sales tax I would lose.

Apparently everyone and their cousin were buying used cars at unfavorable terms with their refund checks, happens every year apparently.

 

I think the bigger issue is that ORPs have historically had better resale value than Limiteds. Still, I love what mine is worth relative to what I paid and how much use I've gotten so far.

 

Limiteds are nice. They command stupid high prices in my area anything less than 50k miles.

 

As much as I bitch about the 4.0, I'm always impressed at how it gets up and goes on the rare occasions when I mat it and let it scream past 5k.

 

IMO, go with the newest with lowest mileage that you can afford.

My reasoning for that is that the younger you get it, the more time you have to maintain it correctly in order to get the best reliability out of it.

These are incredibly reliable even with high miles, but the more miles it has, the more chance you have of buying someone else's problem.

I recently saw a post from someone who bought one thinking it was in great shape, turned out it had a water leak issue that fried a lot of the electrical system.

Plus, and really most importantly, you can maintain the chassis correctly before damage is done. This is extremely important of you're in a road salt area. As McSpazatron said, frame rot is the number one killer of these things. Mechanical issues can be fixed, widespread corrosion cannot.

 

Around town and on freeways when I'm not going at steady 65 or higher I knock it into S4. The thing can hustle when it's not constantly shifting into top gear.

 

Here in the Northeast, I bought a 2021 TRD ORP in February 2024 for $36 K, it had a sticker price of $42 K
The truck was in excellent condition with 48 K miles.

That's 85% of new. Similar trucks are holding at $38 K

That's 15% depreciation in 3 years with 12 K miles left on the power train warranty.

 

Evaluating depreciation during and since Covid is anomalous to every other time in the history of automobile ownership. There has never been another time when used vehicles (outside off collector cars) have appreciated and it is unlikely to ever happen again.

 

Appreciation is only in terms of nominal face value. The dollar lost 25% of its value between 2021 and end of 2024 so even the "appreciated" prices are still depreciation in reality.

 

that's true as well