I've started watching Regular Car Reviews on youtube recently - he waxes poetic about those cars, it's just beautiful to hear. Really was a nice time.

Newer Toyotas still last forever and are not full of gimmicky tech, well at least some of them.

I expect my tacoma to just keep going and going

I also have a Toyota from that era - 2000 4Runner with 200k miles. The fanciest things in it are power windows and locks.

At least once a month I get approached asking if I want to sell it. Sometimes it's a note taped to the windshield, other times the potential buyer will walk right up to me.

A couple weeks ago, a group of car enthusiasts driving their custom classic hot rods asked if I wanted to sell. Obviously car experts and mechanics. One guy in the group said he also had a 4Runner from the same era with 300k miles and marveled that they last forever.

I'll never sell it. There's something very freeing about driving a completely untethered car that lacks all the modern bells and whistles.

Keep it. It will last 500k-1M miles. Simplicity and reliability are king. The new ones have all plastic bumpers and grills that degrade in 10 years. The absolute worst are the new Lexuses.

3rd gen 4runner ftw. '97 myself. Manual. I love it but I live in NJ so it's rusting out. So I've been thinking about a new one, but I dread trying to find a new vehicle that doesn't essentially have all the same things I think are terrible about a Tesla. I test drove a 2020 4runner a few years ago and hated it. By now all cars made by anyone seem to be software defined, with software you have no control over.