Junkyard Find: 1985 Toyota 4Runner Gran Ville
While 1980s Toyota Land Cruisers show up in self-service wrecking yards every once in a while, you’re more likely to find a Studebaker Avanti than a Toyota 4Runner in such a yard. In fact, in all my years of visiting high-turnover, uniform-priced self-service yards, I can’t recall ever having seen a 4Runner. Well, there’s a first for everything!
The first-generation 4Runner was built on the Mujahideen Grade™ Hilux platform, and both the pickup and the SUV version have held their value better than just about anything from the 1980s. This particular example appears to be a crypto-RV-conversion done in that trailer-building superpower: Elkhart, Indiana.
Perhaps the horror of this 70s-style brown-and-white paint job pushed the truck’s value down to where even 4Runner worshipers didn’t want it.
If you’re fighting the Rooskies in Afghanistan, circa 1986, the 22R-EC is an excellent engine choice.
The interior is pure van-conversion velour, right down to the 4″ thick puffy sun visors.
Somebody has already grabbed the axles and the dash assembly, but this truck still has some useful pieces left.
Murilee Martin is the pen name of Phil Greden, a writer who has lived in Minnesota, California, Georgia and (now) Colorado. He has toiled at copywriting, technical writing, junkmail writing, fiction writing and now automotive writing. He has owned many terrible vehicles and some good ones. He spends a great deal of time in self-service junkyards. These days, he writes for publications including Autoweek, Autoblog, Hagerty, The Truth About Cars and Capital One.
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why oh why don't they make two door 4runners anymore?
My first vehicle I ever seen rolled over on a dry road was a 4Runner.