Over 350,000 miles the only issue my '86 4-Runner had was a radiator leak when it was -40C... it was not bad enough to strand us and cost $90.00 to fix.

This also gives on the opportunity to run a larger one if you have to operate in a hotter climate although those Toyota engines run fairly cool.

I would go for a more fuel efficient vehicle, especially in light of the age of that thing... Just a thought!!! :)

My bro recently got a 2011 subaru legacy, it has a CVT, so it gets good MPG even tho it has full time all wheel drive.....

- Andy

We have three cars and what should be four drivers.I use to get around individually only on bicycle or motorcycle.I just sold what probably will be my last motorcycle. So, that leaves a 2011 Subaru Forester (9K miles), 2009 Honda Fit (50K miles) and a 2004 Honda Civic (120K miles). I drive as little as possible, my wife commutes in the Fit 8 miles round trip (fair weather bicycle commuter), my daughter (put tons of miles on the Civic) goes to an urban college (so no car) and my son has no interest in driving.That means I could have these vehicles for the rest of my life!Car free is the way to go but it’s nice to have some when needed.

We drive our cars for as long as they are reliable. We'll be more conservative with the RAV since it is our long distance vehicle. Even so, I'm hoping this one makes it to 12 or so before needing to be replaced. We'll definitely get something more fuel efficient when we do replace it though. It gets bout 24 mph.

Sold my car more than 10 years ago, have been using bikes since hasn't turned back. I haven't found anything that i can't do by other means than using my old car. It just requires some creativity, sacrifices and willingness.

My 1993 Nissan Sentra gets better mileage than that Subaru... a 12 year old Corolla is still going to be pushing 40 mpg on the highway and get better city mileage than the Legacy.

Not arguing that, but he had a sentra & it couldn't handle snow. He now has a very solid well built vehicle that can negotiate more adverse weather & terrain. During our arctic vortex & all the snow dumps, he could get to work safely and on time. If he still had a sentra, he'd have needed to call out 3-4 days unpaid.

- Andy

It was probably the car's set up... the winter tyres I roll on my car would probably beat the all season tyres on an AWD while a Sentra with all seasons would not be a good car for winter at all.

I have crossed every mountain pass in the Rockies in my Sentra during good weather, bad weather, and in blizzard conditions and make my home in Canuckistan where things like the "Polar Vortex" is better known as winter.

In the winter it rolls on Nokian Hakkapelitta winter tyres and is about as good a winter car I have ever owned and it has excellent stability and control with with right boots on it.

Nothing has ever stopped it save for my wife high centering it on a small snow / ice berm last winter.

Perhaps it comes down to the experience and skills you gain from living in the far frozen north and driving here for the past 32 years.

TransitBiker - I am not suggesting that AWD is a bad thing and do have that 4x4 parked in my driveway, I expect that with it's winter tyres it will be a really capable extreme weather vehicle that will really benefit my wife most as she loves the way the Sentra handles winter roads and think the Jeep will only be that much better.

Thing about many folks and AWD is that they think it makes them bulletproof and we always used to joke that with 4 wheel drive you could just get farther into the ditch before you got stuck and see lots of folks with AWD vehicles who don't have clue one about how to drive them...a friend has a Subaru Outback and was stoked that he could drive home in a blizzard / ice storm at normal highway speeds when cars were going off the road left and right.

I have driven through some pretty hellish conditions with FWD, AWD, and RWD vehicles and the first thing you do is slow the hell down because every vehicle has limits.

The roads here are not safe for less capable vehicles when we get severe winter precipitation. It doesn't normally drop from 55 to minus 3 in a day here, which melted snow then froze it to form a deadly layer of black ice underneath the safe looking snow. We had numerous traffic collisions, including one on the turnpike involving a few dozen vehicles due to morning mist freezing to the road. We aren't allowed to use chains or studded tires either because they tear up the road surface. I solely blame state government for not keeping gas tax in line with inflation for not being able to give us proper roads.

In any case, my point was CVT can improve MPG, to offset some of the fuel cost of full time AWD. :)

- Andy