Which One Of Us Had The Cooler Car? 2001 Toyota 4Runner vs 2005 Ford Focus

Good morning! You’ll be sad (I hope) to learn that I’ll be out for a few days after today, leaving you with a substitute. I want you to all be on your best behavior while I’m gone. My wife and I are going on a trip for our 20th wedding anniversary, but before I take off, I want to take you on a little trip down memory lane.

Sometimes there’s not a clear right choice to these matchups, but sometimes there is, like yesterday. Chevy Novas can be cool, but when they aren’t, they really aren’t. Corvairs, on the other hand, are almost universally cool. Add in the difference in condition, and it was no contest.

That brown four-door might not be my first pick among Corvairs, but I certainly wouldn’t kick it out of the garage. The Nova, on the other hand, looks like the $500 “Transportation Thrifties” I used to look at thirty years ago. They were a necessity then, and dull now. Put me in the Corvair camp with the rest of you.

When you marry someone, you’re getting a whole package deal. You inherit their family, their friends, their music and movie preferences – and their car. Since it’s our twentieth anniversary, I thought it would be fun to find cars like the two my wife and I had when we got married. I came pretty close, actually. I had to look in California to find good examples of them, and it’s only fitting that I found them on Craigslist, since that’s how we met. (Yes, really.) Let’s check them out, and you can decide who brought the better ride.

2001 Toyota 4Runner SR5 – $7,500

Engine/drivetrain: 3.4-liter DOHC V6, four-speed automatic, RWD

Location: Santa Ana, CA

Odometer reading: 240,000 miles

Operational status: Runs and drives well

If I remember right, my wife was actually at the dealership signing the papers for her 4Runner when we were on the phone setting up our first date. She traded in a Nissan Frontier for it. Her 4Runner was actually a 2002, but it was an SR5 model like this, and 2WD, which is something you don’t see often outside of warm climates. Hers was a sort of cranberry red, but if a purple one like this had been available, I bet she would have gone for it.

Two engines were available in this generation of 4Runner, a 2.7-liter four-cylinder, and a 3.4-liter V6. After model year 2000, only the V6 was available. And in the 2WD models, only a four-speed automatic was available. Like most Toyotas, it’s capable of racking up truly impressive mileage. This one has 240,000 miles on it and counting, though the seller doesn’t give us much to go on regarding its condition.

It’s holding up pretty well inside for that many miles, but the driver’s seat shows some wear and tear. The center armrest is a little torn up, too. But the good news is the seller says the air conditioning is nice and cold, so that’s something.

There aren’t enough purple cars in the world. Especially a nice dark purple like this. It looks like it was just detailed; it’s nice and shiny, even the tires. There is a dent in the front bumper, and it’s missing the center cap on one wheel, but otherwise it’s in really good shape.

2005 Ford Focus ZX3 S – $2,995

Engine/drivetrain: 2.0-liter DOHC inline-4, five-speed manual, FWD

Location: Hawthorne, CA

Odometer reading: 168,000 miles

Operational status: Runs and drives well

I had a stickshift Mazda Protege when we met; I moved from St. Paul, Minnesota to LA in it in 2005. It was a ton of fun on the canyon roads, but a real pain in the ass commuting on the 60 and 710 freeways. So shortly before we got married, I traded it in for a 2005 Ford Focus ZX3, yellow like this one. Mine was an automatic, though, and the fancier SE model. It was a good car, but not a great deal, and I remember thinking it was going to make someone an excellent $3,000 beater eventually. And here we are.

When the Focus was facelifted in 2005, both the old CVH and Zetec engines were replaced by the Mazda-designed Duratec. Mine was a 2.3-liter, but if memory serves, that was only available with an automatic, so I believe this is a 2.0-liter. I’m sure it’s every bit as capable of hauling ass down the 134 late at night on the way home from the karaoke bar as mine was, though. All the seller says about how it runs is that there are no warning lights on the dash, but that’s not nothing.

The Focus S has manual locks and crank windows, which to me isn’t a bad thing. Fewer electrical things means fewer things to go wrong. The fabric in this one looks less plush than my SE, too. But it’s in really good condition. It has an aftermarket stereo, which is a bit of an unknown, but if it sucks, you can replace it. At least the installation kit is already there.

I always did like the styling of these things. It looks good in yellow, too. This one is in good condition, with no apparent damage. I can’t quite tell if those are aftermarket wheels, or just covers on the steelies, but they’re the one thing I’d change on it. They just don’t look right on there.

Neither my Focus nor my wife’s 4Runner stuck around long; we sold them both before we left California, and moved to Oregon in a beat-up Nissan Pathfinder. But that’s a whole other story. For now, I’m going to leave you in the capable hands of Pete for a few days and go have some fun in the sun with my girl. But in the meantime, whose old car would you rather have: mine or hers?