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?
The Focus is cooler and proof that there still decently priced beaters made this century.
Focus for sure. The 4runner will keep going and going but it’s only 2wd. You might as well just get a minivan. I don’t see many, but Id on’t think a 2wd commands nearly as much as the 4wd? Is it even possible to reasonably retrofit a trasfer case and front diff/axles on these?
The Focus stands on its own at that price, those hatches were great to drive and the yellow works. Not a fan of the wheels but they’re not garish either.
Possible but after the cost involved, not worth it. Probably better to find a 4WD one and maybe one where someone has already added a 2-3 inch lift and thicker skid/armor plating underneath.
Two colorful cars, nice. For me it’s the focus. 1rd, my brother told me he hates yellow cars after he saw my pickup, so time to double down. B: the Focus has a manual transmission. 3nd, The Toyota probably gets something like 12 mpg and I’m sure the suspension is shot, unless they’ve replaced it already.
I won’t trade my 1996 309k miles 4Runner for anything in the world, even though its cosmetics are held by rust (the frame is clean and dry though), but never in a thousand years would I settle for a 2WD one. Except maybe where that 2WD is sold.
In anything less than dry asphalt, the rear has zero traction – in the rain, I would drift getting out of my street if I had a locking rear diff (as of now, the inside wheel just pitifully screams bloody murder).
But in any hint of snow, the thing is close to unusable, unless I have the rear fully loaded. And my tires are good.
Love 3rd gen 4Runners, less so $7500 2WD ones.
My wife and I almost owned this gen of 4Runner (1999) as our first new car, though it would have been 4WD with a V6 and manual transmission. I almost voted that way purely for nostalgia, but couldn’t turn down a yellow manual hatch in good condition. We ended up buying a manual V6 Camry.
Paulina Porizkova apparently got two brand new ones stolen back to back. Maybe a wise choice you didn’t.
The manuallest and the yellowest!
Happy 20th, I hope you have many more! FYI, my wife had yesterday’s Nova when we got married, but it was white and maybe a couple of years newer? I don’t remember much about it, it wasn’t around long. But she still is! This was year 31 for us.
As for the cars, I voted Focus. I love a little run-about. Although the yellow isn’t for me. My son is in the 2001 version of this for his first car. It’s dark red, and we call her the “Cherry Bomb”.
My mum actually had the yellow Focus and it was very cool, although I seem to remember hers having four doors.
She eventually traded it in for a Focus ST, because by that point only the ST came with the manual transmission she wanted.
A 2WD 4Runner? What’s the point?
I’d go at least one generation older before I started considering a 4Runner, and even in a Toyota banging on the door of a quarter-million miles is starting to add question marks to a price tag north of $5000. It needs to be more special than this rig for that kind of money. This is just a Japanese Explorer, not special at all.
Happy aniversary, Mark! Enjoy your trip!
Also, the Focus is cooler.
I am among my yellow people!!!
Ugh. At the risk of losing friends here, that generation of Focus is… not to my taste. Never been a fan of taillights in the c-pillar, and on these car it looked extra awkward. Plus the horrid early 00’s trend of headlights that swooped up the hood like the car was making an ugly face at you was a turn-off for me. I’m sure it’s fun to drive and the color is awesome, but I’m going 4Runner because nope.
Yeah mechanically this “facelifted” Focus was superior but everything else was a downgrade IMO. That dash is straight out of Daimler-era Chrysler and the headlights never looked right to me.
If you’re not a fan of headlights climbing up the hood, the 2010s-2020s have been hard for you.
I remember thinking this when it first came out, but quickly grew to like it. Nowadays I’d consider this hatch one of the best applications of Ford’s new edge styling era, after the Cougar.
That last generation of the Cougar really was peak New Edge styling, but these Foci are right there in a by-the-nose finish. It was a solid transition away from the biomorphic blobbiness of Ford’s mid-‘90s products. The “everything lines up” nature of that sharp design language (I lump BMW’s “flame surfacing” in there too) was a period that definitely stood out. It was risky but cool and I enjoyed it.
This sounds like a rare “both” scenario
This was a legitimately tough choice. You just can’t go wrong with a 4Runner that hasn’t rotted out, but I also like those Foci.
In the end, I decided on the Toyota (a good 4Runner would sell quickly up here), but I had to think about it.
4WD yes.
Will a RWD 4Runner with almost 250K miles sell quickly at $7500? I can’t see it.
Yeah, I didn’t notice that pre-2nd coffee.
By the same token, cheaper than a new frame. And tailgate. And fenders. And bumpers. And….
Manual locks, crank window, manual trans….yellow… Who can ask for anything more?
20th is porcelain… happy anniversary!
I was not a fan of the looks of that generation of Focus, so I’m saying the 4Runner is cooler here. Part of that is based on the color and I’m ignoring price completely. If I was to be voting on which of these I would purchase now based on these prices? Ford all day. That Toyota is not worth that much money to me. Someone will pay it, but not me.
Funny craigslist dating story (also from about 20 years ago): I gave it a go just after I got a cell phone, which had the same area code as I grew up in. We exchanged an email or two, and things went well enough that I sent her my phone number. Except I mindlessly followed the area code with the same seven digits I’d been giving out for years. I got some shit for that by both her and my parents. There wasn’t a second date.
Congrats on 20 years, and I think your early lead in the poll is going to hold. The Focus is the better car, especially with the right number of pedals and with gas where it’s at!
Ford really nailed yellow back then. The golden (yellow?) age of Ford Foci. But then along came the DSG 6 and the rest is history. Sad.
Who had the cooler car, a Ford or an SUV. I guess the Focus?
This is the rare long-form captcha to prove you’re not a robot.
Toyota should’ve had the guts to give the 2wd 4Runner the low profile chassis, steelies and different sheetmetal of the 2wd pickups and build a low, basic “truck-wagon” instead of this showboat.
I like the Focus ZX5 better than the ZX3 but better than the sedan – line all four up and you can really tell all the other body styles were developed from the 5-door even though it appeared on the US market last.
But, yellow car > black car, manual > auto even in SoCal, 35 mpg > ~22 mpg ESPECIALLY in SoCal, and the $4500 difference in asking prices seals the deal for the Focus.
YELLOW FOCUS YELLOW FOCUS YELLOW FOCUS
The facelift made them worse
The manual is why it’s still running; the automatic would’ve died by now
The stereo probably got replaced after it ate one of their CD’s. Had to take the whole changer apart to get Yield back out of there.
These had conventional automatics, the PowerShit came later. The big problem with these mid-00s Foci is rust, probably not a concern with this California car.
The first-gen Foci were so innovative that even their conventional automatics died (relatively) young.
Wouldn’t this be a 2Runner? Honestly I didn’t even know they made the 4Runner in 2wd. In any case, I was prepared to go the 4Runner route till I saw the 2wd. That plus the auto kinda kills it for me. Crappy mileage, not terribly fun to drive and bad in the winter. The 240k isn’t’ great but these will generally run forever so it’s likely more than comparable to the 160k on the Focus. But still going Focus for cheaper, stick, mpg and generally more fun per mile.
The pedantic in me approves.
I usually like Toyotas but a 2wd 4runner is like an oxymoron.
Always mind the locus of your Focus.
If only 2WD better the manual with much better MPG. Focus today.