[blackknight03]

Hey guys... i'm actually usually on the Nissan truck forum here but I am planning on Purchasing a 4 runner here in the very near future. I have an 03 Desert Runner Frontier pick-up and I love it. But I am graduating from College in December and am going to move to an area that gets more snow and so on. So I am planning to make the switch to a 4x4 SUV (so I can have room for 4 people and my dog doesn't have to ride shotgun!) I was going to wait for the 05 pathfinder but it's taking to long to come out and Toyota has a really good grad deal on the 04 4-Runners.

I'm actually working on an 04 Sport Edition 4x4 v6 White w/ Sunroof. My main thing I don't like about shopping for Toyotas is that all of them on the lot have 1000-2000 dollars worth of dealer add-ons (Extra mile packages, paint protection, etc) all the stuff that car sites tell you are waste of money. Anybody know how to get around this? I'm also torn between the v8/5spd Auto (rarer in the Sports) or the v6/4spd Auto. I don't tow a whole lot but I'm kind of curious as to what the MPG real world differences are between the two. Driving them back to back I can tell the v8 is little smoother and faster but even v6 hauled from a dead stop. Is it worth the price difference to step up to the v8? Any other pros or cons I should consider? Thanks for any help!

Later,