I’ll never stop referring to the 4Runner I no longer have as mine. I had it for a few years, I’ve done some pretty memorable camping trips with it, babied it for as long as I had it, and even though it now belongs to my dad it will be mine as long as it’s within the family.

The 4Runner obsession hasn’t left me either. I know pretty much all there’s to know about that specific 3rd generation model. I made a few small modifications to it such as clear lenses and an intake mod that gave it a few extra horsepower and made it sound like a beast. These mods are almost gone now, my pops didn’t appreciate the ‘beast’ sound and the horsepower, and Polish law required that I go back to orange lights for the turn signals. Come to think of it, it might have been illegal in the States as well to have clear turn signals all around. Thanks to a car robbery I experienced some years back where my stereo was stolen, I became an expert on taking the center console apart and just recently installed a Europe friendly stereo, one that scans all European FM stations and has an RDS readout for  text info a radio station wishes to share.

I’ve seen a couple other 4Runners around Wrocław, both were older models and not even close to the condition my southern California beauty is in. Just recently though my dad happened to park right next to another 4Runner and took some photos of this rare occurrence.

The model on the left seemed to be a limited version though it was missing the signage. But with painted bumpers, factory fender flares, and that fake air intake, it has all the limited add on’s. Not to mention that brush guard…while I know it was a dealer installed option for some I can’t imagine the original was really that ugly. One thing the ‘other’ did better was hide that big Polish square license plate. He squeezed it in there pretty well by actually cutting the plate and now my dad is on a mission to get a better fit as well. My parents saw from afar the driver of the other 4Runner and said he too spend some time looking ours over pointing out all the differences in the models to his wife. It’s a 4Runner perversion really.

Anyway, all this 4Runner talk made me miss it a little, enough to dig up some old photos to post.