Thoughts on Selling my Sport

[PirateMcGee]

Looking for some thoughts/advice.

Randomly put my 01 Sport up for sale on CL for $5000 to see if I got any bites. I now have several serious buyers at full price.....

-Quick basics:
01 3.5XS
Consistent 18-22mpg
2 owner
Very clean inside and out
No rust
141,000 miles
265/75r16s
Manual Aisin Hubs
Very up to date on maintenance (really overly done) and has every record since new of meticulous care
Zero issues ever

My question is what would you guys do?
-Sell it?
-Keep it till it dies?

It's in great shape with lots of good memories but it's a bit small inside with camping gear and a Golden Retriever that take up the back seat plus a Terrier. I know it won't last forever so I thought about selling it and buying a 3rd gen Montero with the 3.8 or a Tacoma while it still has good value left in it.

$5000 is a lot more than these typically go for so I feel like I should take it and run but on the other hand I can't find anything close to as nice for that price except for a 3rd gen Montero.....

 

[plh]

You are pretty well sorted, so its definitely a difficult choice.

 

[jeep-N-montero]

Take the money and buy two gen 2/2.5's or a really nice gen 3.

 

[lordtrunks]

Your sport sounds like its rock solid reliable why not just buy a camp trailer keep your gear in there and you'll gain space back.

 

[PirateMcGee]

Your sport sounds like its rock solid reliable why not just buy a camp trailer keep your gear in there and you'll gain space back.

That's the other thought. Probably either the Chesapeake Light Craft Teardrop kit or a Dinoot with a RTT.

 

[Toasty]

Cut the roof off and install a camper body! Problem solved.

 

[Toasty]

Now you're the second person to have gotten a cut the roof off of your Sport from me this week!

 

[normal_dave]

Tough call Pirate, Since I have both, I'll chime in.

I like both, but if I could only have one, it would be the Gen 3 Montero. Wife loves the '03 Sport Limited, but it is 2WD. If both sets of keys were on the table, always the Gen 3 Montero for me. So there!

On the other hand, that is one sweet Sport you have there, I would think difficult to find an equally good condition maintained Gen 3.

 

[coffeegoat]

I guess a better question is what do you want to do this spring/summer? If you pick up a new rig, of any kind, odds are it will not be "built" to your satisfaction, and if it's a monty, it probably won't even have the maintenance all done. This means your nights and weekends will be filled with amazon and rock auto orders, grease monkey work, and tinkering with much less time actually out playing with it. Even with a light build, with maintenance catch up, there will be a bunch of hours spent on working on the truck unless you spend a ton more than you'll get for the sport. If you're looking for a new project this might be perfect, if you just want a reliable and usable rig immediately it totally changes things.

Unless you get really lucky with a purchase of a well kept Gen 2-3 Montero that's ready to go, it's going to be time intensive to switch rigs. Conversely buying a trailer camper is basically turn key, you already have the rig setup the way you like it and you just need more space. I think I personally underestimated just how many hours it takes to get a rig to the place where I'm personally satisfied with it's reliability and finish, I've still got tons of details I need to take care of but just haven't had the time to do it yet... It's easy to look at the bottom line dollar amount because it's a single number, when you factor in the effort/patience it certainly changes the equation.

 

[PirateMcGee]

Good thoughts guys. I appreciate the discussion.

 

[Toasty]

Having owned every type and generation of Montero available stateside (and one import) and one coil sprung Montero Sport I'll say the Gen 2/2.5 is hard to beat by a lot. A nice well maintained Gen 2 is near impossible to get, Still some good Gen 3's out there though. I'm probably going to sell mine after less than a year of ownership, just not living up to my expectations as far as being a Montero goes. It's a better built rig than my Lexus Gx470 but it's equally bad offroad, I don't mean it's not capable it's just traction control is no replacement for a locking diff and these newer machines don't have the "truck" feel (rack and pinion for one, IRS for two, unibody for three). Not a fan, LOVE the 3.8 and 5 speed though! If I could go back to when I bought the Gen 3 I would have bought another Outlander GT, It's a smaller rig but I liked our Outlander better than the GX470 and the Gen 3. Not a great offroad machine but it made up for it in other areas of usefulness.

 

[PirateMcGee]

Ya the outlander is really nice. I could put a huge down on an outlander but the clearance concerns me.

 

[newworld2004]

Take the money and buy two gen 2/2.5's or a really nice gen 3.

I Agree.

 

[Toasty]

Ya the outlander is really nice. I could put a huge down on an outlander but the clearance concerns me.

Stock the Outlander ground clearance is 8.5" and the Gen 3 is 8.6"

 

[PirateMcGee]

And approach/departure. Also not sure if Outlander has min of 8.5 or max