Viggen, I am sorry man, but I just don't drink the Toyota cool-aid. Yes, they are great trucks, amazing actually, but to me they are not worth that much more monetary. If we go into detail: the 6 cyl engine of the 4th Geh 4Runner is known to blow head gaskets and wrap the aluminum head. The 8 cyl. ones have the well documented 4x4 actuator problem. Both are well known and expensive issues. Now, does that make the 4Runner bad/unreliable? No, I do not think so, in fact I very much like them. But for the price of a manual 1999 4Runner with 220K km I got a manual 2005 base Xterra with 129K km. This I like much better. So far (1.5 years and over 30K km) it has been great, not sure what will happen in the future but so far I am happy. The fix for the strawberry milkshake is the same for both, equally cheap. The timing chain tensioners are replaced fairly easy and the problem in my opinion has been exaggerated.
Anyhow, to each their own, Toyota's are great trucks, take nothing away from them, they are just not the only great trucks out there. Cheers