My Favorite Ride: So many Toyotas, so many miles for Bloomington man

This week’s over-250,000-miles-on-the-odometer and older-than-20-years and still-on-the-road vehicle is Marty Schilke’s 1995 Toyota 4Runner.

Purchased brand new at Bloomington’s Royal Toyota, this nearly 30-year-old, full-sized SUV still looks pretty good. Schilke replaced the “very rusted” tailgate seven years ago, as well as the bumpers when rust started eroding the metal.

The 1995 model replaced a1986 4Runner, “which I wish we had kept,” Schilke lamented.

He sent me a badly lit photo of the odometer at 253,646. And counting, because this is his daily driver after all these years. “I still love it,” he said. “Runs like new.”

For the first 15 years or so, the 4Runner got parked in the garage. But over time, it spent more and more time in the driveway and has been mostly parked outside the past decade. Other than the rust issues, the 4Runner is pretty pristine. “The driver’s seat shows wear,” he said, “and I don't see as well over the dash anymore. Maybe old age has shrunk me a bit.”

All repairs are done at Beck Toyota in Indianapolis, where the SUV has undergone just two timing belt replacements — the last one at 170,000 miles, so the next one is due. He got an estimate — $754 plus the cost of parts. He also suspects a rear main seal is leaking oil and fixing that will cost $1,000 plus parts.

Expenses like this are just part of maintaining a vehicle, an investment in the future, so it doesn’t break down. This I know well.

Schilke is moving to Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, and the 4Runner will be relocating as well. He figures the repairs can be made there.

“It may just make the drive as is later this summer. It will be fine,” he said. “It's just 10 hours.”

He knows of a few other 4Runners like his around town. A South Washington Street resident parks one near the closed Arby’s, there’s a resorted one on Dodds Street and someone uses one to haul a trailer with yard-mowing equipment. "And there used to be a red one parked on South College on Fridays about noon where Miss Piggy’s used to be.”

All are 1995s, the last year the 4Runner had a tailgate that folds down like a station wagon. In 1996, he said, the tailgate became a hatch.

The Schilke family is partial to Toyotas, including two other 4Runners: a 2007 totaled in a 2016 crash and a 2012 that's nearing 220,000 miles. They just put in an order for a 2024 model. There have been two 1992 Supras, one for him and one for his son; a 1986 Celica GT and a 2000 Tacoma pickup he said “was recalled for rust and crushed.”

He also owned a 1991 Camry that still ran like new, he said, at 281,000 miles. “I never missed an oil change, every 3,000 miles. The kids didn't want to use it anymore. No one would buy it, so I donated it to a charity.”

An old well-maintained Camry with a solid oil change history? Marty, I would have bought that car in a minute. This news bodes well for my 2001 Camry, which has 250,712 miles on it.

Schilke also owned a 1972 Toyota Hilux, a pickup with a distinct-looking front end featuring a thin strip of grated metal above the headlights.

Toyota first manufactured the Hilux in 1968. In 1971, the company started shipping the truck chassis — minus the bed — from Japan to a plant in California, where a bed was attached before the truck went to dealerships. Word is this allowed Toyota to avoid a hefty small-truck tariff in place at the time.

Last week's column:My Favorite Ride: This 1989 Oldsmobile hearse 'floats down the road' current owner says

The hearse — sold!

In other auto-related news, Steven Toth no longer owns the 1989 Oldsmobile hearse featured as My Favorite Ride last week. ​“I sold the hearse the other day when we talked and they picked it up yesterday evening,” Toth said in an email. He sold it to a mother-daughter team in Bloomington. Surely one of them will contact me with the story.

Have a story to tell about a car or truck? Contact My Favorite Ride reporter Laura Lane at llane@heraldt.com or 812-318-5967.