S-No Fear This Winter If Your’e Driving A Prepper’s Toyota 4Runner

I used to get wound up about the terrible state of my local roads, but having just returned from a vacation to Costa Rica I never will again. I can’t speak for the whole of the country, but while the pavement in the central area around San Jose is fine, the streets on the southern tip of the Nicoya peninsula on the Pacific side are Third World-grade.

My Airbnb host had warned me to book an all-wheel drive car because the driveway was so steep but the guy at the Avis desk tried to fob me off with a non-Quattro Audi Q3, insisting it was four-wheel drive. I had to go full-dad mode and climb under the rear to demonstrate the lack of rear driveshafts in order to get the AWD Nissan X-Trail/Rogue I’d been promised.

The X-Trail managed the driveway (though only with the AWD system engaged and locked at 50:50), and just about coped with the multiple river crossings and mud-slide hill descents that seem totally normal in a Costa Rican journey. But if I ever moved there, I’d want to have something like this take-no-prisoners Toyota 4Runner as my sidekick.

Related: Toyota’s Retro FJ Cruiser Is Getting As Collectable As The Classic FJ Trucks That Inspired It

Looking about the meanest thing currently on offer on the entirety of Bring-a-Trailer, this 2017 4Runner has been heavily modified to make it faster and tougher both on and off road. The 4.0-liter V6 now has a supercharger and breathes through an ARB Safari snorkel, while the body is lifted on King shocks and Old Man Emu springs over 18-inch Volks Racing wheels wrapped in 35-inch BF Goodrich All-Terrain rubber.

Other kit to keep you going through any coming apocalypse includes a Warn winch, a Baja Designs light bar, a 20-gallon water tank with heaters, an air compressor, a refrigerator, a stove, and a full camp kitchen.

The icing on the cake is the license plate, which reads “LOL SNOW”, presumably a reference to the trucks go-anywhere capability, though it could be just as easily seen as a nod to the car’s location in Tustin, California. The last time I was in Orange County I don’t remember it feeling particularly wintry, though the great thing about California is you’re never too far from an entirely different kind of terrain.

If you’re worried about inclement weather this winter, are suspicious that your neighbors might turn into zombies or just want to clear your lane of traffic when you appear in rear view mirrors on the commute to work, get your bids in here before the auction ends on Tuesday.