My '98 100 is my wife's daily driver and has been for over seven years. We bought it in early 2000 with 18k miles on the ticker and it now has 122k. It has been very reliable. I have performed routine maintenance as recommended in the owner's manual either at a Toyota dealership or the work has been done at home by my good buddy who is a Toyota mechanic. I have had no major unjustified repairs to speak of. I have replaced brake pads only twice in 122k miles. Overall, I am beyond impressed with this rig. It has served us very well. We have three boys (6 year old and 3 year old twins) and the rig has held its own against their unyielding abuse. Here's the story of my 100's evolution:
We drove the 100 in basically stock form for the first four years we owned it. We enjoyed taking it offroad and did some fun trails with it while stock including Elephant Hill in Moab. The only serious trail damage was to the stock running boards, which I beat back into shape with a hammer after every trip offroad. In early 2004 I was headed home to Salt Lake from Las Vegas on a Sunday afternoon. The car had four adult passengers in it, all of whom were wearing seatbelts. As we were headed up and over a mild mountain pass on the interstate, a Subaru Forester that was about 100 yards ahead of us and in the next lane over started spinning out of control. After doing several 360s, the Subaru appeared to be headed off the right shoulder and over the embankment. Because I assumed the road was icy, I did not want to apply the brake so I took my foot off the accelerator and moved all the way to the left emergency lane. We were traveling about 70 mph as we approached the Subaru, which was about 40 feet to the right of us. At the last second, the spinning Subaru caught traction with its driver's side tires and shot backwards straight across all of the freeway lanes and ended up right in front of us. We nailed the right rear of the Subaru doing about 70 and basically tore the back half off of the Subaru. The front half of the Subaru swung around 270 degrees and hit us again in the right rear quarter panel. Fortunately, the Subaru had only a driver (19 year old girl headed back to college after being home for the weekend) and no other passengers, and she was seatbelted and survived with a few minor scrapes and bruises. Everyone in my car was fine. The resulting damage to the 100 cost about 18k to repair and started me on the road to many great modifications. Amazingly, we drove it home from the accident, about 200 more miles.
We drove the 100 in basically stock form for the first four years we owned it. We enjoyed taking it offroad and did some fun trails with it while stock including Elephant Hill in Moab. The only serious trail damage was to the stock running boards, which I beat back into shape with a hammer after every trip offroad. In early 2004 I was headed home to Salt Lake from Las Vegas on a Sunday afternoon. The car had four adult passengers in it, all of whom were wearing seatbelts. As we were headed up and over a mild mountain pass on the interstate, a Subaru Forester that was about 100 yards ahead of us and in the next lane over started spinning out of control. After doing several 360s, the Subaru appeared to be headed off the right shoulder and over the embankment. Because I assumed the road was icy, I did not want to apply the brake so I took my foot off the accelerator and moved all the way to the left emergency lane. We were traveling about 70 mph as we approached the Subaru, which was about 40 feet to the right of us. At the last second, the spinning Subaru caught traction with its driver's side tires and shot backwards straight across all of the freeway lanes and ended up right in front of us. We nailed the right rear of the Subaru doing about 70 and basically tore the back half off of the Subaru. The front half of the Subaru swung around 270 degrees and hit us again in the right rear quarter panel. Fortunately, the Subaru had only a driver (19 year old girl headed back to college after being home for the weekend) and no other passengers, and she was seatbelted and survived with a few minor scrapes and bruises. Everyone in my car was fine. The resulting damage to the 100 cost about 18k to repair and started me on the road to many great modifications. Amazingly, we drove it home from the accident, about 200 more miles.