Choosing between two 4Runner 3rd gens, advice?

The time is finally drawing near.

There are two prospects that I may purchase:

1.) A green 1996 with 33" tires, a dumb looking carbon fiber hood, but the factory rear locker. 260k miles. $6900

2.) A silver 1999 with stock tires, no diff lock, but it has the multi mode center diff. 315k miles. $4400

No rust / very minimal light rust.

Both of the 4runners have clean carfax's, appear to need a rear axle reseal, no and have timing belt stickers. Small negatives that can be fixed.

The 1996's brakes have just about given up the ghost and barely stop her. She also has the 33" tires but there's no guarantee that the speedometer was recalibrated for such so it may be off. It does have new front leather seats...but I hate leather and will be switching to cloth.
The 99 seems to drive better in every way but appears to have a valve cover leak. The leather seats are worn. Again, all fixable.

Both 4runners seem to shift fine enough, I'm sure they'll become butter smooth with new fluid. The 99 felt like she had more power, but that may or may not have been due to the hard throttle on the 96, probably needs to be cleaned/lubricated.

The 99 had no issues locking into 4 high/low. Although a bit of gentle rolling was needed to get full time 4wd locked. I feel like this might be normal, a quick drive in full-time 4 wheel drive mode gave no indication of issues.

As of now... I'm leaning to the 99... Opinions?

 

96’ got my vote but you can’t really judge without looking at the vehicles in person

 

Okay gotcha, what is your reasoning? (Not arguing just curious)

 

Dependent on where you from, issues like frame rust can be a hidden nightmare if you don’t inspect the under carriage of the frame.

 

Neither of them seemed to really have any rust, or extremely minimal light rust. of course whichever one I pick I will have checked out by a mechanic to get a full report before I buy it

 

Yeah definitely. There’s always a certain degree of gambling when it comes to buying a used vehicle but that’s just the nature of the beast. Just gotta donehat you can can at the time of the buy and hope for the best