The invisible Toyota 4Runner

I recently had to update my details with the roadside service I’ve used for years so they if the Stagea suddenly got hit by a meteorite out of town, I could get it towed back for free to someone with a hammer.

However after a quick phone call and the usual proof of ID check, they told me that they had me currently registered as owning…a Toyota 4Runner (aka a Hilux).

This of course is definitely news to me…

Now maybe for the past year there’s been some kind of psychedelic fog in this town that’s been playing funny buggers with my senses, but I swear that for the last year and a bit that the only Toyota I was rolling around in was a low to the ground Metallic Beige Twin Turbo Soarer:

Toyota 4runner
Not a 4runner

Which is too low to the ground, too unpractical and too vastly different for even a drunken blind Freddy to confuse for an actual Toyota 4Runner, which looks like thus:

A 4runner. Not to be confused with the blindingly similar Toyota Soarer.
A 4runner. Not to be confused with the blindingly similar Toyota Soarer.

Yet someone at Roadside HQ had put me down as owning a Toyota 4Runner and that was the car they’d have to fix it something went wrong. I could just picture the poor mobile mechanic arriving on the scene wondering where half the car went and why all of a sudden the turbo diesel had been replaced by a 1JZGTE.

“I see your problem mate, your entire tray has gone missing!”

I’m assuming that it must have been a computer error as 4Runner usually appears at the top of Toyota model lists while Soarer is miles down it but still..I’m thankful there wasn’t an emergency and roadside assist refused me assistance due to ‘Who are you kidding, that gold import thing is as far away from a practical 4WD as you could get!’

Luckily the woman I spoke to on the phone was very helpful and after a bit of a chuckle of never owning anything near as practical as a Toyota 4Runner, I got to the business of registering the Nissan Stagea in it’s place. She’s assured me that this time around it’s under the correct name which probably means if I do have a problem that does need a roadside remedy, the mechanic will probably be rolling up looking for something like this:

Not a 4runner

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