I'm back...
After your honest advise I tried to find a 4runner. I was ready to buy this 2001 with 77k miles on it but when the mechanic put it on the lift it had such bad rust (I'm in the North-East) that he said, and I quote, "Don't even think about it".... wow.
This is the third 4 runner, and the one with the least miles, I have seen and they all had rust issues which caused me to give them up. I then decided to raise my budget and look at newer models but a 2005-6 4runner can run me close to 13k around here.... quite hefty.
So I am now again thinking about getting a pathfinder. Specifically the 2004 model. As my original post mentioned: I have two things in mind - ground clearance and cargo space. 2004 pathfinder has a quite more cargo space than the 4runner (seems odd no?) per edmunds: 85 vs 75 CU
Then the only thing I need to find out is the ground clearance. A stock pathy might be good enough... I will know once I take it to my land and see if my belly scratches the ground like my funny 2003 outlander does.
In case it does, and I need to lift, I wanted to ask - in case some new things came out that my search won't pick up on...
What lift can I do that will maintain the best / most comfortable ride while allow me to put much bigger tires?
PS.
Sorry for my lack of knowledge but - what does it mean that the pathy has a lot less aftermarket support? what does ti mean and why is that not good?