I've always liked them and wanted one...so...

I'm looking at a pretty bare bones SR5.  Definately the roof rack and maybe the third row seat.

6 vs 8.  Does the bigger engine have any real advantage for the everyday driver.  I'm not going to be climbing rocks in the thing.  Perhaps some soft off-roading, but I'm not going to tear the thing up.  

Reliability.  Like everyone else, I'd rather never see the dealer again after I buy the thing.  Toyotas have a good rep.  Is it justified?

Anything else I should be thinking about?

The V6 with this curb weight is a pig.
Get the V8. If you do some legwork you could get a dealer special
because the V8's are not big sellers. There was one here for 31K last Dec.
That was around 7K off MSRP. A bare bones 4 runner are
hard to find especially in a V8. You can't lose with a Toyota.
( USA's number leader in sales ) soon

They're nice, I researched them some when my mom was looking for an SUV, but my dad said it was too expensive and we got our TrailBlazer instead.

They're great.  Bought my wife one about a year ago.

Unless you tow a lot, go with the 6 for two reasons.  The 4.0l is plenty of power and gets better gas mileage than the 8.  On the 8, it is full time 4wd.  Not only does it make gas mileage worse but it also puts unnecessary wear on all those components.

Either way you can't go wrong.  You pay a little more now but you will get it back several times over on resale and repairs.

Wish Toyota would had left them as they originally were designed for. A Cherokee fighter, not another look-alike offroad (gravel only) SUV. Loved them when you could remove the top and drive around open air. They used to be able to go places most Jeeps could.

Sad to say Daimler now ruined the wranglers with the new 4 door version and longer 2dr one.