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Essentially a 15-year-old truck with Apple CarPlay, the 4Runner still serves its purpose perfectly.
Once upon a time, the SUV market mostly meant pickup trucks with enclosed beds. I grew up in one, a third-generation Toyota 4Runner with the roll-down rear window so our dogs could stick their tongues out at boxy Volvo station wagons in the rearview.
In today's era of unibody crossovers (not to mention unibody trucks), consumers can count the number of true body-on-frame SUVs still available new on one hand. But few brands stick with the same tried-and-true recipe (some might call outdated) in quite the same fashion as Toyota with the fifth-generation 4Runner. Yep, you read that right: in the 25 years since my dad bought a used 4Runner, Toyota only introduced two subsequent model generations. Whether the pandemic pushed off the sixth-gen or Toyota decided that a fleet of Priuses outweighs the terrible fuel economy of their bread-and-butter sales stalwart remains a moot point—the 4Runner looks here to stay, likely even for 2023.
Market demand only supports the decision, since even the maxed-out 4Runner in TRD Pro trim became unobtainium over the past few years, despite massive dealer markups. So, given my own nostalgia for the '90s (which I live out everyday in my Gen-2.5 Mitsubishi Montero) and the unbelievable price tags buyers happily pay for what is, essentially, a 15-year old truck with Apple CarPlay, I found myself very excited to climb behind the wheel and actually take a 2022 out for some serious off-roading.
My 4Runner loaner arrived as I was working on the Montero, actually, replacing a gritty rear door latch right on the edge of failure. That bright green paint caught my eye immediately, seeming to highlight all the worst aspects of the fifth-gen's angular design. OEMs always send the most arresting colors but to me, a 4Runner in what Toyota calls Magnetic Gray Metallic looks best. Instead, the shade aptly named Lime Rush managed to rush me straight back to the 1990s yet again, a trusty old friend from an era when Coca-Cola decided to edge in on the Mountain Dew market with an even more extreme soda called Surge (given nostalgia's eminent marketability on social media these days, perhaps the fact that Surge recently reappeared should have come as less of a surprise—and perhaps I should have brought some with me on my trip).
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Obviously, that Lime Rush needed a quick coating of grit and grime before my neighbors could start judging me (more than they already do, anyway, since I am the guy who street parked a Lamborghini that wouldn't fit in my garage, after all). And to be entirely fair, when I climbed out of the 4Runner on a dry lakebed near Johnson Valley and looked back, the TRD skid plate, Nitto Terra Grappler all-terrains, roof rack, and black trim suddenly came together and helped the truck's more aggressive details look right at home in an off-roaders native habitat.
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Otherwise, the 4Runner's design sticks with a tried-and-true simplicity, focused on the actual use-case that Toyota bills as the aging model's key sales points. The tactile knobs and textured surfaces pair with a perfectly thick steering wheel rim and even a touchscreen, resulting in an interior that I actually enjoyed more than the two six-figure Lexuses I drove over the past couple of months. And even with markups on top of the $52,920 MSRP, a TRD Pro will never approach the sticker of an LC 500 or RC F Fuji Speedway Edition—and neither of those luxury vehicles come equipped with a touchscreen, not even one as small or pixelated as the 4Runner's.
A beefy gear selector and svelte transfer case shift knob all add to the purpose-built aesthetic. I even scooted the seat up and forward a bit on the trail to improve my view over the hood without econountering any concern for head or legroom.
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Four-wheeling fans who avoid those unibodies always happily extol the benefits of body-on-frame trucks, especially with regards to solid axles and enhanced articulation. Sure, a Wrangler or Gladiator might eschew even independent front suspension but the 4Runner makes such a sacrifice in the name of daily driveability—perhaps one of the only such considerations that appeared early in the model's nearly 40-year history. Compared to my Montero, though, this 4Runner drives much more solidly on pavement thanks to a more modern suspension system, even if the ground clearance actually left me a bit surprised when I skidded off the aluminum underbody protection much more often than expected.
Even more surprisingly, the 4Runner TRD Pro comes without an option that appears on the lower-priced TRD Off-Road trim: disconnecting sway bars, which would further enhance the articulation and prevent even more sway on rutted roads. Then again, lifting a TRD Pro or adding bigger tires actually becomes more difficult with Toyota's Kinetic Dynamic Suspension System (KDSS), it turns out.
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Still, as I focused on the 4Runner's body roll and bump absorption, the lack of impacts large and smal stood out. Those 2.5-inch Fox internal-bypass shocks, with piggybacks at the rear to help with the added strain of a heavy live axle, perform almost perfectly—but don't go thinking the 4Runner might have anything near the performance of today's more advanced adaptive or electronically adjustable suspension systems.
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Most SUV advertising tends to focus on high-speed desert running, probably because all that sand and dust spraying everywhere looks far more dynamic on-screen than crawling slowly over a technical rock formation. And so, on the dry lakebed, I tried to get the 4Runner's 4.0-liter V6 revved up as high as possible by using the Tiptronic gear selections and turning off traction control. 'Good luck with that,' the ECU seemed to say, switching the traction control right back on at the first moment of tail-happy slippage. Oh well.
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Toyota's efforts to keep the 4Runner relevant include adding wired Apple CarPlay and a few off-roading features accessible via dials and switches in the ceiling for various drive modes, hill-descent control speed, and a locking rear diff. But after activating the hill-descent function, instead of engine braking down even moderately steep segments, I discovered that the brakes just shuddering uncontrollably, seeming to produce more slips than I created by popping into four-low and using the Tiptronic shifter to lock the transmission in first. Multi-Terrain select only appeared to affect throttle response and traction control settings, meanwhile. At least the rolldown rear window worked just as perfectly as I remembered, allowing me to vent some heat when I turned off my cameras.
And after all, this exact kind of analog driving experience shines through as the 4Runner's entire life purpose, providing plenty of off-roading capability without the frills and gadgets that disconnect (pun fully intended) driver from terrain. Yes, you might need to two-foot drive if you want to avoid losing engine speed. And yes, that can be fun, too!
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With plenty of cargo space for gear, rear seats that recline an awful lot, and little welcome details like the small trays atop the rear wheel wells, the 4Runner serves perfectly for hauling friends, family, and all the gear around town and on the trail. Unfortunately, the underpowered drivetrain makes driving from town to the trail something of a slog, but at least we can all get comfortable while struggling to cruise at 80 miles per hour.
With each passing year, the 4Runner grows even more outdated. Bronco adds the Raptor trim, Jeep adds the Wrangler's 392ci V8, and the resurgent breed of mid-size trucks like the Chevy Colorado and Ford Ranger add fun off-roading variants that look perfect to the overlanding crowd. And yet, nothing quite like the 4Runner survives on the market today. Simple, reliable, guaranteed to avoid steep deprecation, and happily hauling around the many decades of heritage that made this truck such a worldwide success, Toyota's long-tenured 4Runner still gets the job done. Hopefully, the next generation can do the same.
Sources: toyota.com, apple.com, youtube.com, surge.com, nitto.com,
Michael Van Runkle grew up surrounded by Los Angeles car culture, going to small enthusiast meets and enormous industry shows. He learned to drive stick shift in a 1948 Chevy pickup with no first gear and currently dailies his 1998 Mitsubishi Montero while daydreaming about one day finishing up that Porsche 914 project. He's written in various media since graduating from UC Berkeley in 2010 and started at HotCars in February 2018.