#Toyota4Runner

You’d have been easily forgiven if you believed Toyota would never update the 4Runner, but here we are, 15 years after the current model debuted, talking about an all-new SUV. The 2025 4Runner represents a significant step forward for the legendary off-roader, and despite what you might think about turbos and hybrid powertrains, it looks absolutely legit.

The current Toyota 4Runner has been on sale long enough that it’s almost old enough to drive itself, but the automaker is finally giving us an update for the 2025 model year. In addition to an expected move to an available hybrid powertrain for the iconic off-roader, it will also get a roll-down rear window and a significantly upgraded infotainment system. Toyota hasn’t slowed the drip of teases leading up to the official reveal, and the latest confirms that we’ll see a new Trailhunter trim similar to the one offered for the 2024 Tacoma.

Vehicle launches happen all the time. But only a select few seem to be highly anticipated.

Any time the Ford Mustang or Chevrolet Corvette gets updated, for example. Or something bread and butter like the Honda Accord or Toyota Camry.

Another example -- the return of the Ford Bronco in 2021.

Today we bring you a very clean-looking 1999 Toyota 4Runner SR5.

Today's UCOTD is a pure off-road rig. It's a 1993 Toyota 4Runner SR5 with a new engine.

The Toyota 4Runner may be a formidable off-roader with legendary capability and longevity, but the fifth-generation model introduced way back in 2009 is far from modern or refined. That won’t change for 2024, as Toyota is not giving the 4Runner a makeover like it did the Sequoia, Tacoma, and Tundra. 

Today's UCOTD is a project vehicle, no doubt. That said, someone who snags this non-running 1988 Toyota 4Runner V6 could end up with a delightful off-road rig if he or she has the time and money to get it all fixed up.

Just about every automaker has committed itself to going “all-electric” at some point in the next decade, and whether you think that’s a good thing or a bad thing, it means that the internal combustion engine (“ICE”, for the purposes of this article) is dead tech walking. Death and discontinuation are usually one-way tickets to the scrap heap for cars – but some cars are different. Some cars are special, and being made rare or obsolete just makes them more appealing.

The Great Jack Baruth once called this The Grand National Problem, and I think there are a few ICE cars out there that will be more appealing to car guys and gals than others in 20- or 30-years’ time. As such, I’ve taken some time to look at the automotive class of 2022 and pick my 5 future ICE Age Classics. Enjoy!

Toyota is updating the 2020 4Runner with more safety tech, infotainment options, and a compelling new trim. Based on the TRD Off-Road Premium trim, the 4Runner Venture Edition ditches the chrome to furnish customers with the ever-popular blacked-out experience. Mirrors, door handles, badging, and rear spoiler are all swapped for the darkest hue available.

The rest of the package plays to the body-on-frame 4Runner’s strengths. Toyota has fitted a Yakima Megawarrior roof rack as standard equipment as the vehicle’s crown jewel. Venture Editions also receive gunmetal 17-inch TRD wheels, while removing all other exterior references to Toyota Racing Development. The manufacturer suggests this provides the trim with “a cool, minimalist look,” and we find it difficult to disagree.

What’s the matter with the car I’m driving? / Can’t you tell that it’s out of style? / -Billy Joel

William Martin Joel might’ve been on to something here. Late last week, while behind the wheel of a new 4Runner, I was reminded of just how much I like the thing, despite its prehistoric infotainment system and Ralph Kramden driving position. Plenty of others seem to agree, as Toyota has no trouble moving them off dealer lots.

Then I realized something mildly startling — this isn’t the first slightly-outta-date new vehicle that I thought was the bee’s knees.

It’ll be a sad day when Toyota parts ways with the 4Runner SUV, but at the present moment there’s no plan to strike the long-running, body-on-frame model from the lineup. You will, however, pay more to get behind the wheel of the 2019 4Runner’s ballsiest variant.

At the extreme opposite end of the size scale, Toyota wants to make it cheaper to bring home a Toyota that’s actually a Mazda.

The old mining track descends from the shattered and tilted tablelands toward an imposing palisade of Wingate sandstone running to the horizon in each direction. This is one of the more dramatic and violent geologic upheavals on the Colorado Plateau and the road across it isn’t kind.

Sunbaked boom-time miners once hacked out jeep tracks across this wilderness, scouring for uranium to feed America’s nuclear frenzy. Only a few made it big, but if there ever was a more intriguing landscape in which to lose your mind seeking fortune, I’d like to see it. We’re here for lighter reasons, though, blithely rolling over rocks and ruts that would have halted most CUVs miles before, dropping into steep wash crossings that would stub the long front overhang of an Outback, and confidently inching up a stepped bedrock shelf that would trouble the long wheelbase of a full-size pickup.

The Rare Rides series has had a couple of bouts with ancient, excellent condition Toyotas in the Tercel Wagon and 4Runner. Today, we have a look at a little orange truck which pre-dates either of those.

It’s a Pickup, from way back in 1983.

The Rare Rides Pristine Vintage Toyota Precedent (RRPVTP) was set a few weeks ago, when we featured a Tercel 4WD Wagon. Then, Matthew Guy happened to present the redesigned 1990 Toyota 4Runner in his Ace of Base segment. This seemed a very timely coincidence, as a few days before we’d received a Rare Rides tip from commenter StephenT: a 4Runner of the first generation, lovingly maintained and for sale in Alabama.

You don’t see them like this very often.

It’s leg day at the Toyota Athletic Center. As the Chicago Auto Show kicks off, Toyota has changes in store for its off-road TRD Pro lineup that should help drivers of the brawniest Tacomas, Tundras, and 4Runners keep their sunglasses perched on their nose while blasting through an arroyo.

For the 2019 model year, the same 2.5-inch Fox internal bypass shocks found on the existing Tacoma TRD Pro make their way into the full-size Tundra and midsize 4Runner SUV, along with other suspension improvements. The net effect is a higher ride height and milder manners both on-road and off.

In the case of the Tacoma, going TRD Pro means you’ll never leave home without your snorkel.