2025 Toyota 4Runner Officially Teased
Toyota has officially previewed the redesigned 4Runner for the first time via Instagram. But the photo in question doesn’t offer much information beyond the model wearing its name at the bottom of the rear hatch and getting some new taillights. There’s likewise a contrasting bumper, which may just end up being an option. However, Toyota offering up a teaser for the 2025 model year should also indicate that the much-anticipated SUV’s formal debut is likely right around the corner.
A new 4Runner is a pretty big deal, as it’s one of those Toyota products with incredibly loyal customers and an extremely long lifecycle. The last time we saw an entirely new example of the model was 2009. While reviewers have started to bemoan the SUV as feeling quite dated, there’s a reason the manufacturer has been hesitant to issue an update.
Toyota fans come in a variety of flavors. But the convictions of the truly faithful often stem from prior ownership of a Toyota product that simply refused to succumb to old age. While this has helped a brand that primarily manufacturers comparatively basic vehicles develop a die-hard fanbase, it also makes every it a minor gamble whenever it deploys new technologies or decides to issue a redesign. In fact, the company itself is notoriously adverse to making sweeping changes for this very reason. Toyota is absolutely obsessed with quality control because it knows its customers have emotional attachments to vehicles that are often decades old.
That logic certainly doesn’t apply to all Toyota models, especially those that have proven to be no-more reliable than what’s available from its rivals. But it does apply to models like the Camry, Corolla, Highlander, and 4Runner.
While your author has seen a prototype of the new 4Runner in the wilds near Toyota’s R&D center, the vehicle itself remains a mystery due to the fact that it was heavily camouflaged. But the vehicle will clearly continue boasting lofty approach and departure angles with plenty of ground clearance. Platform sharing with the current Tacoma pickup also appears to be a given, though that’s based more on assumptions and leaks coming from within the company.
Assuming the Tacoma relationship is maintained, it’s assumed that a turbocharged 2.4-liter four-cylinder engine (offering somewhere in the neighborhood of 250 horsepower) will be the base powertrain. A substantially more powerful hybrid variant is presumed for higher trims. All-wheel drive is assured. But which nifty off-road features that accompany the system will be determined by trim levels.
The SUV is supposed to be revealed later this year and the teaser would suggest that date is coming sooner than later. The starting MSRP is assumed to ballpark somewhere around $42,000.
[Images: Toyota]
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A staunch consumer advocate tracking industry trends and regulation. Before joining TTAC, Matt spent a decade working for marketing and research firms based in NYC. Clients included several of the world’s largest automakers, global tire brands, and aftermarket part suppliers. Dissatisfied with the corporate world and resentful of having to wear suits everyday, he pivoted to writing about cars. Since then, that man has become an ardent supporter of the right-to-repair movement, been interviewed on the auto industry by national radio broadcasts, driven more rental cars than anyone ever should, participated in amateur rallying events, and received the requisite minimum training as sanctioned by the SCCA. Handy with a wrench, Matt grew up surrounded by Detroit auto workers and managed to get a pizza delivery job before he was legally eligible. He later found himself driving box trucks through Manhattan, guaranteeing future sympathy for actual truckers. He continues to conduct research pertaining to the automotive sector as an independent contractor and has since moved back to his native Michigan, closer to where the cars are born. A contrarian, Matt claims to prefer understeer — stating that front and all-wheel drive vehicles cater best to his driving style.
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It's one thing to stay tried and true to loyal past customers; you'll ensure a stream of revenue from your installed base- maybe every several years or so.
It's another to attract net-new customers, who are dazzled by so many other attractive offerings that have more cargo capacity than that high-floored 4-Runner bed, and are not so scrunched in scrunchy front seats.
Like with the FJ Cruiser: don't bother to update it, thereby saving money while explaining customers like it that way, all the way into oblivion. Not recognizing some customers like to actually have right rear visibility in their SUVs.
I suppose we will have another few dozen Teeyoda Foreskin spy shots coming.