I am a soon to be 4 Runner owner and waiting for the 05 to come out. I love this forumn and have been reading the discussions for months now. Is the Limited the only one i can get the leather power seats in? The sport has everything i (my wife) wants. Anyhelp??

yea only the limited come stock with leather, but sometime dealer will have leather install in an SE or SR5 and sell it as a $1500 option. If you want power/heated seat you have to get the limited. I got leather in my 04 SE w/ out power.

Thank for the quick reply. I am still tossed up about the limited or se. What was your deciding factor? Do you wish you had the power seats? It sounds like you have built the rig i am interested in. I am waiting until the 05 arrives for the updated tranny. I am not concerned about the V8 i just want the 4x4 with V6.

I like the Limited because of the Leather seat and sliver trim running board but like the SE because of the hood scoop and the X-REAS suspension. So I found a SE with dealer install leather seat and get it. My sticker price with the leather was 34K but I got it out the door for $31,500. I did not care for the Nav. power seat or up grade sound. with 4k extra price tag.

I think all upgrade sound like shit in them. My 95 M3 came with a $900 360w HK upgrade sound . and it's sounded like CRAP! after that I'll never buy a car with upgrade sound! I like to upgrade the sound myself sound 10X better then any factory sound system!

after I got my SE a week latter I got the bottom trim on the running board paint silver like the limited so I happy with the outside for now! Now I in the process on building my Mobil 5.1 surround sound entertainment center.
I got an Alpine IVA D900 for my main source and just add rear headrest the other day. next is to upgrade the stock front and rear speaker to some CDT HD62 and add a sub. and a center channel to it. as far as the outside I would like to keep it as stock as possible so I don't drew any attention for thief to break in my 4r.

The wheels. I like the scoop, but could have lived with out it. However, I think the sport wheels are definitely better looking. My Sport came with dealer installed graphite leather, a color you can't get on a limited either. I just wish mine had navigation...I did really want that.

Wow sounds cool. Whats up with the hood scoop your the 2 nd person who is not to happy with it. I think i am going to do what you did and have the leather put into a sport. Are your seats power? What did the dealer charge? Were the seats factory installed?

Before you get raped at the dealer for leather, do a little research on aftermarket leather. Believe it or not, there are a few companies that make leather skins that are custom-fit to for each application. I've seen them installed on a few different vehicles and I must say that they look excellent.

Check out this link:
http://www.wetokole.com/

Limited vs Sport... Hmmm... Sport has bigger front brakes, Xreas Standard, Hood scoop... Limited has none of that standard but does have a lot of luxuries (115V power, leather, power seats, dual zone climate), but you have to pay for the functional stuff and you can't get the bigger brakes or the hood scoop. But that power seat would be fun to ride in the driveway :-)

Check your local yellow pages for Leather installers or ask another dealer in the area. 99% of the time, aftermarket leather is better quality, better colors, and cheaper. Takes about 1 day to install leather for all seats in the 4Runner and you get the choose the hide and color you want. Most of the time, it's around 600 - 800 dollars, the rest of what the dealer is charging you is for them to transport your 4Runner to the leather shop on a flatbed and back to the dealer, and their "convience fee".

I just bought an '04 SE that didn't have leather. I made my best deal and then told the guy I wanted leather. He started at $1500, I got him down to $800. It took them 3 days to put the leather in but they gave me a rental car.....

Has anyone installed leather from this company http://www.autoleatherinc.com/

I had the same dilema; it was such a hard decision I found their spreadsheet webpage that lists everything the SR5, Sport, and Limited have, and don't have. I wanted the butt-warming seats, but I did not want leather; it turned out you can't have one without the other. So I went without butt warmers, and got cloth seats. So with that said, you have to ask yourself, who is the primary owner? The primary owner, their wants is the final decision.

I went with the LImited because I wanted all the goodies.

The instrument cluster in the Limited is slightly different too I believe. It has this little red dot that follows the speedometer and tach as the needle moves. Looks kinda cool. Really not important, but I think it's neat.

Now I just have to find a S.E. titanium hood to put on my Limited. I really wanted a hood scoop

Check out this thread.

I love my sport. Just wish I could have the heated seats in cloth not leather. I don't like leather so no butt warmer in this rig.
Anyone know if its possible to instal aftermarket seat warmers in cloth seats? That would be sweet.
Oh yeah, I like the scoop!