Quote:
Originally Posted by Jetboy
Seriously - you're going through a boulder field - do you really think that Raptor drive shaft is going to survive?
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Is the Raptor marketed as a rock crawler? Are jeeps marketed as high speed desert vehicles? Etc etc etc.
The raptor is an open country go fast vehicle, and I, and others, would contend there's no other vehicle out of the box currently being sold that's even in that same league. There's an obsession on this forum with a concept of a vehicle that's jack of all trades, yet forgetting the part of that saying that comes after.
I've had a lot of seat time in the Gen 1 and Gen 2, I wasn't super blown away by the Gen 1, but the Gen 2 continued to surprise me driving it in the conditions it was designed for. If you want to throw flak it's way with how it did in Baja, keep in mind just finishing that race is epic. Ford/Foutz Motorsports drove it under it's own power from Mesa, AZ to Ensenada, and down and back under it's own power. For essentially a beta vehicle. I know Kurt, and the Canguro guys are fantastic. But that vehicle was well tested in prior races, whereas Ford simply added a roll cage, and ran it with full door panels, full glass, etc. A tremendous amount of work went into Canguro's LC200, whereas if you're a Gen 2 raptor owner that Raptor (which I've seen in person) was outfitted with safety and fire suppression systems, nav/comms, but is the same raptor you can buy today (the current ones are even more improved).
The LC200 is a great vehicle, why it's 85K is a bit absurd, but if you took it in STOCK form down on the NORRA/SCORE courses it would get friggin' WRECKED. The Raptor is as close as you can get to a factory pre-runner. Does that make it a great purchase for the every day driver? I don't know, that's up to the buyer. As stated most owners will not rally them in open country. That's okay, most people are buying into the aspirational qualities of products. i.e that they COULD rally them if they lived near open country or were not afraid of the potential risks incurred with doing 100 down a 2-track in the middle of nowhere.
There's things I miss about my 4Runner, and things I don't. I'd say people who complain about the paint quality on toyotas; stop. My raptor had to have a fender re-painted in the first month. I think the interior is better put together on the raptor, but all current production vehicles, regardless of brand still have the same shitty plastics that scratch and turn white/blue if you look at them funny. The infotainment is far better on the Fords, but still clunky. Not Entune level clunky, but still clunky. I love getting 17-18mpg on 87 octane (I really should feed it 91 or 93 more often, I admit), with a 36 gallon tank.
A stock raptor has more suspension travel than you get with a toyota running a +3.5 long travel, and that's with the sway bars still attached!
The raptor has that associated douche bag owner stink about it, just like 4Runners have the soccer mom/overlander stigma about them too. If you're buying a vehicle for perception, I don't know what to tell you. I've been happy with my Raptor so far, but comparing two wildly different vehicles is kind of a fools errand.
You can slap a ton of "OFF ROAD" badges on a 4Runner, but it's not an off road tuned vehicle. The Raptor is more so, but as a result you pay for a big truck with some big features.
Frankly I think there's a LOT of terrain where both vehicles do equally well, and then terrain where each one shines. In Baja the Toyotas (not stock mind you) do a lot better in the technical stuff, but once the terrain opens up the Raptors are absolutely gone, and the Toyotas are eating their dust.
The 4Runner is a simpler product, it's still a super computerized truck that absolutely shits the bed if a sensor malfunctions, just like the Raptor. Someone best said it, you're comparing a 40K SUV *purchase* to a 40K truck *down payment*.
I've owned both, I don't think you can make a 4Runner into a raptor, and visa versa, and if you realize where both are really good at, you end up a lot happier as an owner.