I was hoping for an Eddie Bauer, LL Bean, or REI edition myself...

I bet Toyota gets another 5 years out of this gen with new branding with different accessories.

2022 survival edition will come with a first aid kit
2023 tactical edition will come with a wooden club
2024 hydro edition will come with a 5gal water jug
Etc
Etc
Etc

I'm only KINDA joking. The more I think about it, this is just a SR5 with a Toyota branded yeti cooler and a roof rack.

Having said all that, If it had a third row though, I would have bought it cuz I'm a sucker for those colors.

Toyota's probably thinking; "WTF do you guys want? To win the desert races by wider margins?"
Tundra won the Baja 1000.
The 4Runner took 2nd place.
The Raptor has only finished before the time cutoff once and never ended on the podium.
The Tacoma beat the Raptor head to head in the Mint 400.

But also - I agree. If a v8 is too much to ask, I'd love to have at least just have a modern engine and transmission. Is that too much to ask? Fawk - just let us have 6th gear in the transmission we already have! It's already physically inside there. Put some 4.30 diffs in and the 6 speed valve body and open up the 6th gear for highway cruising.

Oh - and if a Bronco comes stock with 35" tires and a Wrangler can bolt them on with no mods, Toyota has got to get their shit together in the tire clearance department.

Difference is you can buy a pretty closely Baja spec'd raptor, you can't buy Baja 4runner or tundra. The drivetrain is what is missing.

From what I read, the tacoma redesign has a different engine transmission and is universally hated. Since the 4runner and the Tacoma are close siblings, I'm super worried that is what we will get.

I agree the bronco may really be a game changer, hopefully sets a fire under Toyota.

Well... the Raptor that Ford raced had the cab cut in half, the cage put in, and then re-assembled to meet Baja safety specs. The Toyota's were installed in place. They all have to have OEM suspension links and such, so the main difference is that the Raptor was put back together with a higher level of effort to resemble an OEM setup. Either way - the raptor just isn't very well built for actual race conditions design wise. It's not the suspension that mostly held it back. It's transmission failures, turbo failures, broken drive shafts that were poorly designed, broken shock mounts (also poor engineering), etc. But it's a fair point that it's a lot closer out of the box in terms of suspension and tires than the Toyota models. I mean - Toyota practically puts the same tire on their "off road" models as they do on the Camry. I suspect the ford bronco raptor version will - at least on paper- be very capable if they're going to put a turbo v6 and 35" tires on it.

As far as the engine goes, my parents have a 2019 tacoma. It shares essentially the same engine/transmission with my RX350. It's perfectly fine in the Tacoma, but feels very peppy in the RX. In all honesty the RX tows my camper better than my 4Runner. The chassis isn't really as good, but the drive train is noticeably better. Still tow with the 4Runner, but I'm not sure I have a great reason for doing it other than it feels more like a truck. The two key differences are tune and that the RX has 4.40 diffs while the Tacoma has 3.73. The 3.5L v6 is much smoother, quieter, and produces great power delivery when it's tuned appropriately for the vehicle and geared correctly. Not sure why it's it's tuned to be so sluggish in the Tacoma and why Toyota didn't take the gearing seriously. The Tacoma could be so much better with zero additional manufacturing costs. Just swap the ECU tune to the one already used in the RX/IS/GS and put the 4.30 diffs from the MT version in the AT. Problem solved.

With the 5 speed I didn't like 4.56 gears. They were too low for comfortable highway cruising with only the 5AT and the old 4.0. It's just not well and has a relatively long stroke so it doesn't like to run at high rpms. The 3.5 is a much more free revving engine. So it's nice and smooth at 3500 rpms where the 4.0 feels like you're killing it. If you didn't have a tach in the RX you'd never know it was even there. With a 6AT I'd probably go even lower. Ideally we'd get the 8 or 10 speeds. They cover the entire range of needs. 5.5:1 first gear and a double over drive.

Thanks for the insight. My main issue with the 4runner is it feels like you are gunning it everywhere, and just keeping up with traffic. But for the reasons you mentioned, maybe the right V6 with proper gearing, and transmission would solve some of the woes.

And i agree, the raptor isn't exactly known for its reliabilty, either in races or on the street. I hear tons of people have major engine issues regarding cam phasers and have to have engine rebuilds early on, something you never really hear about with 4runners.

So Toyota is finally going the route the Tacoma's did with bringing the exclusive colors to other trims after the fact? I'm sure this will go over will with TRD Pro owners...

It might not sound like it, but I really do agree with you. The 4Runner and the new Tacoma aren't well sorted vehicles in the engine/transmission/gearing department. They need some modernizing and I don't know why Toyota is sitting on their hands for so damn long. The 4.0 and 5AT was pretty great in 2002 when it first hit the show room floors. The 2010 update was pretty nice at the time too.

But here we are now another decade later and you can buy a turbo I6 diesel Tahoe that gets 30mpg and a Rav4 that has 302hp and gets 40mpg. And Toyota's answer for a new version of the 4Runner is painting an SR5 gray and putting a cooler in the back?!? And making a very confusing naming convention. That's just not good enough anymore.

4th gens had "trail editions" as well, in 2009.

I haven't got to the point of buying non Toyota vehicles.... Yet.

I didn't realize some of the points you brought up about the Lexus vs Tacoma, and it baffles me that they would supress any performance out of the Tacoma. I think they are not catering toward thier market.

Maybe the rav4 prime will pave the way for the future, combining power and efficiency. But I never thought I'd say this, I am somewhat disappointed with my new 4runner, which I really wanted to love, and the way Toyota seems to be heading. I don't currently see it as a keep it 10-15 year type car for the performance reasons stated earlier.

What I want, Toyota doesn't offer (and other manufacturers don't really either). A performance based SUV, off road capable, third row SUV. Good combo of fun and exhilaration, but still does an alright job hauling family around. The 4runner is the closest to that, which is why I bought it.

The 4runner could be all of this, and corner the market, and only needs to try a little bit harder. All the parts are there, just put it together Toyota!

IMO, those trail editions don't look great at all. Kind of a chintzy they are adding all those "options" in order to give it the cool factor needed to make it more appealing to buyers. A cooler, rack/basket, and the stupid rear slider tray would not attract me enough to a vehicle. Whoever said Toyota was being lazy, you're 100% right.

We should have gotten a diesel T4R ages ago, it would be amazing to get that in TRDP trim.

Not a real TE, doesn't have a hood scoop.

Sounds like you're looking for a Range Rover Sport? I know JLR absolutely sucks in the reliability department, but RR's are quite capable off-road, and their on road manners are nothing to sneeze at regarding performance.

but keep in mind this is a limited run, so it may be even more difficult to find these than the Pro you ended up with.

Only 4,000 hotcakes.