What is the best year 5th Gen 4Runners

I'm biased, but if you're gonna do any offroading the older ones are a great value, and you feel less bad scratching up a sub $20k car. Plus you have more money for mods.
It still amazes me that Toyota changed nearly nothing in 10 years, then changed the infotainment, safety, and headlights and kept everything else the same, and these 5th gens have sold like hotcakes pretty much the whole time. I love my 10 TE and will likely never sell it. I'm not going to find anything i want that has similar features and reliability for the price.
 
blksubykid said:
I had to put $1000 deposit in order for the dealer to hold my salsa red for a few days. They told me 5 people called and tried to buy it after I paid the deposit. My salesman even had to hide the keys since so many people were at the dealership asking about it too.

Took a flight to Flagstaff, AZ on my day off and drove it back home.
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The salsa red is growing on me, and the dark lower trim kind of sets it off and feels a bit throwback. Proves you made a good choice with the demand for it after you put your deposit down! Congrats on the fly-out, drive home trip! I should have done that when I bought mine out of Palm Beach FL, drive back to Wilmington NC but by the time I got the flight, maybe 1 night in a hotel, gas, food, penalty minutes with the wife and kids.... HA! Shipping was like $575.

To the other poster that snagged a Shoreline blue, congrats! I don't know if I'd call it a unicorn, but close to it!

I do like the newer 4runners in magnetic gray or whatever the official name of the color is...
 
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Personally, I love the early 5th gen trail editions with the black trim. It’s as if the headlights were originally designed to match the rest of the body lines

To me, the current headlights are a little squinty. Makes the sr5 resemble a catfish and the Limited look bearded or bottom stacked.

With that said, I didn’t buy this truck because it’s the prettiest. You really can’t go wrong; any 4x4 5th gen with a locker is good within your budget.
 
Snowtrooper said:
Personally, I love the early 5th gen trail editions with the black trim. It’s as if the headlights were originally designed to match the rest of the body lines

To me, the current headlights are a little squinty. Makes the sr5 resemble a catfish and the Limited look bearded or bottom stacked.

With that said, I didn’t buy this truck because it’s the prettiest. You really can’t go wrong; any 4x4 5th gen with a locker is good within your budget.
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Hah, this reminded me, when the 14+ came out i swore the white ones looks like Juggalos. I still can't unsee it, lol.
 
John in NC said:
The salsa red is growing on me, and the dark lower trim kind of sets it off and feels a bit throwback. Proves you made a good choice with the demand for it after you put your deposit down! Congrats on the fly-out, drive home trip! I should have done that when I bought mine out of Palm Beach FL, drive back to Wilmington NC but by the time I got the flight, maybe 1 night in a hotel, gas, food, penalty minutes with the wife and kids.... HA! Shipping was like $575.

To the other poster that snagged a Shoreline blue, congrats! I don't know if I'd call it a unicorn, but close to it!

I do like the newer 4runners in magnetic gray or whatever the official name of the color is...
Click to expand...

Lakewood Toyota in NJ had a '11 TE in Salsa Red with 55kmi last month. I ALMOST flew from TX to get it. Sat on the lot for over a month at $26,500
Then dropped to $23k or something.
Even though I got a few frame pics from the salesman I still worried about a NE car.
 
redshift83 said:
Hah, this reminded me, when the 14+ came out i swore the white ones looks like Juggalos. I still can't unsee it, lol.
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LOL...I had to google and now I regret. As a late model superwhite owner, I think I’m going to stare at stormtrooper pictures for the rest of the day!
 
GuySmiley said:
New features are subjective in a lot of cases.

Personally I'm glad I went with a 2019 over the 2020s on the lot since I'm not a fan of the sensor nannies, but I don't get factory carplay, which kinda sucks. It can be remedied with a new head unit though.

I have heard good things about the new LED headlights on the 2021 (2020?) since the bulbs on mine are... lacking...
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I'm not a fan of the sensor nannies ether and I am also not a fan of carplay because i prefer my phone integration. Works much better.

So the 2019 was a great choice for me.
 
It all comes down to personnal preference.

- 2013 if you prefer the pre-facelift look
- 2019 if you absolutely must not have TSS and prefer the smaller and older infotainment (I just don't see why you would though, and more on TSS below).
- 2021 if you want the latest and greatest. To me, the 2021 is the best and the fact that it finally had a decent infotainment, TSS, and most of all smart key/push button (on premium models, not just Limited) and LED HEADLIGHTS is what finally convinced me to buy a 4runner.

Sidebar, I just don't understand why people hate on TSS. You can literally turn everything off if you'd rather "not deal with it". But having driven vehicles with these safety systems for about a year, particularly Toyota/Lexus I just don't see why you would. They NEVER give me false positives and in the handful of times the forward collision warning did go off it was warranted (someone braking abruptly in front of me, etc.).

But the biggest reason I LOVE these systems is that they protect me from other people who REALLY don't pay attention on the road. By all estimates, these systems reduce crashes by 40 some percent. I'm all for it if it means that Nancy wont rear end me in morning traffic when I hit the brakes and she's also busy putting on her eye liner while driving behind me (if I ever go back to work in an office :D).
 
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JeuTheIdit said:
Hey man don't rub it in all of our faces :laugh:

I wish I could have found one but had to settle on silver. Still love the OG TE look no matter what!
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Agree, they all look good! Shoreline Blue was what I was specifically looking for. I don't want to own a black vehicle. Red looks good on these but I would choose another color over it. Silver is a nice clean look, so probably would of been my second choice.
 
2014 Trail Editions have the information display above the radio instead of just a clock. Not a huge deal, but some people find it desirable.
 
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