Looking very clean I wish I had the $$$ to buy one

Would it still not have a lever to go from 4hi to 4lo?

IF I do jump and buy one I expect ICL (Iron Clad Lou) to get the commission!

A big mod problem is although I only have a few mods, they are very useful to me and I have to factor that into the decision to get a new one.



J

The new interior pic looks good to me thus far. Its far more encouraging than the C&D fuzzy cell pics seen a week or so ago. To me the dash materials quality looks decent, no worse than the 4th gen. In fact the Heat & A/C controls, and gauages look better so far. The one thing I struggle to determine is the quality of the black dash plastic....is it all hard or some soft?

Thoughts so far guys?

now yr talkin!

I would think the top portion is soft as it is in every other car I have owned. Even the Lexus GS350 I drive now has hard plastic for the bottom section of the dash where the side panel switches are...I'm not sure what people are expecting?

Unfortunately, I bet it's not the case. It will be hard, painted plastic like what's in the new Tundra and a number of other Toyota vehicles. It will likely be textured to "look" soft but won't be. And if it's like the Tundra, rubbing it too hard will remove the top finish I really hope I'm wrong on this...

Damn I hope not, that's ridiculous. Of all things to cut cost on, the difference in price to manufacture the softer higher quality dash over a crappy hard plastic has to be marginal. That's almost a deal breaker right there.

I agree. I was very shocked to see the Tundra and Sequoia's redesigns move from soft plastic upper door panels to hard plastic. Especially since the price of a fully loaded Sequoia went from around $49k to nearly $60k. As far as I'm concerned, no car should have hard plastic surfaces where a person can touch/rub up against. This was the first obvious time I could see Toyota cutting corners and cheapening their vehicles. My 24 year old Supra has soft plastics everywhere so why not a brand new vehicle? I guess we will all see in a couple weeks what the new 4Runner has.

That murdered out one and the dark grey with the grey rims sold me on it....Man that thing is nice, thanks for the photos.

The dash may look nice but if it is anything like my 08 Tundra dash, and you have a (bad?) habit of not gingerly placing items into all those openings and pockets, then you can expect some of that pretty silver, especially down by the gear selector, to begin rubbing off after several months.

Obviously, I have yet to see the 5th generation 4Runner in person, but I was a little disappointed to see that the dash and console materials seemed very similar to my Tundra's.

EDIT: Looks like I was beaten to the punch about the Tundra's interior quality.

There are a lot of fourth-generation V8 owners out there. Many of them will not want to step down to a V6. I am thinking that Toyota will not want to give up this market for long. My guess is they will come out with the V8 in the spring of 2010. One factor though is I do not know the effects of requirements to raise fleet average fuel consumptions.

Also, the gas filler door is no longer locked and open via remote. Another sign of cost cutting and the expense of a clean look without the finger notch.

The Highlander has used hard dash and upper-door plastics since the first gen. It looks nice, but rock hard when you touch it.

On the plus side, they've kept the base Highlander relatively affordable. The downside is that the hard plastic dash in the $25K base is the same as the one in the $40K Hybrid Limited.

I'm guessing Toyota is moving the price-point of the '10 4Runner downward (mid-20s and peaking at under $40K). That strategy would be reflected in the cost-cutting moves we're seeing in the exterior design -- mast antenna, non-locking fuel door (though maybe it also saves weight and removes a potential failing point in harsh climates); non-LED tails. They are adding some new tech -- Smart Key, Optitron gauges, Bluetooth, iPod integration -- but the innovations seems to be focused on the new off-road tech, not luxury or convenience features.

We saw the opposite in the 4th Gen: definitely a move towards making it a premium SUV with all the little touches -- the auto-climate A/C; the auto-latching liftgate; the multi-function armrest with the burger tray and rubbish holder; soft-touch surfaces on the dash and doors; fancy ignition that doesn't require you to hold it in "start"; etc.