Okay today, I went to my local Toy dealer (Power Toyota, Irvine) to see the new 4Runner in person. My initial reaction was Wow, in a bad way though. Now I can surely cross off the 5th gen 4R of my short lists of potential vehicles. First of, the protruding headlights and tail light does not flow well with the body and has a tacked on look, looks worse in person than in the pictures, it is just too FJ cartoonish. What truly disappointed me was when I made my way to the interior, I was utterly speechless with the Tupperware dash and overall cheapness of the center stack, center console, door panel, etc.. Even the tilt/telescoping steering mechanism felt cheap and crude, it would bind and required some force to adjust it, unlike the 4th gen mechanism where it felt smooth and solid. I really can’t say anything positive about the 5th gen so here is the rest of the bad.
- Too much chrome on the limited.
- SR5 dash cluster looks tacky with the wanna be carbon fiber.
- Mast antennae,
- Lack of ground clearance due to the low bumpers on the limited and sr5 models.
- No locking gas filler door.
- Feels like your driving an armored vehicle with the upright windshield.
- Ugly steering wheel.
- No v8 but the weight is way up.
- Cheap looking fake leather on the door panel mixed in with cheap plastic.
- No sound insulation under the hood on SR5 and TE models.
- Did I mention the cheap interior…
Anyway enough of my rambling, but Toyota has truly let me down with each new vehicle they come out with. I just wonder what Toyota will tout about with their vehicles, surely it can’t be quality when they have a 4 million vehicle recall looming over their heads. I believe Toyota has reached its peak in quality years ago and will soon be passed up by others, if they continue this trend of absurd cost costing. In advance, I apologize for the negative comments regarding the 5th to any owners or 5th gen fan, I hope you’ll enjoy the 5th 4R, but for sure I won’t be one them.

HATER!!!...

I agree with some of your points. I came about this close(*holds fingers together so you can barly see daylight*) to buying an FJ cause' I liked the look...this is kinda of a softer version I guess. My boss sat in it and said he felt like he was in a Hummer...is that bad?!

I finally got a chance to see a Limited 2wd model today. It looks nice enough. I do think that it looks better than the 4th gen, but i am sucker for new things. Anyway, the interior looks good...actually, i like the DESIGN better than the 4th gen. I always feel like the 4th gen A/C buttons are gimmicky.

However, the upper dash material is what disappoint me the most on the 5th gen. The DESIGN of the upper dash is cool. However, if you brush your fingernails over it, then it will leave a scratch mark!! And you cannot get rid of these scratch marks...at least with rubbing. My old 2002 4runner dash materials (soft and hard) were not easily scratched. The 4th gen had a several places that were scratcheable...but, damn the whole top dash on the 5th gen is a scratch-magnet!!

This is a fantastic statement. I believe this is why GM and Ford will someday be making cars built with quality that people actually want to buy. There are quite a few GMs I would not be afraid to buy (CTS, SRX, Camaro, Equinox, Acadia/Traverse). They are no longer the top dogs and they know it. Is GM and Ford finally trying again? Toyota has been resting on its laurels for too long now and have gotten lazy and ignorant. I think Honda is going that way also. They may still rank high in quality, but their style? People have bought fugly vehicles with that "H" on them just because they are Hondas (Element, Fit) but the new Accord Crosstour takes the cake - WTF?

HYUNDAI is the wave of the future! :runaway:

I was at the Phx Internatinal car show today and finally saw the 5th generation. Not really impressed. I liked it in the pics but up close it seems cheaper I guess. The interior was so so, but felt small inside. I am only 5'10" and in the back seat my head damn near hit the roof. Hell my 94 has more interior room it seems, that may not be the case but it sure seems like it. There is a cutout in the roof at the back seats for head room, wierd. I've owned an 07 FJ and looked at the new 2010's today too and I would buy that againa before the 4runner I think.

I rode over to the show in my buddies 4th generation V8 and I think he summed it up pretty good. Need to start looking for an 09 before they are all gone. On a side not we asked a rep why no V8's and he said because the V6 makes the same HP. We then asked at the same RPM's and he kind of squirmed and then walked over to another customer......

I also think (after owning a high end Nissan Titan, a Maxda Cx9 loaded, and now the Trail) that we, the consumer are to blame. I say that because "we" made it easy for them a few years back when we bought everyhing and anything no matter what price tag was slapped on it. Now they they chuck whatever plastic made part(and many, many times from a subcontractor) from the cheapest bidder or manufacturer. Do we put of a fuss and demand better quality??!!...hell no!!..we line up to buy them!!

But times are different..the economy is in the sh itter..and the buying frenzy has all but dissappeared. Not a lot of people have 40,000 grand to plop down on a truck...esp. one that may not hold a candle to it's predesessor. I'm sure when they started the R+D on these new 5th Gens., it wasn't last week, so what may have sold in a moving market will now just sit.


The point of all this inane rambling was this; for you guys that already own a 4runner..you alone know the most about the product, and somewhere along the line somebody was watching what was being said, desired, needed and so on, and they put what they thought "we" wanted. The cheap plastic interiors that would make it before the economy took a twist, might have passed...now it may come back to bite them in a huge way. If it's any consulation the interior on this Toyota is about as twice as nice as the LE Nissan Titan. THAT was all PLASTIC

My Dad had an old saying "There's an ass for every seat" and if I'm not a poster child for that one, I don't know who is, how right the ol' guy was.

You can bet someone from the company is keeping a close eye on this thread(s). They can't afford to lose any customers.

Pat

Speaking of ugly just look at the latest Acuras (i.e. ZDX), they all have that ugly voltron look.

Honda really is on a roll with that ugly stick of theirs. The entire line of Acura is horrible, from the TSX to the MDX, to the ZDX. The Honda side isn't much better, with the Pilot and now the CrossTurd.

Personally, i like the TSX style...it is the best looking in all of Acura line, but that is really not saying much! Yeah, i like the TSX quite a bit.

Geesh. This vehicle is startling in it's suckage.

Hahahaha...nice.

I agree the TSX is the best looking in the Acura lineup, let's hope it doesn't catch the ugly duckling disease that's plaguing the Acura family.

We just saw the new 4runner at the sf auto show. Gotta say I like my 07 better. With the protruding tail lights flat wheel wells and funky front end it looks like the fj and sequoia had a baby. Im on my second 4th gen and was looking forward to a 5th gen in the future but not now. Why Toyota why?

I can't stand the new shield grill they are putting on all of the Acuras. I liked the previous generation TSX, but not the current one.