I would take a 5th gen over FJ any day of the week. 5th Gen is better in every way except uniqueness and maybe resale value now.

I will give you that the 4Runner (even TRD OR pkg) is nicer then FJ from what I remember BUT the FJ was WAS better interior overall then the Tacoma TRD Sport. That was chinsy/bland & just BLAAAA. In the Snow the FJ hardly needed to be put into 4x4 on the roads W/decent amount of snow accumulation. It was like a billy goat as others in that forum described it as!!

I do recall seeing lots of posts about that back in the day, weirdly enough I never had the opportunity to see it in person with the couple people I know who had FJs and wheeled them.

Stranger still... even though the J120/J150 frame is basically identical between the FJ & 4th/5th gens (for the most part it was just truncated in the middle) I don't recall many 4th or 5th Gens having fender bulging issues.

It was certainty an odd engineering oversight/failure for sure.

~

I didn't mind the looks of the FJ or even the weirdly poor visibility (you got used to it after a while). The suicide doors left a lot to be desired and the fact the rubber floor wasn't a true "hose out" style bummed me out. A lot of stuff about the FJ was both appealing and ultimately half-baked... which seemed odd to me since it was supposed to be a Jeep competitor but they sorta restrained themselves too much from going "full off-road."

Oh well.

BlairB 4th gen 4runner has a failure due failed crossmember. 5th gen crossmember is stronger I believe.

Will have to dig around and see if I can find that. It wouldn't surprise me that the 5th gen is a bit stronger. Despite the frames being very much the same overall, they did reinforce certain parts and upgrade the steel used in some sections.