I traded in my 2017 Taco for this 4runner. The issue I had was the engine/gear/transmission combo.
No doubt about it the .gov forced toyota to make the taco fuel efficient but it didn't work. I know the 4runners and tacos have never really been gas saver type vehicles but the 2017 was worse than my 2013 (still have that taco).
I wont get into the problems with my manual transmission 3rd gen but I was averaging around 15-16mpg no matter how I drove it and if the 4runner gets the same power plant I think it will need lower gears and another gear for the auto tranny. 6th gear was hard to use because it was so tall, the engineers made it so the throttle body wont open past 40% until 3200rpm and 75mph in the taco in 6th was 2700rpm so it didn't match and you ended up shoving your foot into the firewall to keep it at 75pmh. Only time you could use 6th was going down hill. Keep in mind my truck was fully loaded with heated seats, moonroof, e sliding rear window so it was heavy compared to a ext cab which seemed to not have the same issue. If I loaded my bike in the back the mpg went south.
I hope TRD figures out a way to get some low end torque from the 3.5 or the new 4runner sales will drop like the taco.
