Nobody is disagreeing, in fact we all know this is why they're doing it. And as Gecko says, these vehicles are selling like hotcakes so I disagree that all profit would be eliminated by making a quality upgrade. Hell, they already have the tech and parts, just take a little more time than the no time they spent, and port it to the 4Runner. Sure, tooling might need to be changed slightly, but I don't think moving the sensor to a more discreet location would kill them or the reliability of the vehicle.
My gripe is that they're allowed to get away with it, and that they don't care to strike a balance between their profits and giving us features in a non-hamfisted manner. It's just a once sided cash grab, with crumbs here and there to keep us satiated. And, because there isn't much competition in this BOF off-road capable SUV segment sans Jeep Wranglers and yet-to-be-proven future models, there's nothing that's forcing them to change their strategy - and people like myself who have been holding off on purchasing until the 2020 model will still buy them because it's all we've got. It's essentially a monopoly in this segment where we take what we're given because what else are we going to buy, and as long as we keep buying Toyota is gonna think they can do things like staple a garish black box in the grille.
I love the 5th gen 4Runner, there are just some clear greed-driven decisions that leave me frustrated. There's no arguing that 4Runners are the best out there, but that doesn't mean it can't be better than what we currently have.
Very well said. It's all very lazy at this point - Toyota obviously decided that infotainment was going to be the biggest deficiency over the next 2.5 years, and put their dollars there. No doubt, that is a fairly expensive overhaul, but there are a number of things that are not even significant cost factors for a company like Toyota. The biggest three are:
- Offering new paint colors (this is an easy one because the material/supply can be pulled from other existing models)
- Offering new interior colors - across seating, stitching and trims (often you can just change plastic or leather colors and it's not a big deal at all)
- Offering new wheel styles (these too can be pulled from other existing models and painted or polished differently to appear new. There are plenty of wheel options from global Land Cruiser/Hilux/BOF models that could just be thrown into the supply chain for the 2020 4Runner and 98% of buyers would see them and think they're net new.)
Two other options that are slightly more expensive?
- Revising the interior of the headlight design but not altering the overall shape and body. Remember when someone from Toyota - Sweers? Hollis? - said they didn't want to include LED headlights because those would be more of a "major redesign"? :tsk:
- Revising the interior of the tail light design but not altering the overall shape and body (same bolt/clip positions, just new visuals)
The big one that I don't understand, specifically in the case of the 4Runner, is not including a 6AT or 8AT since both powertrain combinations exist in other global markets. It's clear that the 4Runner is living on some extended life, so it's not like a new model that has to use a certain volume of prepurchased parts before it can be upgraded. The 4Runner is past that. Sometime in ~2010-2012, looking at the 2014 refresh, they proactively decided not to swap out the transmission, then they did the same thing again somewhere around 2017 for the 2020 model. It seems inefficient to keep one old, garbage transmission when other related models use newer tech - just streamline the supply chain and apply the better transmission. There were no-brainer opportunities in the lifetime of the fifth generation where they could have easily upgraded and just decided not to. Annoying.
Imagine the 2020 bringing:
- 3-4 new exterior colors
- New interior trims
- New interior fabric/leather options
- New wheel design options
- New LED headlight design
- New 8" multimedia head unit with connectivity (what we got)
- New tach (what we got)
- TSS-P (what we got)
- 6AT or 8AT
... I'll venture to say that a MUCH higher number of us would be looking to trade into a 2020, and even the upgrades above are extremely minimal. These extra options would also help keep the 4Runner more fresh for both general return buyers as well as those cross shopping with the Wrangler, Bronco, 2021 Grand Cherokee, and even the 2020 Highlander (yes, it's cross shopped very often with the 4Runner).
