5th Gen 4Runner/3rd Gen Tacoma Review

[Antman]

How so? It's along the same lines as the question I asked above RE: back seats. I am asking for comparative reviews.

It's been discussed a lot over the past 7 years or so.

Some people think the lights are great.
Some people think they are just ok.
Some people think they suck.

Just the way it is. Personally, I find them to be just fine and I have the roof light LED's if I really need to reach out there.

 

[p nut]

It's been discussed a lot over the past 7 years or so.

Some people think the lights are great.
Some people think they are just ok.
Some people think they suck.

Just the way it is. Personally, I find them to be just fine and I have the roof light LED's if I really need to reach out there.

I just haven't seen any definitive reviews compared to a 3rd gen Tacoma. That's what I'm looking for. If you've got nothing to add, you're free to ignore this.

 

[Antman]

I just haven't seen any definitive reviews compared to a 3rd gen Tacoma. That's what I'm looking for. If you've got nothing to add, you're free to ignore this.

Thanks for allowing me to post here. Hahaha. What a joke.

 

[MattAK]

That's like asking someone how they like their shoes. Seriously, it's all subjective.

I just haven't seen any definitive reviews compared to a 3rd gen Tacoma. That's what I'm looking for. If you've got nothing to add, you're free to ignore this.

Having driven and ridden in my brother's '16 Taco numerous times at night, I can for sure say that it's completely subjective. I think his lights are better than my 4Runner's were stock. I put brighter bulbs in mine and now I think mine are better but my brother still thinks his are better. :cheers:

 

[philsey]

How are the headlights on the 4Runner? #2 complaint on the Tacoma—I’ve had all sorts of cars, but these are the worst headlights I’ve ever had. That’s including an ‘88 and ‘94 Honda Civics, and of course, previous gen Tacoma’s and 4Runners. Luckily, I’ve got fog lights which help tremendously (but still horrible). I don’t know how those with no fogs see at night.

How so? It's along the same lines as the question I asked above RE: back seats. I am asking for comparative reviews.

Whoa. You blasted [MENTION=65614]Antman[/MENTION] for calling headlight commentary "subjective", and asked for "comparative reviews". And yet your own post (above) made a TOTALLY subjective statement (bolded, so you can't deny) about your own (Taco?) headlights.

You're either talking out a) your arse, or b) both sides of your mouth.

I have more headlight knowledge than most, and it is my opinion that the 4R headlights suck, while [MENTION=65614]Antman[/MENTION] and [MENTION=66316]1engineer[/MENTION] and many others are just fine with them.

There is no "review". YOU decide if YOU like them or not. Then either do something about it or not. There is so much info/opinion in this Forum about this topic that it is old old old and tiresome tiresome tiresome.

:ybrick:

 

[philsey]

How are the headlights on the 4Runner? #2 complaint on the Tacoma—I’ve had all sorts of cars, but these are the worst headlights I’ve ever had. That’s including an ‘88 and ‘94 Honda Civics, and of course, previous gen Tacoma’s and 4Runners. Luckily, I’ve got fog lights which help tremendously (but still horrible). I don’t know how those with no fogs see at night.

BTW, you took this thread off topic back here. So don't be butt hurt for some pushback.

Sorry [MENTION=66316]1engineer[/MENTION] Greg.

 

[1engineer]

I have put a lot of night miles on both the 4Runner and Tacoma. In my mind they are pretty much equal. They do their job. They are headlights. They dim, go bright, light up enough to see at 70 mph at night. What more can you ask?

 

[oljedi11950]

In the end does it matter to anyone but Greg ? So bugger off & drive

 

[Kenstaroni]

OP posts review that says early on, that internet forums are the worst place to get info for making a buying decision and gathering information. Review was posted on an internet forum. Didn't read past that.

 

[p nut]

Whoa. You blasted [MENTION=65614]Antman[/MENTION] for calling headlight commentary "subjective", and asked for "comparative reviews". And yet your own post (above) made a TOTALLY subjective statement (bolded, so you can't deny) about your own (Taco?) headlights.

You're either talking out a) your arse, or b) both sides of your mouth.

I have more headlight knowledge than most, and it is my opinion that the 4R headlights suck, while [MENTION=65614]Antman[/MENTION] and [MENTION=66316]1engineer[/MENTION] and many others are just fine with them.

There is no "review". YOU decide if YOU like them or not. Then either do something about it or not. There is so much info/opinion in this Forum about this topic that it is old old old and tiresome tiresome tiresome.

:ybrick:

Yep, what I said was Tacoma lights sucked. Compared to other cars I’ve had. How is that subjective? I am asking how 4Runners stand up against the Tacoma’s. Shouldn’t be much subjectivity there. Either the light output is better and greater or not.

It’s like asking which car is faster. Tacoma or a 997. Answer is pretty obvious and there should be no subjectivity.

Seriously, maybe if topics like this get so old and repetitive to you guys, you should either skip over them or spend less time online, eh? You and your cronies there are seriously giving TW a run for their money. Have a good one.

 

[p nut]

BTW, you took this thread off topic back here. So don't be butt hurt for some pushback.

Sorry [MENTION=66316]1engineer[/MENTION] Greg.

Another keyboard thug. Chumming up to the mods. How’s it off topic when I asked about comparative difference between the 5th Gen 4Runner and 3rd Gen tacoma?

Well, have a good one. I’ll do both of us a favor and put you on ignore.

 

[p nut]

I have put a lot of night miles on both the 4Runner and Tacoma. In my mind they are pretty much equal. They do their job. They are headlights. They dim, go bright, light up enough to see at 70 mph at night. What more can you ask?

There is more to it than that. Projectors on the Tacoma are subpar. When I first purchased it, I never had driven it at night or on dark country roads. When I finally did a few weeks after, I was shocked. Front visibility was fine. But there was a sharp cutoff to either side. Typically, the headlights extend sideways and light up the sides. Not in this case. As you can see below, you can’t see anything beyond a 45 deg line to either side. Dangerous, especially when turning. On lighted streets, it’s not a problem. But on country roads, it’s an impairment. I had to turn on the fog lights to see anything out the side.

But don’t be obliged to respond. Too bad my simple question turned into this mess of people getting pissed for no reason. I’ll just go back to my lurker status.

 

[1engineer]

Yep, what I said was Tacoma lights sucked. Compared to other cars I’ve had. How is that subjective? I am asking how 4Runners stand up against the Tacoma’s. Shouldn’t be much subjectivity there. Either the light output is better and greater or not.

It’s like asking which car is faster. Tacoma or a 997. Answer is pretty obvious and there should be no subjectivity.

Seriously, maybe if topics like this get so old and repetitive to you guys, you should either skip over them or spend less time online, eh? You and your cronies there are seriously giving TW a run for their money. Have a good one.

Nobody is trying to give you a hard time man. Here's the deal:
Interior room is measurable.
Speed is measurable.
Headlights are not. Sure, the measure watts and lumens but a lot of it is the actual design of the headlight. Brightness just shows a color and means nothing. What I would like to see, and I don't think anyone does this, is a light meter reading at say 200 feet at a certain height. That would definitively give an answer to light output. I'm pretty sure the OEMs are headed this way based on a SAE standard but we will see.
Personally, I cannot see much of a difference between them. I wish they were aimed a bit higher but I checked and low beam is at correct height. Hope this helps.

 

[Antman]

You and your cronies there are seriously giving TW a run for their money. Have a good one.

Damn [MENTION=51186]philsey[/MENTION], now you are a keyboard thug and we're cronies! That's cool.

Look OP, I was seriously just trying to help but since you obviously didn't get the answer you were looking for I did some research and found the...

Authoritative
Source of
Subjective
Headlight
Output
Light
Engineers

They said the 4Runner headlights are definitely better.

YOU have a good one.

 

[philsey]

[....] What I would like to see, and I don't think anyone does this, is a light meter reading at say 200 feet at a certain height. That would definitively give an answer to light output[....]

I actually have exactly this, Lightwerkz did it for me before I RF my '18. Compares OEM 4R to various HID and LED headlights. Lumens + pics.

Chummed? Hilarious!

:kiss::kiss::kiss::kiss::kiss::kiss:

 

[philsey]

Speed is measurable.
Headlights are not. Sure, the measure watts and lumens....

Watts is a measurement of power consumed by an electrical device.
Lumens is a measurement of actual light flux, aka brightness.
Headlights are indeed measurable, and the 4R's are indeed measurably subpar compared to others. But just like tires, it's all in what we want.

:kiss::kiss::kiss::kiss::kiss:

 

[1engineer]

Watts is a measurement of power consumed by an electrical device.
Lumens is a measurement of actual light flux, aka brightness.
Headlights are indeed measurable, and the 4R's are indeed measurably subpar compared to others. But just like tires, it's all in what we want.

:kiss::kiss::kiss::kiss::kiss:

Yeah, I know the definitions and the explanations. My point was that headlight "measurements" don't actually measure what is needed!

My point: Headlights are designed to illuminate objects at a distance and speed. A "better" headlight would be one that provides increased illumination of an object at a distance. How "bright" they are looking at them is useless. What "color" they are is also useless, unless we are going for filtered wavelengths. Also, how "illuminating" they are from one foot away (foot-candle, lumen, etc) is also useless.

What I would need is an actual measurement of illumination, at different points, at a desirable distance, say 100m. Sure, we could use Lux, but I think it would be more accurate if it measured the Lux of the REFLECTION of some standard object, such as a road sign. And do it at a distance.

Example: Take a stationary vehicle, set up 10 "school crossing" signs that would be 10m apart, in a perpendicular line from the vehicle, and mount them 100m away one meter off the ground. Then measure the Lux from the reflection of each sign and record and plot it.

That would be an extremely easy test to do and provide a real measure of, not light output, but of object illumination at a distance.

That's what I think... and what I want. Anything else is meaningless. My opinion.

I don't care if my headlights are white or yellow. I don't care if there is a clean cutoff line. I don't care what the output is one foot away because I need to see further than one foot! I only care how bright the illumination of an object is at a distance.

 

[KP Texan]

What I would like to see, and I don't think anyone does this, is a light meter reading at say 200 feet at a certain height. That would definitively give an answer to light output.

IIHS has been doing this for quite some time now, starting with mid-size sedans, and now with trucks/suvs. According to them, Tacoma's headlights are marginal while the 4Runners are poor. That being said, their readings say 4Runner's are actually better than the Tacoma's in terms of performance, but they gave the Tacoma some additional points for auto high beams. One issue I have with IIHS' testing methodology is that they do not aim headlights; we all know that if aim is not right then it could throw off performance, but they claim this makes the test more realistic.

Headlight beam pattern plays an important role in headlight performance, so a simple reading at the hotspot for a given distance does not even come close to giving us the whole picture. We would really need multiple readings at various angles from centerline as well as multiple elevations in order to give us anything good. The other element to all this is how the human eye reacts to this light and and how much night time vision can be gained from it: this is ultimately what we're trying to achieve with lighting. There are factors such as foreground light, color temps, etc. that all factor in here and bottom line, it makes for a much more complex analysis than the numbers suggest.

The IIHS Charts:

4Runner-

Tacoma-

 

[1engineer]

IIHS has been doing this for quite some time now, starting with mid-size sedans, and now with trucks/suvs. According to them, Tacoma's headlights are marginal while the 4Runners are poor. That being said, their readings say 4Runner's are actually better than the Tacoma's in terms of performance, but they gave the Tacoma some additional points for auto high beams. One issue I have with IIHS' testing methodology is that they do not aim headlights; we all know that if aim is not right then it could throw off performance, but they claim this makes the test more realistic.

Headlight beam pattern plays an important role in headlight performance, so a simple reading at the hotspot for a given distance does not even come close to giving us the whole picture. We would really need multiple readings at various angles from centerline as well as multiple elevations in order to give us anything good. The other element to all this is how the human eye reacts to this light and and how much night time vision can be gained from it: this is ultimately what we're trying to achieve with lighting. There are factors such as foreground light, color temps, etc. that all factor in here and bottom line, it makes for a much more complex analysis than the numbers suggest.

The IIHS Charts:

4Runner-

Tacoma-

Yes, I knew and understood this test. The problem is they are deciding for me what is "marginal, good or poor." I want the actual values. I want them aimed so it is apples for apples. And, I want a standard!

 

[Glandnut]

Awesome logic here, so easy to get caught up in forum panic and analysis paralysis. Now, if the 4Runner only came in that Silver Sky Metallic that looks so fantastic on the Tacos....