Catchlight
New member
Consumer Reports seems to be on a mission to rid the world of body-on-frame SUVs, and in the process they have lost their objectivity and credibility.
They don't seem to realize that the Korean and other unibody SUVs they praise so highly are not much more capable than cars once they are off pavement and there's work to be done (or fun to be had). The main concern of the woman who tested the SR5 (see her video on the CR site) seemed to be potential spillage of her latte while traversing speed bumps on mall parking lots.
An older thread here has covered her rip-job on the 5th Gen. 4Runners pretty well, but I just wanted to further discount the mag's BS after our first trip last weekend in our new Trail Edition.
My wife and I were asked to help out at a lodge on a remote island off BC's west coast which provides a four-day ocean salmon fishing experience each year for two dozen kids with life-threatening heart issues, and their parents and siblings. That meant folding down the rear seats and piling cases of frozen meat up to the windows, then putting our packs and my photo gear on top of the food. God knows what it all weighed. The only effect on the Trail was to improve its already good ride characteristics. Acceleration and braking seemed unchanged. Try that in your 4-banger, CR-recommended SUV.
First, we drove for an hour on an unevenly paved, twisting highway, which the Trail handled as smoothly as a luxury SUV, with no sign of the body lean and overly-busy ride CR whines about. Then we spent an hour on a logging road that had not been graded recently, and finally an hour on a logging spur that consisted of tight curves and steep pitches covered in "Vancouver Island pea gravel"--loose, angular rocks of various sizes. Finally, I used 4L to negotiate a steep gravel decline down to the dock where we met the boat to the lodge. We didn't need any of the technologies on the headliner on this trip, but it's great to have them in reserve to handle rougher conditions and terrain, or just to have some fun.
On every road surface I was impressed by the Trail's ride and performance, even compared to my '98 SR5 which had done the same trip last year with a lighter load. Using 4H smoothed out the washboard sections, and changing gears manually avoided mistimed shifts, eliminated lugging on hills, and gave much better control on downhills. Since KDSS is passive, it's hard to know when it's working, but I suspect it damped the ride and reduced sway on the rougher parts.
I would not have enjoyed driving one of CR's beloved imported unibodies on this trip, and most of them would soon deteriorate if used this way regularly. The new unibodied Grand Cherokee and Explorer might stand up to the task for a while, but their reliability record is poor compared to Toyota's.
By ignoring CR's propaganda, we made the right choice of vehicle, and hope nobody is fooled by their inadequate testing and biased judgement. Toyota gets A+ from us for the 5th Gen.
They don't seem to realize that the Korean and other unibody SUVs they praise so highly are not much more capable than cars once they are off pavement and there's work to be done (or fun to be had). The main concern of the woman who tested the SR5 (see her video on the CR site) seemed to be potential spillage of her latte while traversing speed bumps on mall parking lots.
An older thread here has covered her rip-job on the 5th Gen. 4Runners pretty well, but I just wanted to further discount the mag's BS after our first trip last weekend in our new Trail Edition.
My wife and I were asked to help out at a lodge on a remote island off BC's west coast which provides a four-day ocean salmon fishing experience each year for two dozen kids with life-threatening heart issues, and their parents and siblings. That meant folding down the rear seats and piling cases of frozen meat up to the windows, then putting our packs and my photo gear on top of the food. God knows what it all weighed. The only effect on the Trail was to improve its already good ride characteristics. Acceleration and braking seemed unchanged. Try that in your 4-banger, CR-recommended SUV.
First, we drove for an hour on an unevenly paved, twisting highway, which the Trail handled as smoothly as a luxury SUV, with no sign of the body lean and overly-busy ride CR whines about. Then we spent an hour on a logging road that had not been graded recently, and finally an hour on a logging spur that consisted of tight curves and steep pitches covered in "Vancouver Island pea gravel"--loose, angular rocks of various sizes. Finally, I used 4L to negotiate a steep gravel decline down to the dock where we met the boat to the lodge. We didn't need any of the technologies on the headliner on this trip, but it's great to have them in reserve to handle rougher conditions and terrain, or just to have some fun.
On every road surface I was impressed by the Trail's ride and performance, even compared to my '98 SR5 which had done the same trip last year with a lighter load. Using 4H smoothed out the washboard sections, and changing gears manually avoided mistimed shifts, eliminated lugging on hills, and gave much better control on downhills. Since KDSS is passive, it's hard to know when it's working, but I suspect it damped the ride and reduced sway on the rougher parts.
I would not have enjoyed driving one of CR's beloved imported unibodies on this trip, and most of them would soon deteriorate if used this way regularly. The new unibodied Grand Cherokee and Explorer might stand up to the task for a while, but their reliability record is poor compared to Toyota's.
By ignoring CR's propaganda, we made the right choice of vehicle, and hope nobody is fooled by their inadequate testing and biased judgement. Toyota gets A+ from us for the 5th Gen.
