Convince me to buy a New 4Runner

[RusPro17]

If you buy the 5th Gen your getting a reliable vehicle. If you wait for the new redesign and Toyota changes the engine or trans you will have to wait a couple of years for the bugs to be worked out. Look at the new Tacoma. I had the last years 2015. Then they switched it up and now there are people complaining about it all the time. Just like guys complain about the 5th Gen 4runner. Just my opinion if you are not happy with it then just sell it. I have had a lot of Toyota’s. There are times I think about selling my 2020 Pro. My wife and I both have SUV’s we don’t need 2 of them. But I love my 4runner. Especially the value they hold.

 

[Fiatdave]

I am convinced!

I just traded out of my 17 tacoma that was pretty well accessorized.
My 21 TRD ORP is 35% better that the taco! The 6 speed tranny in the taco sucked so bad, did realize how bad till I drove the 4runner for a few days! I drive 60 plus miles a day on the freeway and the 4runner is hands down the winner.
Old school engine and tranny work very well together!
We have 15 gx460 with a v8, nice rig but not rugged.
Got to have it for while before we go off in the sticks and find out what she can do on the trails.
The 4runners are almost always in short supply for a reason! People love them and they are safe. My daughter hit a parked dump truck at 65 mph on the left and walked away unscathed. Wouldn't recommend trying it but I am sure any other suv would have caused us to be grieving a loss and raising our 3 grandchildren!

Jump in while you can and your old 4runner is still probably worth 10 to 12 grand. That's amazing, any similar Ford, Chevy or whatever would be worth the salvage value.

 

[Pedro367]

I have had a 2016 JKU Sport S and now a 2018 ORP. Have loved both, but the 4Runner is definitely more practical and a much better drive. If I had a choice between the 2 i'd go with a 4Runner again, especially with FCAs current trends of reliability and problems.

Jeep:
The Good:
- Can't beat doorless/topless. Really nothing like it
- Better MPG
- Better trans. The 8 speed ZF Trans is great (had the 3.6l/8Spd combo in a 2014 Grand Cherokee I had and it was a pleasure to drive). My JK was a 6 Speed manual and it was a DOG. Incredibly slow. Get an auto if you go JL.
- Excellent resale value
- Much better tech. Have had Uconnect in my Grand Cherokee and it's great.
The Bad:
- Ride quality was fine, not great. Still a solid axle front vehicle. The JLs are much improved in ride quality from my JK, however.
- JLs seem to be having a lot of issues, at least if you ask the forums and facebook groups. Electrical issues, leaking tops, death wobble, etc. Reliability can't even compare to the 4runner.
- 3.6l not as reliable as the 4.0L Toyota engine.
- Interiors are still fairly sparce, but that's the allure of a wrangler.
- Smaller inside than the 4runner and interior materials are pretty cheap feeling.
- The dealers and service centers are awful. Zero customer service. I know this could be location specific, but the 3 I've dealt with by me in NJ were almost all the same when it came to servicing. Awful. I remember reading they were among the lowest customer service ratings among car brands recently.
- The worst thing.....The price. A Sport S JLU is TRD OR money and you get nothing. FCA still blows my mind with how much they can charge for what you get and their "a la carte" pricing for any cool features gets what you really want into the $50k+ range. $45-50k for a vehicle with a leaky top goes beyond the "It's a Jeep thing" rationale for me.

4Runner:
The Good:
- Big inside. Much better for my 2 carseats
- Rides much better and is much quiter.
- Power is adequate. I still don't understand why people complain.
- 5000lbs towing vs. 2500lbs for the JL
- Better features for the money.
- Incredible resale value
- Better interior with much better feeling materials
- Reliability is incredible. 5th Gens are tried and true
- Safer
The Bad:
- Worse tech, however I don't seem to mind Entune that much. Not sure what more people want especially with the 20+ having Apple Carplay and TSS, which I don't care for anyway.
- In my 3 months of ownership I can't really find any issues with it otherwise.

 

[Muff Muff]

Honestly, don't buy a new one.

Buy a used one.

 

[RusPro17]

The problem buying used 4runner what there asking you my wells buy a new one. Just my opinion.

 

[00Sebby]

So I guess what im saying is, convince me to buy a New 4Runner......

I loved my '10 TE as it looked great and did everything very well. Now I have a '20 ORP and it seems less comfortable (vinyl seats), is more sluggish, doesn't look as good as the pre-facelift Trail, and the Entune is terrible because of the high expectations I had vs. the old non-Entune system which actually worked well. I like it, but I don't love it. Almost daily I think about selling it and getting an older Land Cruiser. I guess I'm not a good convincer.

As for the JLU, I also had a '20 JLUR fully loaded. It had a better interior (real leather), better performance (v6 with 8AT and 4.10 gears), better lighting (LEDs), WAYYY better infotainment, ergonomics, better 4WD system, etc. But with all of the other JLs disintegrating around me, I was never confident with it and ended up selling it. It probably would've been fine as my seven Jeeps prior to it were but the Fiat part scared me.

 

[ryguytheman]

Honestly, don't buy a new one.

Buy a used one.

If you want one with relatively low mileage, it's only a $2K-$3K discount.

I bought mine used with 24,000 miles on the clock, got it for maybe 3K less than a new one at the time. And that was the best deal I could find for under 30K miles (though Colorado prices are skewed high, fwiw).

Worked out fine for me, I've since put 70K hard miles on it with no real problems. But the allure of buying used isn't great with used prices being what they are.

 

[KingPrat]

You're debating between a 4Runner and a Jeep, and one of your top metrics is long term reliability? :wtf:

You should spend some time on Consumer Reports and see how long it takes you to find a FCA product on their "Most Reliable" list....... You'll find at least 2 Toyotas in the top 5...

You're also dealing with familiarity. The 4.0/5sp is a good, reliable combo. The people claiming it's "sluggish", well, I don't agree. It's fine. Not a sports car nor is it designed to be. But if you jump on it, it'll certainly get up and go.

There are a lot of complaints about the 3.5/6sp combo in the new Tacoma. I've driven one as a rental car and I wasn't completely turned off, but there were some definite things that needed to be ironed out. Grass isn't always greener on the other side of a redesign.

I got a massive discount on my '17 ORP CPO in May, but it seems that prices have swung back up since then. If you're not too concerned about safety features like BSM or radar cruise, or CarPlay/Android, a CPO can give you a good discount depending on where you are, and the new rules with extended warranties were a deal-maker for me. 7yr/84k from date of purchase, not In-service, so I'm fully covered through 2027 and nearly 130k miles, well past my loan.

You can not go wrong with a 4Runner, but you already know that...

 

[toolguy]

the appeal for me, is the limited design updates.

4runner = traditional brute SUV ..

even better = TRAIL Edition, which has the traditional 4WD transfer case handle on the floor (no silly button)

for those waiting for a new model redesign..hopefully that redesign doesn't include a complete redesign to a "crossover" model....

 

[Muff Muff]

If you want one with relatively low mileage, it's only a $2K-$3K discount.

I bought mine used with 24,000 miles on the clock, got it for maybe 3K less than a new one at the time. And that was the best deal I could find for under 30K miles (though Colorado prices are skewed high, fwiw).

Worked out fine for me, I've since put 70K hard miles on it with no real problems. But the allure of buying used isn't great with used prices being what they are.

My deal was a CPO 2017 TRD Off Road with 42k miles for $32k after TTL back in February. A new 2020 TRD Off Road had an MSRP of $39,840; we can just call that the sale price after dealer discounts, then plus TTL. So about an $8k (probably a liberal estimate) difference for me in South/Central Texas.

I'll agree, in some markets there isn't a whole lot of difference between new and used prices. That being said, the best way to reduce the impact of financing anything is to reduce the principal as much as possible, and any dealer discounts on a new car still probably won't get you too close to a used price.

I'm personally the exact opposite; the allure of a new car doesn't really get me because I'd rather let someone else take the depreciation hit if it means me getting a decent discount on a basically still new car.

 

[John in NC]

My coworker has a 4 door Wrangler with a mild lift and I think 33's. He is in his late 40's and was literally borrowing his parent's Honda Accord to shuttle his kids around to travel soccer games. He said the Jeep was that bad on the highway- noise, gas mileage, wear and tear, hard to keep in a straight line etc.
He gave it to his 17 year old and bought a new Subaru Crosstrek, mainly for the car like ride and gas mileage, and that it was sort of a wagon for decent cargo space (I thought it was very small inside).

The 4runner is predictable, reliable, good looking... not sexy or fast, but flat out gets the job done.

 

[Whippersnapper02]

Buy one.

#end thread

 

[054Runner1]

All thanks for the comments so far. Keep them rolling. Don’t get me wrong I absolutely love my 4runner hence why I’ve kept it for 15 years and am considering a new one. I just want assurance that the new ones are every bit as well built and bulletproof as my 4th gen. I’ve heard some folks saying they aren’t what they used to be and that’s what I want to verify.

With regards to the engine and trans I don’t drive like a maniac nor am I expecting sports car performance. I just don’t want to try and get on the insane Texas entrance ramps and get rear ended trying to merge because this new Runner accelerates like a 4cyl Corolla.

 

[KingPrat]

With regards to the engine and trans I don’t drive like a maniac nor am I expecting sports car performance. I just don’t want to try and get on the insane Texas entrance ramps and get rear ended trying to merge because this new Runner accelerates like a 4cyl Corolla.

The specs I've been able to find:

2005 V6 4runner 0-60: 7.3-7.6 seconds (I found lots of different info, V8 down toward 7.1)

2020 V6 4Runner 0-60: 7.5 seconds. The TRD Pro is a bit higher

Have you driven one?

 

[Snowtrooper]

I loved my '10 TE as it looked great and did everything very well. Now I have a '20 ORP and it seems less comfortable (vinyl seats), is more sluggish, doesn't look as good as the pre-facelift Trail, and the Entune is terrible because of the high expectations I had vs. the old non-Entune system which actually worked well. I like it, but I don't love it. Almost daily I think about selling it and getting an older Land Cruiser. I guess I'm not a good convincer.

Out of curiosity, why did you sell your ‘10 TE?

And I agree, the early model trail 4runners look great. I wish Toyota kept the early rectangle lights and incorporated a more modern reflector . The headlight design seems more congruent with the rest of the blocky body lines.

With the pushed up approach angle of the current 5th gen, the damn thing looks like a catfish without trail/trd front bumper trim.

As for the OP, I love my ‘18 TRD. My previous car is from 2003 so I don’t miss any modern features. There will always be better technology so as long as my phone can connect i don’t care.

 

[02SE]

The opinions of others never swayed my opinion of what I wanted.

So I'd say that if you can't come up with a reason to own a new 4Runner, then it's probably not for you.

 

[4FL]

All thanks for the comments so far. Keep them rolling. Don’t get me wrong I absolutely love my 4runner hence why I’ve kept it for 15 years and am considering a new one. I just want assurance that the new ones are every bit as well built and bulletproof as my 4th gen. I’ve heard some folks saying they aren’t what they used to be and that’s what I want to verify.

With regards to the engine and trans I don’t drive like a maniac nor am I expecting sports car performance. I just don’t want to try and get on the insane Texas entrance ramps and get rear ended trying to merge because this new Runner accelerates like a 4cyl Corolla.

I live in Miami, arguably a city with one of the most a-hole drivers, and getting on the I-95, jumping between traffic, etc, has never been an issue regarding acceleration/power in the 4runner. The 4runner you have to smash the pedal more than what it seems most other cars have to.

 

[00Sebby]

Out of curiosity, why did you sell your ‘10 TE?

And I agree, the early model trail 4runners look great. I wish Toyota kept the early rectangle lights and incorporated a more modern reflector . The headlight design seems more congruent with the rest of the blocky body lines.

With the pushed up approach angle of the current 5th gen, the damn thing looks like a catfish without trail/trd front bumper trim.

As for the OP, I love my ‘18 TRD. My previous car is from 2003 so I don’t miss any modern features. There will always be better technology so as long as my phone can connect i don’t care.

You saw the part about the '20 Rubicon? I got Jeep fever last year as I have owned many Jeeps. Bought what I thought was going to be my dream Jeep and then sold the '10 Trail. Mistake because a few months later I was unloading the Jeep and got back into a 4Runner. But as the old song goes, "If I could turn back time..."

 

[Mudballz]

Do it but if would rather own a Ford Hyundai Jeep Land Rover be prepared to know your service manger by first name or would like to lose half of the value after 3 years do it
Or just buy the most capable trouble free ish most versatile vehicle available today do it :drum:
Intelligence rules :fear:
Mike

 

[llDemonll]

even better = TRAIL Edition, which has the traditional 4WD transfer case handle on the floor (no silly button)

You know the front actuator is still controlled by a computer and is electronic, right? So yea the lever is cool, but it's not a manual system by any means.