funny this came up because i just had a friend ask me why i have both still so i went into a good long talk about it.....
Im going to talk about a different kind of land rover, a stock $2-3K used land rover discovery series I and how it compares only off roading because obviously these don't really compare outside that. one is old and unreliable and the other is brand new and a toyota.
l have a land rover discovery 1999 SD. I paid $2600 used with 50K miles and in perfect condition.
let me preface with the fact that I LOOOOVE my 4runner. I would never say a bad thing about it because it exactly what i was looking for in it...but i know its place in the pecking order as far as when i go on an overland trip.
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As far as off road capabilities the 4runner is great but the Disco is head a shoulders above it. you can site as much as you want about either truck but I've put both through their paces and the gap is noticeable enough that theres simply no argument.. much like comporting a Rubicon to a 4runner. yes the 4runner will follow it anywhere, but the Rubi will do it that much easier.
Then theres the money. For the price of a suspension lift on a 4runner you buy a perfect condition disco with 60-80k miles on it that will run another 200k. And by the time you finish making that a go-anywhere-beast of an overlander with an awesome comfortable off road ride and plush cabin...you've still only paid half or maybe a little over half of the msrp on a stock 4runner. But even that aside, after a 4" lift on my Disco (you can go as nuts height wise as you want for the same money, but 4" is what i did, most do 2") , with all the geometry and HD part needed to make it all jive, i still have money left for protection (bumpers, sliders, skids etc) and maybe even a detroit locker, where the 4runner is still only at suspension and 2-3" lift max. The difference in price to get both of these to the same level is huge. then when thats all said and done, the suspension articulation and the ground clearance difference between these two is light years apart anyway.
Then, there's the cargo and the size of the trucks itself. The 4runner is a great size, but compared to the disco its wider, shorter height and longer wheelbase. If you overland enough then you know what that means when comparing to the narrower, taller shorter wheelbase Disco. Basically, better for trails and more cargo.
Reliability? yeah, the disco blows big time, we all know that ..... IF you know nothing about cars that is.
the 1999 disco series I is basically all mechanical analog truck...no gismos, electronic digidoos to screw you half way out the trail. Once you replace the leaky head gasket that all these suffer from, mechanically this truck will run as long as you own it. It has a basic harness/electrical system and all the drivetrain parts are mechanical and extremely easy to service ON THE TRAIL. If you know the truck then you carry 3 sensors in the glovebox...that alone eliminates 99.9% of what goes bad on these trucks. You can count on the heated seats and sunroofs to give you hell every now and then, but they're just moody, thats all.
on the pavement... thats why i have the 4runner. The disco is borderline a trailer queen now after everything I've done, but even stock the thing is a pig with the handling characteristics of a cheerleader piramid. I don't trailer it, but it has no sway bars ( i took the off for articu), its 4-5" higher than stock, it has tons of protection on it (weight), no even 200HP, weighs a tons stock and its top heavy...so driving 12 hours on pavement to some destinations is a slow going affair. The 4runner in the other hand, with or without a full lift, is a pleasure, no need to go into it, you all know that.
Where does the 4runner fit? it fits in 99% of my trips, the ones that don't go on to trails that require serious crawling for extended amount of times to cross a valley and such (the flint trail or mormon trail in UT for reference). The 4runner will get a 2-3" lift and some protection, but it won't be turned into some beast, i want this one for the whole family to enjoy short RELIABLE trips that i won't find myself changing a blown axel or things of that sort.
thats how both of my trucks fit and they both serve that purpose perfectly.
TL;DR land rover discovery series 1s suck at everything but off roading in comfort... so you should definitively own one because aside form being $2600 ... when the pavement ends, they run circles around the 4runner and you won't care if you scratch it.