You will be happy either way, but if you do plan on lifting it get the trail.
If you get the Pro as I am sure you can tell from this thread, prepare to get bashed on a daily basis around here. Welcome aboard.
[MENTION=115435]Bevo[/MENTION] it's not owning a TRD Pro that causes people to get bashed. It's being a douche that causes the bashing. I might own a TRD Pro one of these days (LC more likely though) and I would fully expect to be excoriated if I posted, in a public forum no less, my lame justifications to mod for the Baja in order to go to the mall.
I understand people wanting to be prepared for any eventuality, buying said items needed and then never using them. The difference is how they do it. Coming to an enthusiast's forum where many actually go off road on a regular basis and stating you want to make $$$$ worth of mods to go to the mall is asking, begging for ridicule of the highest order. The word poser comes to mind.
We all know the 4Runner, in stock form, is one of the most reliable, dependable and capable vehicles you can buy in the US today. They require zero modifications to take you places very few vehicles out there can go. Modding to tackle difficult terrain is one thing. Modding to go places a Toyota Corolla can go is something else entirely.
Case in point:
Yesterday my wife and I along with a few friends went on a hike and packed a lunch. To get to the trail head was a seven mile drive down a dirt road. When we got there the vehicles around me ranged from a minivan to lifted F350 diesels. Easy dirt road. We hiked for around three hours and decided to drive down a trail to the river to have our lunch. There were a few vehicles down there and minivans were conspicuously absent. It was only about two miles from where we were parked but the terrain was far from a simple dirt road. It was a dirt road, but it was steep with switchbacks and rutted from erosion. When we were packing up to leave a Dodge 2500 Cummins that was lifted on 37's was leaving also. He left about five minutes before us. When we got to the first switchback he was stuck. He eventually had to back down (which made me have to back down) and take a much simpler line in order to finally get up to the top. I just put mine in 4HI (that's all) and calmly drove right through the switchback and on to the top. No drama, no spinning, no nothing. My 4Runner has no functional mods. It does have a new Gadsden Flag sticker on it though. Point is that truck was modded to look cool but by doing his mods he actually made the truck less capable. Those wide tires had reduced the already light rear end's ground pressure to a point that he could get no traction on the rear. In 4WD his front tires were not enough to pull that heavy truck around the switchback.
If people are going to mod then they should mod for a reason. If it's only for looks then say so and not try to justify it for anything else and be prepared for lots of comments.
