LOL, it sure sounds like it at times haha.
KDSS or PRO?
- Thread starter Clrems77
- Start date
LOL, it sure sounds like it at times haha.
Hydguy
Member
Not sure where you got your info, but KDSS is most certainly available on the lot the the Gulf States. I live in FL, and see them at the dealership lot all the time. Matter of fact, most of the Trail editions come with the slider installed too.
Then they are not getting their 4runners using the regular Gulf method. KDSS is special order only for those states. I searched for months and found this the hard way until I found a dealership in Texas that traded with a non-gulf dealership.
mynameistory
New member
Hydguy
Member
Not sure what method they could use other than the regular method.
Regardless, your blanket statement isn't correct, as dealerships in FL stock 4Runners with KDSS.
When I purchased my '18 with KDSS, it was part of their inbound stock, and I had one thing added as a PIO. It arrived in less than a week after I purchased it. Had the VIN the day I ordered it. The only reason I didn't purchase off the lot was because they didn't have a MGM TRDORP with KDSS on the lot. Since I had to wait a few days, I had them do the 3-1 LED DRLS as a PIO. But they had several other KDSS equipped 4Runners on the lot.
CavPro
Member
I'd say the work done at the port is part of an import agreement rather than disrupting the assembly line.
Some of us (myself included) don't want a sunroof. I've had them on the majority of my vehicles, including the panoramic style, and they are rarely touched by myself or the misses. In regards to the Pro, I knew I was going to put a full length rack up top so a sunroof would be pointless and would only add to more wind noise in the cabin. As of 2019, Pro's come standard with a sunroof and a few other items, that's part of the reason for the $3K+ base price hike over the 2015-2018 models.
The Waco Kid
New member
Florida, while it is technically a state located on the gulf, it is not under the Gulf States Toyota distribution arm. GST controls distribution for Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana, and Mississippi.
All that said, GST has not been importing KDSS equipped 4runners since 2013. I would know, I spent a month trying to find one in the region and ended up special ordering. Each dealer I talked too acknowledged that GST/Friedkin did not order or request mass allocations for KDSS 4runners. You'd have to special order and pray they accept it.
Edit: I stand corrected. There are 4 total for sale in the region, and only available in MGM or Nautical Blue. My guess is that they were special ordered and the people backed out, or a dealer requested them specifically. There's no associated VIN with the 4, so I can't find who has them in stock and with all that said, you still will likely have to special order one in the GST region.
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DanHampton
New member
Its incredibly ugly. Works on a fj. Not on a 4runner
I tried to have the wife look at 4Runners for a while before we bought her first new car is a while. She drove a non KDSS SR5 and felt like it handled like a boat. I couldn't argue. We ended up with an Outback. (Which I secretly loved....)
When kiddo came along, she waned something taller as did I so we looked at 4Runners again. This time we had a trail premium with KDSS and she liked it enough that we traded in the Outback. Kinda miss that outback...
So if you have a wife........................
When kiddo came along, she waned something taller as did I so we looked at 4Runners again. This time we had a trail premium with KDSS and she liked it enough that we traded in the Outback. Kinda miss that outback...
So if you have a wife........................
I have had a few Toyota trucks over the years. Traded my 2015 Tacoma in on my 2017 4Runner Pro. My truck was all modded up and sold everything off it. I did not want to go thru doing the same to my 4Runner and I liked how the Pro looked and the value especially I bought mine msrp. It was not hiked up. No plans in changing out anything. I can trade this in the fall for a 2019 or 2020 and get almost what I paid. I did the same with my Tacoma.
mynameistory
New member
I have no idea what you mean by that. What import agreement, and why would portside installs affect it?
CavPro
Member
All i'm saying is with the tariffs and trade deals who knows exactly why they do stuff like install things at the ports (AMPORTS ) instead of at the factory, but as in the past with installing truck beds after the vehicles arrived in the US, AC as a dealer installed upgrade, NUMMI manufactured vehicles, or even moving assembly plants to the US, everything they do in this regard does have a reason and imo it's not because of the existing assembly line and not wanting to change it. I'm sure it's been changed / updated, at least I hope it has been to some degree or another over the last decade.
cb1111
Member
Correct. This process of port installed items started some years ago when it was determined that many items "went missing" in transit. Accordingly, manufacturers started shipping some easily pilferable items in a containers like mats and tools. That then expanded to radios and other parts that required installation and now also includes locally sourced items.
mynameistory
New member
The truck bed installation port-side was an exploitation of the chicken tax. Since light pickup truck imports require a 25% import tariff (chicken tax), manufacturers thought up all kinds of crazy ways to get around it.
Toyota shipped pickups as cab-on-frame and then attached the bed after arrival, Subaru installed cheap jump seats in the bed of the Brat and called it a "passenger vehicle"; even Ford made Transit work vans in Turkey with cheap seats and interior installed, and then they removed and shredded everything locally in order to avoid a tariff that Ford themselves had their part in requesting from the government in the fifties.
All of these loopholes are closed now, and all light pickup trucks sold in the US are made in North America. Trying to import a truck with a 25% added cost is suicide to an automaker.
Individual components of a vehicle are not taxed differently (for example, Limited trucks with XREAS shocks are taxed the same as SR5 trucks with standard suspension).
The Pro trucks are low-volume products that are essentially appearance packages on Off-Road Premium 4Runners. There is a huge cost associated with disrupting a production line, especially for one so long in the tooth and established as the 5th gen (which is almost 100% automated). As strange as it sounds, it is cheaper to have the Pro-parts installed here (shocks, trim, wheels etc.) by a small team than to completely disrupt the product mix at the factory.
This is also the reason I believe why the Pro colors are only available for one year each on the 4Runner, while the other trucks made here in NA have the colors available the year after (inferno orange, quicksand, cement, cavalry and voodoo blue, etc.) Don't forget that in addition to painting the body, there are other components (bumper, mirror caps, doors, etc.) that must be manufactured and matched exactly with the truck. The NA lines have more capacity to accommodate additional product mix. The Tahara plant is likely at max capacity with the sudden skyrocketing of popularity for this old dinosaur of an SUV.
From another post where I detailed this further:
That might be because I'm not impressing product mix on you enough. In your head, you might be picturing cars as a single piece on a conveyor belt going through a single paint booth. Just change the color of paint in the gun, right? But that's not how automated assembly lines work.
True, bodies-in-white travel through the paint booth(s) in that fashion. But what about trim pieces? Bumpers? Grill assemblies? Door handles? Sideview mirror caps? Spoiler? Those are integrated later as the car moves through the assembly line. They are delivered just in time to be installed (JIT manufacturing), not waiting in piles of inventory on the floor. Those allocations must be made carefully to match the order of cars coming down the line, and disaster waits when they are not. Let's all take a second to laugh at FCA's handling of product mix on the new JL Wrangler.
Could you imagine a red 4Runner arriving at the dealer with blue bumpers? No, because that would be ridiculous and the undoing of Toyota's fastidious image of building things correctly. Jeep gets a pass because, well, Jeep guys are willing to put up with a lot of bullshít to be seen as "Jeep guys" including watching their trackbars shearing off at the frame.
I'll bet that the one-off colors for the 4Runner Pro had to be hard fought with the bean-counters over in Tahara. I am guessing that there is more flexibility in San Antonio because there is less automation, and more people on site to accommodate line errors.
Jetboy
New member
FWIW Toyota does not build vehicles in production series. On the same factory line a red prado will follow a white 4runner then a blue gx460. Adding a paint color is not really a complicated task on a Toyota production line like it might be on many others. However, it still requires paint and every color has a cost. There's no reason they couldn't sell in every gx/prado/4runner color though. Paint is s minor detail. The trd pro doesn't share a frame with a kdss model (kdss has a different frame, pro is shared with all other 4x4 models ).
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