My thoughts on new T4R

[wbender]

2 weeks, 1000 miles:

Handles great, good engine performance. No quality defects to date.

Interior lighting - F, overdash personal lights should light with door opening. I am working on the install to fix this.

My radio and heating displays are slightly different color in daylight and at night with illumination. It is rather difficult for me to read the radio display with the lettering on the orange background. This is very poor design and looks cheap.

I don't like the pods in the dash. With where my 6'1" body sits, the middle pod obscures the inner most portion of both flanking pods. The 3 modules should sit at the same depth.

The window controls are not lit. I hope I get used to finding them.

The cup holders are too large and will not securely hold a normal coffee cup.

Overall, the intererior needs a health dose of Audi/VW ergonomic/lighting input. Granted these are rather little things but they weren't evident to me during the test drive, but I expect better from a $40,000+ Limited 4 Runner.

 

[Northof49]

Ya Audi/VW really has their interiors dialed in.....I particularily like how everything you touch busts off in your hand and how the seat fabric stains if you look at it funny, oh and that extra thin boat carpet/astroturf they use that looks 10 years old after a month.......good features

 

[Bill42]

It's funny how some folks focus on the negative side of things - or in your case - the coffee cup being half empty.

Your remarks sound to me as if you should be driving a Lexus. It is truly unfortunate that you seem to be so unhappy with your brand new purchase. Buyer's remorse perhaps?

Possibly, after you spend a bit more time with your new 4Runner, you'll begin to appreciate the positives and accept the quirks for what they are - quirks.

 

[iFORCE]

note on the cup holder - there are adjustable plastic flaps that make the hole smaller making easier for you to secure cups of coffee.

 

[rossmon1]

cmon guys

no need to jump all over the guy 4 disliking a few things. You guys act like you personally designed the truck.
The trucks cool but its not perfect, nothing is.
I hope you all agree that the bumpers suck for example.

And so what if he's misguided about the quality of vw/audi interiors
BTW, i only spent 31k on my truck so i guess anyone is entitled to some unhappiness after spending over 40k and not getting a lexus.

 

[fastlif306]

the cup holder pulls out and moves side to side as well, so check that out before you give up on it. I dunno bought the gripe on the lighting, mine seems fine. If you were that unhappy with the interior, how did you get past the test drive? I do believe there are better interiors, but I think honda pilot, cept for the lack of legroom, the layout of that dash and center console is awesome to me. But, I loved so much about the runner, and its a Toyota, that I would buy it if it had an ol school interior anyway. I can say/agree that the window switches could use a relocate and lights. I think the good outweighs the bad.

 

[Boaz]

Ya Audi/VW really has their interiors dialed in.....I particularily like how everything you touch busts off in your hand and how the seat fabric stains if you look at it funny, oh and that extra thin boat carpet/astroturf they use that looks 10 years old after a month.......good features

I agree, the interior in my jetta sucked!!!

 

[CVsGX470]

I agree, the interior in my jetta sucked!!!

:iagree:

My wife had a VR6 jetta with black leather interior. The options were nice but for the life of me, I could not focus on the blue dash lights. They screwed with my eyes. The floor mats did seem like that cheap outide carpet you put on a dock. The car pissed me off because I couldn't do any work on it...like change the oil unless I had half a day to kill and a hydraulic lift.:bash:

The last straw was when the glove box broke (from normal use) and they wanted 175 to fix it. BS! Stick the car up your arse and I will buy her the Jeep Liberty she wanted.

CV

 

[Sac State]

My radio and heating displays are slightly different color in daylight and at night with illumination. It is rather difficult for me to read the radio display with the lettering on the orange background. This is very poor design and looks cheap.

Being red/green color blind, I cannot distinguish what selection I have made on the HVAC unit. Give me knobs and switches like the 3rd generation. The 'lights' on the HVAC control unit are useless.

 

[Sac State]

note on the cup holder - there are adjustable plastic flaps that make the hole smaller making easier for you to secure cups of coffee.

They are not deep enough, my 16oz. water bottles go flying across the rig when I make a turn and they are in these 'cup holders'. Even with the grip arms holding them 'in'.

 

[AlexJet]

Interior lighting - F, overdash personal lights should light with door opening. I am working on the install to fix this.

I agree with you. These lights should come on when opening drivers

 

[GYoter]

There is a thread about how to get those lights to come on with doors.

http://www.toyota-4runner.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=6738&highlight=MAP+LIGHT

 

[wbender]

Interesting to note the instant responses from members of the board who:

fail to recognize the initial good words said about the new vehicle which I do like and enjoy

seem unable to comprehend or accept any critical thought about design or implementation of said vehicle.

I encourage review of ANY road rag VW/Audi vehicle evaluation which will almost always acknowledge the quality of design and materials of the interior

My comments are meant to be constructive criticism of a fine car/SUV which like almost any other thing could be better. Blind acceptance or flat refusal to believe/accept constructive criticism is not helpful. This is not meant to be whining buyer's remorse for those who misinterpreted my comments.

I will state again my most pointed criticism - why are two digital displays located one above the other not the same background color in daylight or when illuminated. It appears that two parts close in appearance were thrown together and no sense of integration was considered. Maybe OK for your truck but (again) not for a $40,000+ loaded Limited for which I paid a tad over $36k. Why aren't they more readable? The arm on the cupholder does not hold any cup I have tried when performing anything like the driving I like to do. Yes, my previous vehicle's cupholder did quite well, thank you. (2002 Audi A6 with 96k miles.)

 

[Mark86]

wbender, which radio do you have in your truck? I have the base radio and I don't see a difference.

 

[Northof49]

Interesting to note the instant responses from members of the board who:

fail to recognize the initial good words said about the new vehicle which I do like and enjoy

seem unable to comprehend or accept any critical thought about design or implementation of said vehicle.

I encourage review of ANY road rag VW/Audi vehicle evaluation which will almost always acknowledge the quality of design and materials of the interior

Honestly, I know I was a possibly a bit more aburpt than necessary and do reconise room for improvement in many aspects of the 4Runner, and any other vehicle out there FTM.

But wishing a VW/Audi interior upon a perfectly good 4Runner was too much for me to swallow.....I co-owned a detail shop for 5 years, and there's only 2 brands of vehicle that give me cold-sweat nightmares years laters; VW and Audi.

I'll agree the interior seems to be made from thick, high quality materials upon initial glance/touch, but that goes out the window quickly. Everything you touch breaks....if you can find a Jetta without a busted ashtray or mirror switch.....you're a better man than I. The carpet is an absolute disaster....nothing comes out of it; sand, stains and hair are in there for life. The cloth seats have the same problem. The dye comes out of the door handles if you fart near them.

Many like the lighting because of the colours, but I find it gay. The ergonomics are all bunged up; switches and controls are in goofy random spots....the turn signal stalk is an abortion.

The amount of money we spent replacing shit that broke on Jetta's during routine cleaning was retarded....the amount of time wasted trying to vacuum/shampoo that godforsaken carpet and seat fabric; immeasurable by modern science. After an upholstery shampoo, you crossed your fingers and prayer to all things Holy that all the electronics would still work.

We bought all our cleaning supplies from a high-quality regional wholesaler, and certain stuff like pet hair brushes and vinyl cleaners would actually come with warnings to the effect of, "Works on all damn vehicles excluding VW Jetta, Passat, Golf, etc." This guy had detailed cars for like 40 years, and if there was a VW/Audi full of dog hair in the shop he'd always chuckle and say something like "good f#$% luck!"

Magazines can say whatever they want, I've driven and cleaned 1000's of cars from Yugo's to Lambo's, and can draw my own opinions.....did I mention I HATE VW/AUDI INTERIORS!!!

/end rant

 

[rubberducky]

I agree with the points about the overhead lighting and the door, as well as the lack of lighting on the window switch panel. Especially if you're illuminating the 'AUTO' letters on one. Why not them all.

The other things mentioned don't bother me much.

It's funny how people get defensive though. Someone here praised how Toyota does little things like put the hitch pin within easy reach. While I thought the exact opposite and took a drill to my reciever hitch to be able to slide my bike rack in an extra inch and a half and utilize it's anti-wobble feature that would've been useless had I used the factory pin hole.

 

[Mark86]

I agree with you about the window switches as well. A little illuminated dot would do the trick. Just give us a way to find the three other window switches at night.

 

[alpha]

I agree with you about the window switches as well. A little illuminated dot would do the trick. Just give us a way to find the three other window switches at night.

well, you can see the one, and once your hand is there, not very hard to find the other three switches..

 

[AlexJet]

well, you can see the one, and once your hand is there, not very hard to find the other three switches..

But it still be better if they all lights. Another thing I'd like Toyota to think about is to make passenger window AUTO too.

 

[alpha]

But it still be better if they all lights. Another thing I'd like Toyota to think about is to make passenger window AUTO too.

all the windows being auto would have been nice.. yeah, i agree, it would be better if they all lit up, but it honestly doesn't really bother me that much anymore.. i don't really ever look down there while driving.. just place my hand there and find them.. but essentially, it does the job.. just tell you where the switches are located, whether it be one switch lit, or all.. but i do agree, i think it would be better if they all lit up, but mostly for looks..