Most 4Runners never see dirt either, what's your point?
It's a truck, with 4 doors, a hell of a lot of towing capacity, it's just tuned to handle the desert in a way that no Toyota comes from the factory or can compete with unless you start gutting the truck and caging it.
The first Gen is entirely different than the 2nd Gen, and even Gen 1 owners will kind of lower their head since the Gen 2 was built from the ground up to be an off road monster.
The Raptors never got stuck in a variety of technical, rocky, silt, beach, etc, the only one that got stuck was in silt, and the driver took a crappy line and lifted at the wrong moment and got stuck, but so did a jeep and so did a tundra.
As for towing? They tow great. As for MPG, with a 36gal tank they get 18-21mpg even on 37s and that was factoring in offroad.
They don't add the mechanical complexity of a 3rd party super charger for like 8K dollars either, but please, tell me about value.
And to the other poster, I didn't bring my trailer on this trip, why would I bring my trailer on that trip?
For all the guys chirping about reliability, to suggest a chevy is pretty laughable. Admittedly the ZR2 looks and is very cool, but it's about the same size as a Tacoma inside, and the Tacoma is very small inside.
The Raptor could haul my motorcycle around, my dog, and pull my XV3 trailer, with ease.
If Toyota ever pulls its head out of its ass that'd be awesome. Instead of putting on hipster bullshit like Hotel Tacoma they could I don't know...hire actual off road enthusiasts to the TRD team and make cool shit again, instead of soccer mom vehicles. There's a reason why they keep losing market segments.
Don't be fooled... These trucks are neat, but the use case is so narrow. It's one of the most misunderstood vehicle on the market.
To use it for what it is made for will destroy it. It inspires too much confidence at speed offroad, but the reality is that high speed and offroad don't mix well for most people. It's mainly a race team activity where the course is well understood. Most raptors never see any dirt and those that do often end up with bent frames and broken suspension ... it's not the trucks fault.. It just allows the unskilled driver to push into territory that will break just about anything. The only real use case for them is a well understood course or a very experienced desert driver. Otherwise, any other vehicle will serve the same purpose. Because you really need to be pushing the speed to take advantage of what it is.
Also, they don't do general off-roading well. Rocks, mud, narrow trails are miserable in them. The wheelbase is huge and thus the turning radius. Horrible breakover angles. The base weight is pretty much 6k pounds which creates a lot of ground pressure and sinking. I don't own one, but have a few friends that do own first gens and they readily admit it is not built for typical offroading and they actually own Toyotas or Jeeps for that.
If you are looking for something new.... Take a look at the zr2. That is much more do it all with updated tech to match. And the price is about 20k less making it a great value. The avg buyer will utilize the capabilities of the zr2... not the raptor. And when I say capability... I'm talking speed not ability to go from point A to point B in mixed terrain conditions. The zr2 and 4runner will both crush the raptor in that department.
The raptor use to be OK for towing.. but the new ones probably get extremely bad mpg in those conditions. I have not seen any test.. but small gas motors with turbos don't do well for towing in terms of efficiency.
It's just such narrow focused truck... Go check it out.. but make sure to think about how you will use it. Lots of time running baja.. it might be for you. Somehow I'm guessing that is not the case though.
