The 5th Gen interior is peak 4Runner - it can only go downhill from here

[2021nightshade4x4]

We’ve got CarPlay now, auto climate, heated AND ventilated seats, multi-terrain camera, and styling that hasn’t gotten “cheaper” looking over time. Life is pretty darn good.

Other brands have taken a step back in later iterations of the same model. Here’s how NOT to do it.

Lexus was already pushing their luck with the “pop up”style screen of the 2016-2021 LX570. The display was no longer under the “brow” of the dash.

With the 2022 LX600 they seem to have taken things a bit further with now 2” of screen protruding above the dash.

This looks like a Frankenstein of different parts, some iPad afterthought feature that plagues mid level German brands. Glare galore, and looks like I can snap it off with one finger.

What are they thinking?


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[5thToy]

Styling aside, quality and durability of interior materials in the 4th Gen were better than 5th Gen in my opinion.

 

[Charles Bronson]

The 5th gen 4Runner interior is nearly all hard and hollow plastic, the seats wrapped in vinyl, a "leather" wrapped steering wheel that feels more like vinyl/rubber, a shift gate from 2005 with a hilariously massive and non-ergonomic shift knob, no auto climate in ORP, and hilariously bad speakers. Then there's the 2000s era 5 speed auto, an archaic V6, and woeful throttle tuning which teamed together equal terrible mpgs and laggy acceleration and downshifting.

We paid $38K for my wife's new at the time 2020 ORP (listed at $44.5K). I would not have paid a penny more for what you get with the interior and drivetrain. Paying $40K or more for one of these old school trucks is bonkers to me.

With all that negativity above, I will say that the interior can take a real beating. It's also very tight after 2 years and 26K miles. Not a rattle. My wife and daughter are hard as hell on the interior and there's not a scratch. My wife throws a 10 foot paddle board in the back with 4 feet of it hanging out the back window multiple times a week and nothing is scratched in the interior. The vinyl seats are fine, are easy to clean, and look brand new. We addressed the speakers with an upgraded $650 set from OEM+ Audio and it's massively better. We'll address the throttle tuning with a Sprint Booster. My wife absolutely loves her 4Runner and so do I.

There's no doubt that the 6th gen 4Runner will move upmarket and will undoubtedly have a tablet jutting out from the dash. There will be much more soft touch material throughout the interior just like all the current Toyota offerings have now. Soft touch materials are far more preferable as they don't scratch or damage as easily plus they look and feel far better. I do hope Toyota keeps the vinyl seats in the off road focused models as leather doesn't make much sense.

 

[2021nightshade4x4]

Styling aside, quality and durability of interior materials in the 4th Gen were better than 5th Gen in my opinion.

Initially in my search for a T4R I thought I would find a low mileage example of a “Unicorn” 4th Gen, but had to give up on that search.

2009 V8 Limited with Nav? Not for under $30k [emoji23]


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[2021nightshade4x4]

The 5th gen 4Runner interior is nearly all hard and hollow plastic, the seats wrapped in vinyl, a "leather" wrapped steering wheel that feels more like vinyl/rubber, a shift gate from 2005 with a hilariously massive and non-ergonomic shift knob, no auto climate in ORP, and hilariously bad speakers. Then there's the 2000s era 5 speed auto, an archaic V6, and woeful throttle tuning which teamed together equal terrible mpgs and laggy acceleration and downshifting.

We paid $38K for my wife's new at the time 2020 ORP (listed at $44.5K). I would not have paid a penny more for what you get with the interior and drivetrain. Paying $40K or more for one of these old school trucks is bonkers to me.

With all that negativity above, I will say that the interior can take a real beating. It's also very tight after 2 years and 26K miles. Not a rattle. My wife and daughter are hard as hell on the interior and there's not a scratch. My wife throws a 10 foot paddle board in the back with 4 feet of it hanging out the back window multiple times a week and nothing is scratched in the interior. The vinyl seats are fine, are easy to clean, and look brand new. We addressed the speakers with an upgraded $650 set from OEM+ Audio and it's massively better. We'll address the throttle tuning with a Sprint Booster. My wife absolutely loves her 4Runner and so do I.

There's no doubt that the 6th gen 4Runner will move upmarket and will undoubtedly have a tablet jutting out from the dash. There will be much more soft touch material throughout the interior just like all the current Toyota offerings have now. Soft touch materials are far more preferable as they don't scratch or damage as easily plus they look and feel far better. I do hope Toyota keeps the vinyl seats in the off road focused models as leather doesn't make much sense.

I still have the plastic dash but do have a little bit of leather on the doors. Same as your experience, though, no rattles. Rubber bushings definitely doing their job somewhere!


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[Pedro367]

We paid $38K for my wife's new at the time 2020 ORP (listed at $44.5K). I would not have paid a penny more for what you get with the interior and drivetrain. Paying $40K or more for one of these old school trucks is bonkers to me.

Think of it this way. A stripped out automatic Wrangler Unlimited Sport with crank windows is $40k and people pay it. The ORP is a luxury vehicle compared to that and offers so much more in a MUCH better vehicle. I personally find the inside of my ORP to be a really nice place to be regardless of how dated it is. I think the color/light scheme works really well and love the Softex seats. I find them to be very comfortable and clean up super easily.

 

[Captain Spalding]

Styling aside, quality and durability of interior materials in the 4th Gen were better than 5th Gen in my opinion.

Yes. Gen 4 is peak 4Runner IMO.

 

[Charles Bronson]

I still have the plastic dash but do have a little bit of leather on the doors. Same as your experience, though, no rattles. Rubber bushings definitely doing their job somewhere!

I believe all 4Runner models have the same door cards with the soft touch vinyl on the upper part of the doors.

 

[Charles Bronson]

Yes. Gen 4 is peak 4Runner IMO.

Toyota definitely took a few steps backwards with the 5th gen interior quality of materials vs the 4th gen.

 

[Brandonium]

4th gens never did it for me. 2nd and 3rd gens are a different story. I just wasn't a fan of the interior on the last generation.

 

[Blackwatch]

4th gens never did it for me. 2nd and 3rd gens are a different story. I just wasn't a fan of the interior on the last generation.

The 4th gen always reminded me of a Grand Cherokee.

 

[Sundy]

We’ve got CarPlay now, auto climate, heated AND ventilated seats, multi-terrain camera, and styling that hasn’t gotten “cheaper” looking over time. Life is pretty darn good.

The 5th gen 4runner was a HUGE step backwards on the interior compared to my 2016 GMC Sierra and even my 2009 Chevy Silverado.

I have a 2019 TRD ORP - it has cruise control which ranges in speed greatly, a radio system which is no better than an early 2000's system from most manufacturers, pleather which feels quite pleathery, zero car play, limited seat adjustability (for a "premium vehicle"), and plastic all over. You have a limited which does provide a slight uptick in the seat quality/features, but these should be available on the TRDs if they want to stay in line with modern tech.

Is it nice, sure. Is it premium and not "cheap" looking? Not to me.

Personally I think the materials/quality of the interiors on the 3/4th gens were nicer (similar to the old FJ80s).

To each their own - if the 6th gen doesn't make drastic improvements it's not on the consideration list.

 

[Sundy]

The 5th gen 4Runner interior is nearly all hard and hollow plastic, the seats wrapped in vinyl, a "leather" wrapped steering wheel that feels more like vinyl/rubber, a shift gate from 2005 with a hilariously massive and non-ergonomic shift knob, no auto climate in ORP, and hilariously bad speakers. Then there's the 2000s era 5 speed auto, an archaic V6, and woeful throttle tuning which teamed together equal terrible mpgs and laggy acceleration and downshifting.

We paid $38K for my wife's new at the time 2020 ORP (listed at $44.5K). I would not have paid a penny more for what you get with the interior and drivetrain. Paying $40K or more for one of these old school trucks is bonkers to me.

With all that negativity above, I will say that the interior can take a real beating. It's also very tight after 2 years and 26K miles. Not a rattle. My wife and daughter are hard as hell on the interior and there's not a scratch. My wife throws a 10 foot paddle board in the back with 4 feet of it hanging out the back window multiple times a week and nothing is scratched in the interior. The vinyl seats are fine, are easy to clean, and look brand new. We addressed the speakers with an upgraded $650 set from OEM+ Audio and it's massively better. We'll address the throttle tuning with a Sprint Booster. My wife absolutely loves her 4Runner and so do I.

There's no doubt that the 6th gen 4Runner will move upmarket and will undoubtedly have a tablet jutting out from the dash. There will be much more soft touch material throughout the interior just like all the current Toyota offerings have now. Soft touch materials are far more preferable as they don't scratch or damage as easily plus they look and feel far better. I do hope Toyota keeps the vinyl seats in the off road focused models as leather doesn't make much sense.

Great summary on the interior!

 

[Dynamo]

Overall I really like the interior on my '19 ORP. It's close to being perfect IMO. I like that it leans more towards utilitarian than luxury. I like having knobs and manual HVAC controls and don't want auto climate control. I don't care for the pop-up screen that most interiors are trending towards.

I don't care for the shifter and agree it's awkward. I wish it was slightly smaller and more ergonomic, and had a leather boot like the transfer case shifter. I wish the front seats were a little more comfortable, like maybe slightly softer padding.

 

[Mark Linkous]

Having traded in a ‘21 GX last year, the 4R is a sea of black plastic. Prefer the fake carbon fiber to fake wood or aluminum in other 4R’s.
However, the MSRP is quite a bit lower than the GX and truthfully anything else I have owned in some time as I had a 100 Series for a decade and a Ultra Luxury edition LS430 before that.

All that said, none of that bothers me aside from how janky the steering wheel is compared to the GX’s. I think it was on here that someone had their wheel re-trimmed to all leather and I plan to follow suit next time I fly out someone long enough to leave it there and not need to rent a car.

 

[Whippersnapper02]

It's definitely getting a bunch of extra useless tech that no one uses but everyone wants just because another vehicle has it. Don't forget the "glued to the dash" screen.

 

[2021nightshade4x4]

The 5th gen 4runner was a HUGE step backwards on the interior compared to my 2016 GMC Sierra and even my 2009 Chevy Silverado.

I have a 2019 TRD ORP - it has cruise control which ranges in speed greatly, a radio system which is no better than an early 2000's system from most manufacturers, pleather which feels quite pleathery, zero car play, limited seat adjustability (for a "premium vehicle"), and plastic all over. You have a limited which does provide a slight uptick in the seat quality/features, but these should be available on the TRDs if they want to stay in line with modern tech.

Is it nice, sure. Is it premium and not "cheap" looking? Not to me.

Personally I think the materials/quality of the interiors on the 3/4th gens were nicer (similar to the old FJ80s).

To each their own - if the 6th gen doesn't make drastic improvements it's not on the consideration list.

Please don’t read my review of the 2020 Tahoe Premier in the test drive thread, then [emoji23]

I have… my own assessments of GM interiors. They CAN design nice stuff when they want to (first gen Chevy Volt, got endless compliments and questions about the car)

But if you ask me, prior to 2015, GM couldn’t build an interior to save their lives. Labels peeling on buttons and bright green light shining through, rubberized knobs begin deteriorating and get gummy, MyLink on a tiny 7” screen while other brands went big 2015-2020, leather seats splitting at the seams, interior door handles just disconnecting from the latches. Wipers don’t return to the cowl when you shut the car off, they stop in the middle of the windshield unless you roll back the dial first.

Can’t ever do GM again.


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[RAVL 2016]

To each their own I guess.

The 4Runner interior is workman-like and carefully assembled, with materials that will hold up to use, and some abuse, quite well. Appearance-wise, I find it a pleasant place to spend time and we have done many long father - son road trips in ours. The gauges are very legible and the controls, including the shifter, are very well placed and ergonomic to me. The truck runs and works perfectly almost 5-6 years later and it looks like new too.

Our 2016 SR5 Premium was about 40k out the door. Not cheap, but certainly not super expensive.

Those of you pining for better materials and what-not, certainly that exists in the market. The Europeans generally do a fine job with those things. But then you have to put up with cars that are fundamentally unreliable 5 or so years down the road. I’ve owned most of the major Euro brands and they are all the same. Idiotic things, often serious mechanical failures, and they are stupidly over priced to fix, particularly with the original parts. JGCs look good to me as well but family experience has been mixed. But in our house, Toyota (and Honda) have proven mechanically superior to everything else - no oil leaks, cv joint failures, cooling system explosions, turbo charger failures, fuel tank vapor leaks, etc. Toyotas, particularly when they are properly serviced and maintained, are vehicles that serve you; you don’t serve them and tiptoe around their multiple failure points and make excuses about the necessity of those failures to “save the environment” or in the name of performance. On that latter point, as someone who used to do a lot of amateur racing I can tell you all of those compromises you would make for performance are typically useless in a street application. Go for reliability and robustness on your daily driver.

We can go around and around all day, but I am probably on the older end of the demographic here and I can tell you the biggest luxury provided by a truck or car is reliable service, without drama or fuss that consumes or otherwise wastes the owner’s time and money.

Toyota sells a ton of cars, and 4Runners, because they ignore the idiots from the car magazines and understand what their owners expect. The 4Runner is exactly what it should be.

 

[Pedro367]

even my 2009 Chevy Silverado.

I'm having a hard time with this one. This was PEAK GM interior misery time across their entire product line.

 

[MZ2215]

To each their own I guess.


Go for reliability and robustness on your daily driver.

We can go around and around all day, but I am probably on the older end of the demographic here and I can tell you the biggest luxury provided by a truck or car is reliable service, without drama or fuss that consumes or otherwise wastes the owner’s time and money.

Couldn't possibly agree more. The last 4 vehicles i've put my name on have been a 2004 Honda accord, a 2007 v8 4runner, a 2015 accord, and a 2015 limited 4runner. Took the '04 accord from 50k to 200k miles on fluid changes, brakes, tires and shocks. 100k to 150k on the '07 4runner with nothing but fluid changes and would still have it had the dealer not offered me what I paid for it 5 years prior on a trade.

The newest tech is nice, but it doesn't matter if that new tech breaks and leaves you stranded with ridiculous repair costs