Mostly gearing. The Highlander is 400 lbs lighter which basically cancels out the extra torque from the 4.0 but on top of that it has ~20% shorter gearing when you include the shorter tires.
My Dodge Truck has 425 HP 600Foot pounds of Torque, Everything else is Gutless to me. I bought my 4Runner because it is a Killer 4x4. Run it like you Stole it! Like a 125 2 Stroke Motocrosser without a Title. But the 4Runner will go Forever, My old 1990 4 Runner back in the day was seriously weak in the HP department but I just screamed that thing around and it never gave up. Use the Manual shift and shift it when you want to. Be the Truck! :thumb3: