2025 Toyota 4Runner TRD Off Road Premium
Price As Tested: $63,702 CAD
Colour: Heritage Blue
I had the privilege of driving a 2024 Toyota 4Runner last year. It was in an incredible colour called “Solar Orange” and caused me to fall in love with the brutal honesty that made up the core of that vehicles design. The 2024 MY was the 5th generation of the 4Runner and while it showed its age, it was so good I didn’t care. It was perfect. The 4.0L V6 you got in that generation was legendarily thirsty but equally reputed for its reliability. You knew when you set out across the Kalahari you’d make it to the other side. I mentioned in that review that the rumour mill was whispering about an all-new model after a 14-year production run. I said at the time I hoped Toyota didn’t ruin what was a car truly committed to its purpose. About two weeks later Toyota released details about the all-new 4Runner for the 2025 MY. Lo and behold, my fears were founded. While the 4Runner is by no means ruined, it is forever changed.
Let’s deal with the elephant in the room. The 4Runner is now a 4-cylinder turbo charged vehicle. Yep, that legendary large displacement V6 is gone. The 4Runner has fallen prey to the irritating industry trend of putting small displacement turbos in large (and sometimes very large) vehicles. They do this for a variety of reasons, none of which justify the trade-off in reliability. Small turbos are not and were never intended to be as long lived as their naturally aspirated cousins. In pure road cars this isn’t such an issue but, in a car, ostensibly designed to master the bush (no matter how many owners never leave the tarmac), it just won’t do. The 2.4L turbo in the new 4Runner has returned about 14L/100 kms (16 mpg) which isn’t much better than the old 4.0L. If it was some sort of wunderkind light drinker, I might find a way to justify this decision but it’s simply another box to tick on the “I’m doing what the government told me to do” checklist regarding idiotic emissions legislation. You might be thinking “well if you’re so interested in the bloody fuel economy, just get the hybrid version stupid”. This is certainly an option as the 2025 4Runner is indeed now available with a hybrid drivetrain but pricing for the hybrid models starts at $70,000 CAD so that’s not a real solution either.
Things are better when you look at the interior of the new 4Runner. I’m fortunate enough to be comparing the exact same trim level of vehicles between the 2024 MY and 2025 MY. While the tech is all new along with the drivetrain, little else has really changed. The interior (in this trim level anyway) is still very basic and simple as it was last year. The sunroof as an example is still a small basic unit we’ve seen in 4Runners for generations. The cover is still manually operated which shows us that while the engineers at Toyota may have lost the drivetrain battle, they’re still fighting to keep the rest of the 4Runner the honest vehicle it has always been.
The exterior of the 2025 Toyota 4Runner is also a lesson in restrained change. The differences in this model from last year are many but they are largely small, so the overall change is limited which is the right way to do it. I loved the look of the last generation of the 4Runner, and this one is handsome as well.
Toyota committed the cardinal sin of changing the heart of the 4Runner for no good reason. I know why they did it and I don’t care. As the consumer we get nothing for the change except a bill for more money and a ticking time bomb as this new drivetrain has already had significant reliability issues since its debut. The 4Runner of legend and lore is no more. It’s taken its first steps toward becoming nothing more than a boxy Highlander. A vanilla box to be consumed and then discarded when the newest one is released. Die hards and loyalists will not invest their hearts and souls in this 4Runner like they have in generations past. The problem with this is that most people who buy a 4Runner do so because of the cult of personality surrounding the vehicle from enthusiasts. They don’t participate in said cult, but they support it with their buying decisions which makes the whole thing work. Now, I think it’s going to slowly unravel. That is not only a shame but it’s also heartbreaking because it didn’t have to happen.
