One vehicle in Toyota's lineup for the United States market stands out as being way too long in the tooth. Care to guess which one? As you might have guessed by now, it's the ever-popular 4Runner.
Internally referred to as N280, the fifth-gen 4Runner dates back to 2009 for the 2010 model year. Closely related to the Land Cruiser Prado 150 series and FJ Cruiser, this family-sized overlander is also joined at the hip to the 2016 to 2023 model year Tacoma pickup truck. Originally available with two engine choices, the 4Runner had its base four-cylinder lump dropped after MY10 due to an abysmal take-up rate.
Refreshed for the 2014 model year, the body-on-frame with seating for either five or seven peeps now comes with a naturally-aspirated V6 connected to a five-speed automatic transmission. A pretty underwhelming combo, but remember how many eons have passed since the N280 arrived at dealers.
Manufactured in Japan at the Tahara plant in the Aichi Prefecture, the 4Runner is due a ground-up makeover sometime next year as a 2025 model. Similar to the Tacoma, the off-road sport utility vehicle designed by Toyota with everyday driving in mind is going TNGA-F and four-pot turbo muscle.
This information comes courtesy of a Toyota insider source cited by the gentleman who runs the 4Runner6G forum, with said insider offering three clues in regard to exterior design. These are 2024 Toyota Tacoma influences for the front end, evolutionary rather than revolutionary design cues, and upright C pillars.
Photo: Halo oto on YouTube
The folks at Halo oto used this information to render the next-gen 4Runner, a rendering that's faithful to all three of the aforementioned clues. The upright C pillars do give it boxier styling than its predecessor, which isn't a bad thing. Also worthy of note, the Tacoma-inspired front end helps differentiate the 4Runner from the five-seat-only Land Cruiser 250.
Known as Land Cruiser in the United States, the 250 series doesn't replace the old V8-powered line. It's actually the all-new Prado, but for some reason or another, Toyota doesn't refer to it as the Land Cruiser Prado in the United States or Japan. It does in New Zealand and Australia, though, because why not?
The mid-size utility vehicle comes with a 2.4-liter turbo hybrid exclusively in the US, a setup that would suit the next-gen 4Runner perfectly. The Land Cruiser's twin, a.k.a. the Lexus GX, currently flaunts a 3.4-liter twin-turbo V6 with no hybrid assistance.
The proverbial worst-case scenario for the all-new 4Runner would be the mid-range turbo inline-four powertrain slotted between the base I4 and hybrid I4 of the 2024 Toyota Tacoma. Think 278 horsepower and 317 pound-feet (430 Nm) in combination with an eight-speed automatic transmission as opposed to 270 horsepower and 278 pound-feet (377 Nm) for the outgoing naturally-aspirated V6 and fiver.
After a 1:43 scale model of a Ferrari 250 GTO sparked Mircea's interest for cars when he was a kid, an early internship at Top Gear sealed his career path. He's most interested in muscle cars and American trucks, but he takes a passing interest in quirky kei cars as well. Full profile
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