4RUNNER 4LIFE

We step into the idealized lifestyle of a Toyota 4Runner owner to see how the 2025 Trailhunter enables our sport-utility fantasies.

- by Ezra Dyer

THE TOYOTA 4RUNNER IS IMMORTAL.BOTH AGED AND AGELESS, an omnipresent towering riposte to the notion that building sport-utility vehicles the way cars are built is the logical solution to the world’s SUV needs. The 4Runner is tall and ungainly. It is inefficient in packaging and fuel economy, not quick, and expensive for its size. Toyota can’t build enough of them.

At least, that’s always been the case. We expect that the new 2025 4Runner will continue the hot streak established by its venerable predecessor, which enjoyed a 15-year production run even though it was basically made of bronze and granite, or maybe because of that. The latest 4Runner is considerably revamped, even though it doesn’t look radically different to the casual observer. Employing the same TNGA-F platform that underpins the Land Cruiser, the Tacoma, the Tundra, and the Sequoia, the reborn 4Runner doesn't make any radical departures from its ancient template: body-on-frame construction, live rear axle and independent front suspension, rear glass that rolls down into the hatch. A time traveler from the mid-1990s would find the 2025 iteration fundamentally familiar.

Of course, the trusted recipe is now suffused with modernity. Both powertrains use a turbocharged 2.4-liter four-cylinder, with uplevel trims hybridized and offering up to 326 horsepower and 465 pound-feet of torque. You can get the obligatory big touchscreen—14.0 inches—and every trim comes with a full menu of driver-assist features. TRD Pro and Trailhunter models include an electronic front anti-roll-bar disconnect for more loosey-goosey off-road suspension articulation. To figure out how all of this newness aligns with the 4Runner mission statement, we procured a Trailhunter and endeavored to see how the redesign complements and enhances the Official 4Runner Lifestyle.