What Toyota has completed with the 2025 4Runner is evolutionary and well-considered. The brand new 4Runner sits on the TNGA-F body-on-frame structure (shared with the Tacoma and Tundra), and that underpins a lot of what’s compelling (and contentious) about this technology. I drove each the Restricted and the Trailhunter fashions to resolve it.
At a look
- New look sort of grows on you
- New powertrains are a very good design for this SUV
- Experience high quality and MPG returns are nonetheless fairly truckish
Visually, the brand new 4Runner is chunkier, extra angular, and sure, just a little polarizing. However this new styling begins to develop on you. As I mentioned when it debuted, it’s abrupt at first but eventually settles in. The fender flares, massive tire footprint, and rugged stance harken again to the 4Runner’s heritage, however with a sharper fashionable edge from Toyota’s Calty design studio in California.
The place the 2025 4Runner actually departs from its predecessors is in its new powertrain setup. Gone is the previous V6, changed by two new 2.4-liter turbocharged fours (aka “i-Power”) engines. The bottom turbo delivers 278 hp (204.5 kW) and 317 lb-ft (430 Nm) of torque. Extra fascinating is the i-Power MAX hybrid, which tacks on an electrical motor and a NiMH battery, delivering a complete of 326 hp (240 kW) and a large 465 lb-ft (630.5 Nm) of torque. That’s a severe soar, and it’s far and above essentially the most energy ever supplied in a 4Runner.
Aaron Turpen / New Atlas
Toyota additionally changed the previous 5-speed automated with a brand new 8-speed automated, which improves drive really feel, torque management, and gas financial system. Towing is up too, now rated at 6,000 lb (2,722 kg).
True to the 4Runner’s legacy, the brand new mannequin retains severe off-road cred. Toyota presents part-time and full-time 4WD on some trims, together with multi-terrain choose programs and crawl management. The Restricted mannequin (shiftable 2WD to 4WD) has a broad vary of normal off-road functionality, largely confined to grime roads, mild trails, and the like. The Trailhunter (and comparable TRD Professional) fashions have way more severe tools and are extraordinarily trail-capable. Even with that ridiculous snorkel whistling away your entire time.
Aaron Turpen / New Atlas
The 4Runner Restricted is identical pointless “I purchased a truck and will have purchased a family-friendly Highlander as a substitute” that it’s been for some time now. It’s good, but it surely is unnecessary. It’s solely marginally extra off-road succesful than an all-wheel drive Highlander mannequin, and suffers from the entire downsides of being a truck.
The Trailhunter variant, nevertheless, brings built-in overlanding gear like an ARB roof rack, off-road shocks, and 33-inch tires. It’s clearly meant for greater than weekend grocery runs and day by day college drop-off idling.
On the within, the 4Runner will get a giant leap ahead. There’s both an 8-inch or 14-inch touchscreen, relying on packaging. Each of these choices help wi-fi Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. That’s a welcome modernization. And it usually works, which another programs can’t all the time attest to. The Toyota 4Runner retains the “vampire tooth” steering wheel design and the “OMG bar” by the shifter, small nostalgic nods amid the inside’s in any other case huge adjustments.
Toyota
Seating and cargo are much better than they have been within the previous-gen 4Runner. Common ergonomics are additionally improved. Little issues like pedal placement, how the seats are cushioned, and the place the cup holders and different facilities are positioned make a distinction right here. An abundance of clean plastics and second-row legroom points nonetheless plague the 4Runner, although. With out shedding its body-on-frame design or gaining vital dimension will increase, that final issue will all the time be a sticking level.
On the highway, the turbo 4 delivers way more usable torque at low speeds in comparison with the previous V6, making metropolis driving and merging really feel much less labored. The gentle hybrid (i-Power Max) variant, specifically, presents punchy, prompt response at low RPM, which could be very useful off the road and whereas out bouncing round within the bush. And the hybrid getup considerably reduces turbo lag.
Toyota
Talking of bouncing round, the Restricted mannequin continues to be very truck-like in its dealing with, and whereas it does take in the highway higher than the extra off-road-centric fashions, it’s not a easy experience by any means. It’s higher than it was earlier than, but it surely’s nonetheless a truck.
Don’t anticipate that the “hybrid” within the title means extra effectivity, both. Actual-world numbers recommend the hybrid doesn’t provide a quantum leap in gas financial system. In two-wheel drive, the 2025 4Runner can handle as much as 26 mpg (9.0 l/100km) on the freeway, per the EPA. The Restricted mannequin returned simply 22 mpg (10.7 l/100km) in my freeway loop take a look at and the Trailhunter (rated at 24 mpg / 9.8 l/100km freeway with full-time 4WD) gave a mere 21 (11.2 l/100km). With my week-long use of every mannequin as a day by day driver, I feel most can anticipate to get round 18-20 mpg (13.0-11.8 l/100km) as a mean.
For those who’re a 4Runner purist who’s braced for change, the 2025 mannequin is more likely to impress. Not as a result of it’s nostalgic, however as a result of it really modernizes the platform in all the appropriate locations. Toyota didn’t promote out the 4Runner’s legacy; as a substitute, the corporate has strengthened its off-road DNA whereas bringing powertrain, usability, and functionality into the twenty first century.
Aaron Turpen / New Atlas
With the entire variants accessible and the nods to its historical past with out being slowed down, I feel Toyota did a fairly good job of hitting the appropriate factors throughout on this new 4Runner.
Product web page (newest mannequin, largely unchanged): 2026 Toyota 4Runner
