Textual content by Tom Appel
2025 Toyota 4Runner Restricted 4WD
Specs
Class: Midsize Crossover
Nation of Manufacture: Japan
Miles pushed: 207
| CG Report Card | |
|---|---|
| Room and Consolation | B |
| Energy and Efficiency | B |
| Match and End | B |
| Gasoline Economic system | B+ |
| Worth | B |
| Report-card grades are derived from a consensus of test-driver evaluations. All grades are versus different automobiles in the identical class. Worth grade is for particular trim stage evaluated, and should not replicate Client Information’s impressions of your complete mannequin lineup. | |
| Large & Tall Consolation | |
| Large Man | A- |
| Tall Man | B+ |
| Large & Tall consolation scores are for entrance seats solely. “Large” score based mostly on male tester weighing roughly 350 kilos, “Tall” score based mostly on 6’6″-tall male tester. | |
| Drivetrain | |
| Engine Specs | 278-horsepower 2.4-liter |
| Engine Kind | Turbocharged 4 |
| Transmission | 8-speed computerized |
| Drive Wheels | 4WD |
Noticed gas financial system: 20.5 mpg
Driving combine: 65% metropolis, 35% freeway
EPA-estimated gas financial system: 20/24/21 (mpg metropolis/freeway/mixed)
Gasoline kind: Common gasoline
Base worth: $57,400 (not together with $1450 vacation spot cost)
Choices on take a look at automobile: Energy operating boards ($1005), towing bundle ($400), LED tailgate gentle ($200), Third-row bench seat ($1330), tow-ball mount ($65), black roof-rack rails ($420), TRD air filter ($90). chrome wheel locks ($90), cargo mat ($130), LED lantern ($160),
Worth as examined: $62,875
Audio-System Model
JLB
Audio-System High quality
Poor Truthful Good Very-Good Glorious
Professionals and Cons
The nice: roomy and comfy cabin, promise of off-road journey
The great: A lot-improved gas financial system, loads of energy
The not so good: Large worth will increase on some trim ranges for 2025
Overview
Toyota has been blessed with not one, however two, well-regarded and highly regarded midsize utility automobiles. One is the refined and household road-trip pleasant Highlander, the opposite the rugged-but-functional 4Runner. And although the 2 Toyotas serve completely different masters, they’re finally not all that completely different—at the very least not in every day use.
Distinctive DNA
What separates the 2 standard automobiles is structure. Whereas the Highlander (and long-wheelbase Grand Highlander) is predicated Toyota’s TNGA-Okay platform, which it shares with the compact Toyota RAV4 and ultra-refined midsize Lexus RX, the 4Runner is predicated on the maker’s TNGA-F structure, which additionally underpins such off-road-ready rides because the Toyota Tacoma and Lexus GX.
The distinction comes all the way down to the Highlander’s carlike “unibody” design versus the 4Runner’s truck-based “body-on-frame” basis.
Highlander and 4Runner Similarities
Truly, given the 2 automobiles’ impartial DNA, it’s price noting how related they’re. Each automobiles are…
- Roomy
- Refined
- Comparatively simple on the gasoline
- Seat as much as seven passengers
- Supply loads of cargo house
Additionally they value about the identical, equally geared up.
Highlander Professionals
That mentioned, the Highlander offers…
- Quieter cabin
- Higher trip and dealing with
- Simpler entry that to decrease trip peak
- Nicer cabin appointments
- Higher gas financial system
4Runner Professionals
Whereas the 4Runner boasts…
- Sportier character
- Higher off street functionality (together with deep snow)
- Better most towing capability (6000 kilos versus 5000)
- Arguably higher design (we just like the look higher)
And whereas our internal pragmatist desires buyers to go along with the Highlander, we absolutely admire why shoppers on the lookout for one thing a bit of “particular” would possibly go for the 4Runner, as a substitute.
4Runner Redesign
Utterly redesigned for 2025, the 4Runner gained a bit of cabin house, and shed itself of its historical and inefficient 4.0-liter V6 engine. For ’25, the 4Runner is fitted with both a 278-horsepower turbocharged 2.4-liter 4, or Toyota’s branded i-Power Max turbocharged and hybrid 2.4-liter 4 rated at 326 horsepower. Normal-engine 4Runners include both rear-wheel drive or 4WD, whereas i-Power Max editions are fitted solely with 4WD. All 4Runners comes with an 8-speed computerized transmission.
Trim Ranges and Costs
Toyota kind of thinks of the usual and hybrid 4Runners as separate product strains, treating the hybrids as premium trim ranges. For 2025, the non-hybrid 4Runner lineup appears to be like like this:
- SR5 ($42,795)
- TRD Sport ($49,245)
- TRD Off-Highway ($51,185)
- TRD Sport Premium ($54,605)
- TRD Off-Highway Premium ($56,965)
- Restricted ($59,395)
The 2025 hybrid lineup ranges in worth from $53,985 to $68,895, and doesn’t embrace a base SR5 trim stage. Accessible solely in hybrid guise are range-topping Platinum, TRD Professional, and Trailhunter fashions.
Check Automobile
Client Information not too long ago spent per week behind the wheel of a 2025 4Runner Premium that includes various vital choices (see costs and choices above in Specs) in Heritage Blue. All advised, our take a look at automotive got here to $62,875. Observe: Our tester was geared up with the choice 3rd-row seat.
Cabin Appointments
In Restricted trim the 4Runner cabin presents properly. Maybe a bit of shy of luxurious, the inside is sweet sufficient, and is outwardly properly screwed collectively. Cabin supplies are a bit of pedestrian, however we admire the tidy design, open feeling passenger space, and normal simplicity of the design. In the event you’ve been within the Tacoma pickup truck, the 4Runner cabin will appear very acquainted.
Room and luxury
There’s ample front-row house for large adults, and stepping into—and out of—the 4Runner is loads simple. Second-row house is equally beneficiant, and even taller folks will discover all of the room they want. The accessible 3rd-row is much less accommodating, however will simply match youthful—and extra agile—passengers. Simply don’t count on adults to be comfortable within the final row on longer journeys.
Controls and Connectivity
Most in-cabin operations are managed by the 4Runner’s giant console touchscreen, and in superb Toyota custom the system works properly as is simple to grow to be accustomed to. Local weather features are dealt with by a row of actual switches situated beneath the display, and audio quantity is dealt with through an actual, giant knob. Thanks, Toyota. (Quantity may also be managed through the steering wheel.)
Trip and Dealing with
And whereas the 4Runner is louder and a bit of extra rigid-riding than the Highlander as soon as underway, we admire the firmer, extra exact steering, and normal sense of drive engagement. Likewise, the 4Runner’s turbocharged engine in typically refined, however could be felt and heard greater than the powerplants discovered within the Highlander. That mentioned, we quite benefit from the sporty character of the drivetrain, and don’t take into account it in anyway crude or coarse.
Gasoline Economic system
Over greater than 200 miles of testing we averaged 20.5 mpg. This compares to the 18.7 mpg we noticed in a take a look at 2025 4Runner Trailhunter with the i-Max engine, and the 17.3 mpg we averaged in a previous-generation 2022 4Runner TRD Sport fitted with the previous V6.
Worth
Until you reside someplace that suffers from critical snow-sourced entry points, otherwise you’re a doomsday prepper, it in all probability makes extra sense to go along with the wonderful Highlander as a substitute of the 4Runner. That mentioned, we quite take pleasure in driving the 4Runner, and discover its driving character refreshing. We advocate you test-drive each—irrespective of which you suppose you’re contemplating—and let your seat time be your information. Actually, we’d go along with the 4Runner simply because we benefit from the road-feel.
Hearken to the Automobile Stuff Podcast
2025 Toyota 4Runner Restricted Footage
Click on under for enlarged photos
