2024 Toyota 4Runner
2024 Toyota 4Runner Review
Ultimately utilitarian and underutilized, unfortunately.
TL;DR
2024 Toyota 4Runner
Very OK!
For those who are able to fully take advantage of the 4Runner's abilities, its a very capable vehicle. For the remaining 95% of the people who buy a 4Runner, it's a waste of capability and gas.
Review
I recently returned from a 3 week work trip. It was supposed to be 1 week, but turned into 3. I lived with this 2024 4Runner for 3 weeks straight, and figured I could write a pretty good review about it since I used it how most people tend to use it: driving to and from work.
Exterior
Generally, I think the 4Runner is an alright looking vehicle. It hasn't changed too much since this generation, which has had a surprisingly long shelf life, the first of which came out in 2009, which makes this 5th generation of 4Runners last 15 years. The 6th gen 4Runner won't be out until Model Year 2025.
Things to note in particular, high ground clearance means that if you are shorter (like me), you will have to hop to get into the drivers seat, or need to pull yourself up into it.
Interestingly, although it is styled similarly to a Toyota Tacoma, the platform is actually shared with it's SUV siblings, the Lexus GX and the Toyota LandCruiser, which makes sense, given how it's a large SUV.
The rear window is an iconic feature, and although I didn't get to use it, I've seen plenty of 4Runners carrying things like surfboards and other things through the window. It does seem useful!
Gas mileage was lower than I expected, but the motor had plenty of oomph, just about what I expected for a car this size. Any less and it would've been dangerously slow on on-ramps. Mileage in stop and go traffic wasn't great, and while most cars in stop-and-go traffic don't have good mileage, the fact that this was a relatively big lumbering SUV didn't help. Still smaller than a true 7 seat SUV though.
Interior
The interior is not terribly interesting to note, however, there are a few things I wanted to point out.
Firstly, if you look at the picture above, you can see the window switches on the windowsill. Note how high up it is. I kept reaching down towards the handle, where most cars keep their window switch panel, only to find nothing. While it was hot and humid where I was, and therefore had the air conditioning running 100% of the time, I tended to not use the window switches too much (except to get to work), but after 3 weeks I never got used to it.
As far as the materials go, there were some soft touch panels on the doors, but hard plastics everywhere else. For a utilitarian lifestyle vehicle, that's perfectly fine.
Infotainment looked identical to the Toyota Camry I rented in 2019, with the sole exception that the screen would be taken over by Android Auto/Apple CarPlay if you plugged in your phone. So I didn't see it much, and it worked fine.
The seating position was a little weird as well. I don't know if I was just too short or not short enough, as I saw a lot of the hood as I was looking at the road, and I could also never quite tell where the front of the car was when trying to park in a space.
Aside from that, there seemed to be plenty of cargo space (I was just only one person, after all), and lots of organization in the back. I did appreciate the fact that I was able to lower the headrests in the back seats independently in order to increase visibility.
The Rest
Now onto the elephant in the room. Whatever did I mean by "a waste"?
For the majority of the other 4Runner drivers on the road, you can just take a look and see how clean they all are.
The reality is that most of these vehicles are bought to shuttle kids around and commute to work. Just like Jeeps, a majority of these will never see a dirt road. The small percentage of those who do, however, will find that the selectable Hi and Lo drive options to be more than enough to climb some dirt and rocks.
Summary
The 2024 4Runner is a perfectly competent lifestyle SUV but its day-to-day practicality originally gives it 3 stars. However, recognizing that it is and will likely be very competent while going through a little bit of dirt, I've bumped up the review another star.
