Is a New Toyota 4Runner That’s Basically the Same as Before Good Enough?

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Is the 4Runner an iconic vehicle? You’d think so, the way Toyota treats it. The last one stayed on the market for 15 years with minimal updates. The next-generation SUV is new in every way, but its designers and engineers went out of their way to make it look and feel as much like an older model as possible. Only Porsche works harder to not change. It’s an impressive degree of dedication to meeting customers where they are, but does it make the 2025 Toyota 4Runner an SUV of the Year winner?

We’re not kidding when we say “all-new.” The sixth-generation 4Runner rides on a new platform shared with every other body-on-frame Toyota vehicle, runs new engines and transmissions and hybrid systems shared with the Tacoma and Land Cruiser, sports a new interior heavily shared with those two, and has new bodywork with callbacks all the way to the first-generation 4Runner of the 1980s.

This means the new version has better technology than ever. Every model gets active and passive safety technology and driver aids, up to and including adaptive cruise control and active lane centering. There are instrument cluster and infotainment screens on every model. There’s a new turbocharged engine with an optional hybrid add-on. There are more off-road modes and aids than ever.

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All that, and it still feels like an old truck. A quicker one, to be sure, but still living in the past. Unlike its direct competitors, Toyota still expects the driver to know what buttons to push and knobs to turn, and in what order. If you don’t, too bad, the screens will just tell you whatever system isn’t “available” instead of telling you to put it in 4WD to use the off-road modes or to set the cruise control speed with the on/off button. It’s happy to let you think those functions are just broken if you get the button sequence wrong.

What’s more, it’s expensive. Judges were mixed on whether the interior quality is good enough for the $43,000 starting price, but no one thought it measured up to the top trim’s $69,000 starting price. Paywalling the hybrid powertrain into trims that start $11,000 more than the base price cancels out any meaningful fuel cost savings, especially because our experience with the mechanically identical Land Cruiser tells us the real-world fuel economy won’t come anywhere close to the EPA ratings. The electric motor boosts performance far more than it boosts efficiency, and the battery makes it harder to load stuff into the cargo area (and you’ll fit less of it).

The battery also means you can’t get the optional third-row seat, but that’s no great loss, as it’s uninhabitable for adults or even adolescents. Fear not, though, because the 4Runner rides and drives like an old body-on-frame truck. For many, that’s an immutable part of its charm, and Toyota made sure it’s still there. People who already love 4Runners will be pleased. Everyone else in the market will probably be happier with a much cheaper Honda Passport, which is nearly as off-roady in its Trailsport trim.

This review was conducted as part of our 2026 SUV of the Year (SUVOTY) testing, where each vehicle is evaluated on our six key criteria: efficiency, design, safety, engineering excellence, value, and performance of intended function. Eligible vehicles must be all-new or significantly revised.