2010-2022 5th Gen Toyota 4runner COMPLETE Buyer's Guide!

The 2010 4runner built on the promise of using a body-on-frame chassis, a true 4x4 system, and lots of features to keep the heritage strong. With a 4.0L V6 engine and strong 4x4 features, is the 5th gen 4runner worth your money? Watch and find out!

Exterior Styling

The exterior styling of the 4runner reflects Toyota’s move towards making the 5th Gen a rugged and heritage-rich offering. The emphasis here is on a square, retro look offering a bold, powerful stance mixed with progressive and modern styling cues. Amalgamating the 4Runner’s classic form while paying careful attention to wind flow reduced aerodynamic drag to a Cd of 0.365. The headlights are positioned high and the lenses extrude from the front corners of the body, a trapezoidal grille emphasizes strength, and a high beltline and narrow windows pay homage to 4runners of the past.

2014 Facelift 

The 4runners look was completely refreshed for the 2014 model year. The strikingly more aggressive look featured a redesigned front fascia with lots of sharp creases, lines, and cutouts. Included in the new design was a muscular front grille along with redesigned project beam headlights with an uptick design and smoked housings. The redesigned, almost aftermarket-looking rear tail lights on all 4Runners now feature LED lamps.

Interior

Toyota wanted the interior of the 5th gen 4runner to offer more comfort and utility than before. The interior is logically laid-out, with good ergonomics, a fine driving position, and quick access to commonly used buttons and controls. In typical Toyota fashion, most of the plastics and seating surfaces are of nice quality and with the confidence that they will last a long time.

On the trail models, is an overhead console Within easy reach of the driver that organizes the off-road control switches into one location. SR5 and Trail models feature a manual control HVAC system. Cloth seats that are stain-resistant are standard on the SR5 and trail models.

The Limited tried to envelop passengers with a good amount of luxury. Leather seating surfaces with front seat heaters, a Leather-wrapped steering wheel, and an automatic dual-zone climate control system with independent temperature controls to keep the comfort inside the cabin.

Engines

There were two engine options available with the 5th gen 4runner. A 4.0L DOHC v6 and for 2010 only, a 2.7L-liter 2TR-FE four-cylinder engine with VVT-i was available on the 4x2 SR5 model. The 1GR-FE 4.0L V6 generates a healthy 270 horsepower along with a stout 278 lb.-ft. of torque. Variable Valve Timing with intelligence (VVT-i) helped the new 4.0-liter engine gain more power over the previous 4Runner’s V6 and V8 engines but was down on torque vs the previous 4.7L V8.

Suspension

Toyota’s goal with the suspension of the 4runner was to make the vehicle compliant on the road and very capable off-road. The front double-wishbone independent suspension consisted of coil springs over gas shocks and a variable-flow rack and pinion steering. The rear suspension was a four-link design.

The Limited grade comes standard with the X-REAS system that automatically adjusts the damping force of shocks when driving.

The Trail grade offers Toyota’s Kinetic Dynamic Suspension System (KDSS) as an option. KDSS is supposed to allow more wheel travel along with a better tire contact patch by disconnecting the stabilizer bars.

Standard on the Trail, TRD Off Road, and Pro is Toyota’s Crawl Control (CRAWL) and Multi-Terrain Select. CRAWL is an adjustable electro-mechanical system that is designed to maintain an appropriate speed to keep the vehicle under control and minimize the load on drivetrain and suspension components.
 
Multi Terrian Control allows the driver to select the correct amount of wheel slip to match the terrain. For example in mud and sand, more wheel slip can be dialed in, allowing the wheel-spin to work in the vehicle’s favor. On slippery solid rock, wheel slip can be minimized to allow the system to acts more like a limited-slip.

In fact the Trail, TRD Off Road, and Pro all come with the following:
* High and Low range transfer case
* Crawl Control
* Multi-terrain Select
* Active Trac (A-TRAC)
* Electronically locking rear differential
 
The TRD Pro models feature lots of parts designed to enhance off-road performance.

For 2015-2018

The front shocks consisted of TRD Bilstein High-Performance units. The Pro’s TRD-Tuned Front Springs lifted the front end 1.5” while the TRD Bilstein shocks had one additional inch of wheel travel. The rear shocks also had an additional 1” of suspension travel and used 46mm pistons and came with a remote reservoir.

For 2019, TRD replaced the Bilstein shocks with 2.5-inch Fox Internal Bypass Shocks.

4Runner Limited is equipped with full-time, four-wheel-drive with a locking center differential and employs a three-mode, center console-mounted switch. Later SR5 models