2019 Toyota 4Runner Review

[MUSIC PLAYING] TRAVIS LANGNESS: That's Calvin Kim. CALVIN KIM: And that's Travis Langness. TRAVIS LANGNESS: What I've done today is brought out the all-new Subaru Forester for testing. Basically, the Subaru Forester was one of the original crossovers, and it's still pulling off all the same tricks. It does all the SUV stuff, but with more comfort and tech along the way. What did you bring to compete with it? CALVIN KIM: I brought out the Toyota 4Runner. It's an old school SUV-- body-on-frame construction, solid rear axle. But on top of that, it seats five, carries a lot of stuff, and you can tow with it. You could say it's the ultimate adventure vehicle. TRAVIS LANGNESS: While that may be true in people's minds, I think the Subaru can go most of the places that your 4Runner can. And I think it'll be better for the days in between those adventures. But let's put them to the test, head to head, and see which one comes out on top. CALVIN KIM: Do it. Before any adventure, you got to pack. TRAVIS LANGNESS: So we brought all the camping gear we own, and we'll see which rig can hold more of it. CALVIN KIM: Let's do it. Wow. It all fit with room to spare. TRAVIS LANGNESS: Yeah. Let's take it all out and see what the Subaru does. These one-touch folding seats are nice. The 4Runner doesn't have that. CALVIN KIM: Yeah, so I guess it fits. TRAVIS LANGNESS: Kind of. I mean, you can't see out the rear view mirror. And when we had it loaded in the 4Runner, there was room to spare. But it's all in there. CALVIN KIM: You know what? I'll take this one then. Ugh. Let's hit the road. TRAVIS LANGNESS: For more videos like this, subscribe to the Edmunds YouTube channel. And now we're going to hit the road, head for the mountains. [MUSIC PLAYING] CALVIN KIM: Let's get one thing out of the way first. If you like to argue about 31s or 33s fitting under your fenders, get out of here. Go back to T4R.org and argue about transfer box gear ratios or something. This video is about regular people doing the 9 to 5, Monday through Friday. And maybe once or twice a month, getting the family out and enjoying nature. The Toyota 4Runner started out life based on a truck. It has body-on-frame construction, a solid rear axle, and beefy suspension. And this model is absolutely no different. Some people may think of it as a utilitarian crossover type vehicle, and they're wrong. It's still a truck. And one of the compromises to its truck-based design is in its handling. Now this 4Runner is equipped with beefy all-terrain tires. And while I'm sure they work great off road, they're not ideal on the road. For one thing, they make a lot of noise. And when you push them at all, especially through cornering, they howl. The steering itself is very light, but you don't get a lot of feel. The 4.0 liter V6 engine on front makes 270 horsepower, which is pretty good. But then it's made it to a 5-speed transmission that's very sluggish. When you're going up hills or you're fully loaded, it likes to hung around. It'll downshift frequently from fifth to fourth to third. And frankly, it's annoying. On initial application, the 4Runner's brakes are light and squishy. There's not much going on. But then they get grabby the harder and deeper you get into it. But most importantly is you're going to notice the nosedive. I think Toyota could've done better. One area where this old design truly excels in is in its utility. Three adults can fit in the back seat, no problem. Fold those seats down, and you get a gigantic cargo area with a flat load floor. You still need more cargo than that, you crazy hoarder? This thing will tow 5,000 pounds. Suck it, crossover. The 4Runner is a lot more expensive than a Forester, but you'd never know it when you look inside. There's a lot of hard plastics, synthetics. Yeah, sure, there's some soft touchpoints. And frankly, the seats are comfortable enough for all-day driving. But they're not heated, and the Subaru gets heated back seats. Toyota didn't prioritize technology inside the 4Runner. For one thing, there are no driver's aids-- no blind spot detection, no adaptive cruise control. You only get a rear view camera. And then there's infotainment. Toyota's entering system can be found throughout their lineup. And to use some of their higher-end functions, you got to download an app onto your smartphone, pair it up, sign in to an account, sign in to more accounts-- it's frustrating, and frankly, we're not fans. But we are fans of Toyota's off-road technology. Now there's a lot of acronyms involved, but all we need to know is, it allows you to off-road like a pro. TRAVIS LANGNESS: Now that we've been on the road for a while, let's take a look at the inside of the Subaru Forester. And let's talk about why we brought this particular car. This one, the Touring model, is topped out. It's the most expensive one you can get, and it's about $35,000. And that's the same price as a base SR5 4Runner. And even the 4Runner we have here, though, that's more, isn't as nice as this Subaru is on the inside. I mean, you've got leather seats, heated front and second row. You've got Apple CarPlay and Android Auto as standard. This infotainment interface is so much nicer-- way better graphics, way easier to use. And you get Subaru's EyeSight system, which has a lot of cool tech features. You've got adaptive cruise control, blind spot monitoring, and lane keep assist. And you get Subaru's driver-focused system. There's a camera-- an infrared system-- looking at me to tell whether or not I'm paying attention to the road-- whether I'm getting drowsy. It has real audible and visual alerts that keep me aware of what's going on in front of me, and whether or not I should pull over and take a nap-- have a little bit of a rest. For on-road comfort, this one's a winner too. It's got nice, comfortable seats, good seating position, plenty of leg room in the front and the rear. And basically, a really quiet, comfortable highway ride that translates to the city too. It doesn't beat you up over potholes. And if you're taking it on a long road trip, I mean, there's no doubt this is the one to go with. One of the benefits of driving a crossover instead of a body-on-frame SUV is you get much better handling. Coming up these mountain roads, yeah sure, this Forester's no sports car. But it's definitely more enjoyable to drive. It's lighter, and it feels more agile around corners. It doesn't have a lot of that body roll that's typically associated with a big SUV like the 4Runner. Now there is a downside to this Forester that's pretty significant, and that's in power. And that 4Runner has almost 100 horsepower more than this Forester, so, clearly, this isn't going to be the one you're going to tow with. But the upside is fuel economy. The Forester gets much better fuel economy-- city, highway, and combined. And really, when you're going in between adventures-- when you're driving hundreds of miles to get to a mountain road-- it's going to cost you a lot less cash to get there if you're driving one of these. When we hit the trail tomorrow, the 4Runner-- yeah, it's going to have a little bit easier time. But I still have a lot of confidence in the Subaru-- X-MODE, all-wheel drive, plenty of ground clearance. And honestly, I'm excited to see how far this thing can go. [MUSIC PLAYING] TRAVIS LANGNESS: So we're all done with the on-road stuff and made it up to the campsite here on the mountain. I had a good time in the Forester. How was your ride up in the 4Runner? CALVIN KIM: The 4Runner did just fine. I mean, I sure could've used some of the creature comforts in the Forester though. But I'm really looking forward to seeing how well it does off the road tomorrow. TRAVIS LANGNESS: Yeah, I mean, we're going to camp out tonight, get an early start in the morning. And I'm looking forward to hitting the trails as soon as we can. [MUSIC PLAYING] TRAVIS LANGNESS: We packed up our camp and started out onto the trail to see what these vehicles could do. The Forester has 8.7 inches of ground clearance, which is more than enough to clear most off-road obstacles. It also has all-wheel drive and Subaru's X-MODE software, both of which manage wheel spin and traction to keep you moving forward in the dirt, sand, the mud, or even deep snow. And the Subaru's unibody construction means better handling, a better ride, and its space-efficient design allows me to fill it with all my camping gear. The Forester is built for these kinds of adventures. CALVIN KIM: When the pavement fades away and the going gets dirty, the 4Runner starts to shine. This is its element. And all the compromises that we mentioned on the road become irrelevant. And the ability to shift into 4Lo let you go places the Subaru couldn't even dream of reaching. Yeah, the Subaru can hang on these backcountry trails and will probably satisfy most people looking for an adventure. But for those of you who want to really get off the beaten path, there is no discussion. The 4Runner is virtually unstoppable. If you want to know more about these capabilities, click the link in the top-right corner. Let's see what you get for your money. Well, you get Multi-Terrain Select. Multi-Terrain Select adjusts the speed of each individual wheel so that you have traction over varied surfaces like rocks, moguls, and sand. But the real deal is in with this right here, which is Crawl Control. Crawl Control even takes care of the acceleration part-- the throttle. Think of it as off-road cruise control. And when you combine it with the built-in locking rear differential and kinematic dynamic suspension system, or KDSS-- the Toyota's hydraulic sway-bar articulation enhancement system-- it's an amazing system that allows anyone to tackle the toughest terrains with ease. That's just something the Subaru can't do. All right, I'm now in the Forester. Let's put the X-MODE in dirt and see what it'll do. The important thing is to try to keep the body level to allow the traction control system to do as much work as you can, but-- ugh. Yeah, I don't think it's going to do it though. Yeah, I don't want to go much farther than this. [MUSIC PLAYING] TRAVIS LANGNESS: So we're coming back down the backside of the mountain. We got through all the hard stuff. And honestly, I wouldn't have been able to talk to you if that was the section I was driving through now. We're on the easy kind of flat downhill bits here. And I'm super surprised at how capable this Subaru is. There were several sections-- rocks, jagged portions, things getting real close to the edge-- and a lot of articulation that I didn't think this Subaru was going to be able to do when we got to them. It hung a leg or two up in the air. It definitely felt almost vertical at times. But it made it down unscathed. And what that tells me is that a vehicle like this is totally adventure-friendly. Sure, you're not going to crawl up a sheer rock face at 50 degrees. But for most of the stuff that I like to do-- getting out into the wilderness, off the beaten path-- this is great. CALVIN KIM: So we just got done with the more difficult part of the trail, and we're on relatively flatter ground. As to be expected, the 4Runner didn't even break a sweat. It can get out of situations that are mind-bogglingly difficult. Having said that, you do lose out on a lot of on-road comfort and stability. And the reality is, I think most people spend their time on the road more than on the trail. So that's going to be a compromise that you're going to have to make. TRAVIS LANGNESS: I seem to be a lot more comfortable than Calvin. I mean, basically, this car is absorbing the bumps better. And I'm not bouncing around as much on the inside of the cabin, nor am I worried about all my stuff in the back hopping up and over and hitting me in the back of the head. CALVIN KIM: But either way you go, the 4Runner is definitely a fun and adventurous vehicle. TRAVIS LANGNESS: This off-road stuff is great, and the Forester is great at it. Honestly, I wasn't very confident in certain spots, especially the big rock ruts and things where it sticks a rear wheel way up in the air, and times when it feels like it's vertically going down the face of a mountain. But once you get to these bouncy, bumpy sections, the Subaru is more comfortable. And it made it down all that other stuff I was talking about completely unscathed. Sure, it's dirty and dusty, but hey, that's what we came out here for, right? CALVIN KIM: So what did we find out? TRAVIS LANGNESS: Well, after all that on-road stuff and all the off-road stuff coming down this mountain, 95% of the time, I would rather live with the Subaru. Sure, the 4Runner is better in those small case scenarios when you're going over those rock gardens, and stuff gets really hairy. But this one is more comfortable on road. It's got more equipment for the money, and it's less expensive than that 4Runner. CALVIN KIM: You know what? I'm a body-on-frame traditionalist, and I love the 4Runner. I love its adventuresome and fun nature. I love its durability. But I got to say, if we're asking the question, has the crossover caught up to the SUV? I think the Forester is proof that it has. TRAVIS LANGNESS: I agree. For more information on these vehicles, or any of their competitors, visit Edmunds.com to find your perfect car. Let us know what you think about this video. 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