2025 Toyota 4Runner: Capable Across the Lineup

With the sixth-gen 4Runner, Toyota proves it knows how to do this.

April 1, 2025

Gary S. Vasilash

Aside from the TRD, the 2025 Toyota 4Runner line-up also includes the Limited (seen here in Heritage Blue) and Trailhunter (here in Everest) trims, among other versions. (Toyota)

The sixth-generation 4Runner, Toyota’s serious and accessible off-roader, is built at the Tahara Plant in Japan. That’s important because Tahara is also where Toyota builds the Land Cruiser, providing familiarity with SUV manufacturing. (The Land Cruiser is no less serious an off-roader, but given that it starts at $56,700 and the 4Runner $40,770, there is a difference in accessibility.)

2025 Toyota 4Runner TRD Pro model. Designed in Michigan. Engineered and manufactured in Japan. (Toyota)

Toyota also builds the new Lexus GX, the third generation version with off-road capability that launched last year, at Tahara. But there’s something even more notable about the 4Runner and the Tahara-built SUVs as well as the Toyota Tacoma, Tundra and Sequoia. All these vehicles are based on Toyota’s TNGA-F platform.

Solid structure

When engineering a vehicle that has the body rigidity necessary to handle the torques created by off-road forces while accommodating the daily drives, frame and suspension setups are paramount.

The 4Runner has a boxed high-strength steel ladder frame. While that in and of itself isn’t particularly unusual for off-road-oriented vehicles, what is different here is that Toyota is using laser-tailored blanks to produce the structure. Essentially, the components are produced with varying alloys and gauges, specifically adding thickness only where required in order to provide the level of performance needed. The 4Runner features a multi-link coil rear and double wishbone front suspensions.

Why body on-frame?

The 2025 Toyota 4Runner is available with a hybrid powertrain that uses a 2.4-L turbo four mated with a 48-hp motor. (Toyota)

There is something else that the 4Runner, Land Cruiser, Tacoma, Tundra, and Sequoia have in common: All these vehicles were developed under the direction of chief engineer Keita Moritsu. Moritsu has been working on TNGA-F-based products since 2017.

One of the distinctive characteristics of the 4Runner since its introduction in model year 1984 is that frame. While competitors like the Nissan Pathfinder started with that architecture, they have since transitioned to unibody structures.

Mortisu said that while that change was made to deal with CAFE requirements, “Body-on-frame is one of the roots of Toyota, part of our culture, so we continue with it,” he said. He also pointed to another reason why Toyota continues to build the vehicle that way: it’s what 4Runner buyers want.

Powertrain offerings

The body-on-frame choice should not indicate any indifference on Toyota’s part as regards CO2 emissions: the 2025 4Runner is available with two different powertrain configurations. The i-Force version uses a 2.4-L turbocharged four-cylinder engine with output of 278 hp (207 kW) and 317 lb-ft (430 Nm). Then there is the i-Force Max, which supplements the 2.4-L engine with a 48-hp motor integrated into the eight-speed automatic transmission. The hybrid produces 326 hp (243 kW) and 465 lb-ft (630 Nm).

The hybrid is available only in models that feature 4WD. The EPA-estimated fuel economy numbers for the i-Force Max are 23 mpg city, 24 highway, and 23 combined. Various i-Force trims offer either 19 mpg city, 25 highway, and 21 combined or 20 city, 24 highway, and 21 combined. So the hybrid provides overall better fuel economy and both permit towing of up to 6,000 pounds. Moritsu said that one of the features he likes about the hybrid is that there is more linear acceleration than that provided by the engine without the electric motor supplement.

Variety, not minimization

Like previous generations, the sixth gen has powered rear glass. Chief engineer Keita Moritsu says that to accommodate the additional mass, they took countermeasures, like using an aluminum hood. Note also the trapezoidal glass on the body side, another nod to earlier 4Runners. (Toyota)

While there is a trend toward complexity reduction in the auto industry – which typically manifests itself in reduced trim-level offerings – that’s not the case with the 4Runner. The SUV is offered in nine grades, everything from the entry-level SR5 to Platinum, to an array of models that are built for off-road performance, like the Trailhunter, which comes standard with Old Man Emu 2.5-inch forged monotube shocks, and the TRD Pro, which has FOX Q53 internal bypass shocks with 2.5-inch aluminum housings and rear remote reservoirs as well as RIGID Industries LED foglamps.

When asked about this variety of model offerings, Moritsu says the decision was made because Toyota wants to address the needs of a wide range of 4Runner loyalists and potential new ones.

Heritage Meets Tech

In fact, there was a determined effort made to maintain a thread of “4Runnerness” from the first generation to the sixth. For example, the side glass behind the C-pillar maintains a trapezoidal shape. And, more significantly, the power rear window. Moritsu explained this was something that 4Runner owners found to be an endearing characteristic. But he said that providing the motors and mechanisms that allow the glass to move added mass to the vehicle, which meant that they had to work to offset that mass. Engineers reduced mass in the frame through the use of the tailor-welded blanks, as well as an aluminum hood.

The 4Runner is essentially a North American-centric vehicle, with exterior styling led by the CALTY design team in Michigan (also involved in the design of the current-generation Tacoma). Although there are differences (e.g., the front-end configurations), Moritsu acknowledged that the 4Runner and Tacoma are common from the B-pillar forward.

The 4Runner offers a range of tech, including a 14-inch multimedia touchscreen (particularly handy when front cameras are activated off-road so you can see both sides of the vehicle as well as what’s going to appear once you crest that hill), the camera- and radar-based Toyota Safety System 3.0, Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, and more.The many 4Runner loyalists out there can rest easy, knowing they can get an updated vehicle but still add everything from ARB roof racks to steel skid plates toi transfer cases and rear differential protectors.