2025 Toyota 4Runner Limited Test: New Dog, Some New Tricks

Car and Driver

11 hours ago

The existence of the Toyota 4Runner is up there with other universal constants, like the speed of light in a vacuum. It exists beyond time and space. When we all become dust in the wind, the 4Runner will still be there, offering up its anachronistic blend of truck-adjacent versatility for whatever buyers still wander about the wasteland. After an impressive 15-year run, the sun has set on the fifth-gen model. The new 2025 4Runner brings some much-needed improvements to the table, but the general formula remains the same—not always to positive effect. That's particularly true in a trim like this Limited that presumably will spend most of its days on pavement.
Exterior and Interior
The fifth-generation 4Runner's design wasn't bad by any stretch, but looking at it for so long got a little tiring. Since everybody likes their SUVs as macho as humanly possible, the new 4Runner's style leans heavy on the chunk. Even in our test example's mall-crawler Limited spec, the 4Runner has an imposing silhouette. The edges are a little more rounded off than on its Land Cruiser sibling, but it's clear the two are cut from the same rectilinear cloth.
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Andi Hedrick
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Car and Driver
Inside, the 4Runner finally gets a cabin that was designed with modern tech in mind. The Limited sports a honkin' 14.0-inch touchscreen that dominates the dashboard, but there remains a healthy assortment of physical switchgear to manipulate. The controls are big and chunky enough to be used with gloves on. In fact, everything in here has a kind of low-polygon vibe to it, something Toyota has been relying on in recently revised models to good effect.
The 4Runner is a little tall, but our model came wearing power running boards, a $1005 option that made ingress and egress a little easier, even if deployment isn't very quick. Ours also had the $1330 optional third row; these jump seats are best left to children, but they will hold adults in a pinch, both literally and figuratively. Things feeling a little cramped in the back? Don't worry, the rear window still rolls down, giving the wayback some much needed breeze.
Andi Hedrick
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Car and Driver
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Andi Hedrick
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Car and Driver
New Powertrain
The 4Runner's powertrain was also modernized, though it doesn't always feel that way. Toyota's 4.0-liter V-6 is finally free to cash its Social Security checks on a Fort Lauderdale beach. In its place is a turbocharged 2.4-liter four-cylinder producing 278 horsepower and 317 pound-feet of torque, and an available hybrid boosts output even further but can't be combined with the third row of seats. Our three-row Limited was thus equipped with the base engine, which produces a note that lands somewhere between "coarse" and "unpalatable," though its pronounced turbo whistle is kinda fun. The eight-speed automatic may have more gears than its predecessor, but it feels no smoother.
HIGHS: Modern interior, beefy looks and the capability to match, roll-down rear glass still rocks.
With the base engine, motivation is ho-hum. At the test track, this 5111-pound SUV needs an unimpressive 7.5 seconds to reach 60 mph; from a 5-mph roll, it takes 8.2 seconds. Breaking into triple digit club requires 20.2 seconds. The brakes are decent, taking 170 feet to stop from 70 mph, but the pedal is squishy and builds little confidence in around-town driving. It feels like the first couple inches of pedal movement are for display purposes only. After that, you need to apply so much pressure that you might wonder if you forgot to option power brakes.
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Andi Hedrick
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Car and Driver
On-Road Driving
We've taken the 4Runner off-road alongside its fancier Land Cruiser relative, and while it remains eminently capable in the dirt, the new 4Runner also remains a task to daily drive. It is large, it is heavy, and it is ponderous. While the new model does steer better than its predecessor, the steering still feels a smidge lazy. Ride quality over pockmarked pavement is mediocre at best. Even though our test example has adaptive dampers, it still suffered pronounced body-on-frame jiggle; its softest Comfort mode doesn't quell the jiggling but does allow it to wallow more. There are also two different Sport modes, both of which are uncomfortable and make precisely zero sense on a truck-based SUV. Real-deal pickup trucks with empty beds and passive dampers handle better than this thing.
Unsurprisingly, the 4Runner doesn't exhibit a lot of grip, orbiting around our skidpad with 0.74 g of stick. The 20-inch Dunlop Grandtrek PT5A all-season tires might not produce a ton of grip, but they do loudly clomp over expansion joints and potholes. When the wind picks up, it slaps against the 4Runner's many flat surfaces, also contributing to the in-cabin din that seems noisier than the 69 decibels we recorded inside at 70 mph.
LOWS: Uncomfortable ride, ungainly handling, rough-around-the-edges powertrain.
During the fifth-gen 4Runner's extremely long life, it enjoyed a spot all to itself in the lineup. But now that the Land Cruiser has been redesigned as a smaller but no less versatile unit, there's some overlap. The $58,850 Limited is the fanciest nonhybrid 4Runner trim on offer, and our test truck tacked on a few options, bringing its total to $62,875. Its pre-options price is in line with the $58,150 base Land Cruiser 1958, and our as-tested price isn't far from the fancier Land Cruiser's $62,920 window sticker.
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Andi Hedrick
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Car and Driver
If you're willing to throw a few more dollars at your monthly car note, you do get a bit more from the Land Cruiser. A hybrid is standard there, whereas it's an extra-cost option on the 4Runner Limited and other trims. The LC might be a bit less capable off-road in certain aspects, given it can't be had in the 4Runner's available TRD Pro and Trailhunter setups, but that trade-off results in a bit more on-road placidity. Neither would be considered a bargain, though.
As has been the case in the past, attempts to tame the Toyota 4Runner's rough-and-tumble nature with on-road-oriented trims like the Limited have done little to make this body-on-frame SUV feel less out of place in the Target parking lot. In that sense, the 2025 model is much like its forebears. But at least you know what you're getting into.
VERDICT: A truck-based SUV that doesn't stray far from its past.
Specifications
Specifications
2025 Toyota 4Runner Limited 4WD
Vehicle Type: front-engine, rear/4-wheel-drive, 7-passenger, 4-door wagon
PRICE
Base/As Tested: $58,850/$62,875
Options: third-row seating, $1330; power running boards, $1005; gloss-black roof-rail cross bars, $420; Tow Tech package (trailer reverse assist, interior rearview mirror display), $400; LED liftgate light, $200; accessory-ready LED lantern, $160; retractable black cargo cover, $135; 4Runner carpeted cargo mat, $130; TRD panel air filter, $90; bright-chrome wheel locks, $90; towing-ball mount, $65
ENGINE
turbocharged and intercooled DOHC 16-valve inline-4, aluminum block and head, port and direct fuel injection
Displacement: 146 in3, 2393 cm3
Power: 278 hp @ 6000 rpm
Torque: 317 lb-ft @ 1700 rpm
TRANSMISSION
8-speed automatic
CHASSIS
Suspension, F/R: control arms/live axle
Brakes, F/R: 13.4-in vented disc/13.2-in vented disc
Tires: Dunlop Grandtrek PT5A
265/55R-20 113V M+S
DIMENSIONS
Wheelbase: 112.2 in
Length: 194.9 in
Width: 77.9 in
Height: 73.1 in
Passenger Volume, F/M/R: 56/44/36 ft3
Cargo Volume, Behind F/M/R: 84/45/12 ft3
Curb Weight: 5111 lb
C/D TEST RESULTS
60 mph: 7.5 sec
1/4-Mile: 15.7 sec @ 90 mph
100 mph: 20.2 sec
Results above omit 1-ft rollout of 0.3 sec.
Rolling Start, 5–60 mph: 8.2 sec
Top Gear, 30–50 mph: 3.9 sec
Top Gear, 50–70 mph: 5.2 sec
Top Speed (gov ltd): 115 mph
Braking, 70–0 mph: 170 ft
Roadholding, 300-ft Skidpad: 0.74 g
C/D FUEL ECONOMY
Observed: 18 mpg
EPA FUEL ECONOMY
Combined/City/Highway: 21/20/24 mpg
C/D TESTING EXPLAINED
Reviewed by
Andrew Krok
Managing Editor, Reviews
Cars are Andrew Krok's jam, along with boysenberry. After graduating with a degree in English from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2009, Andrew cut his teeth writing freelance magazine features, and now he has a decade of full-time review experience under his belt. A Chicagoan by birth, he has been a Detroit resident since 2015. Maybe one day he'll do something about that half-finished engineering degree.