i'm mark williams for cars.com and we're here in the Allegheny Mountains of
Pennsylvania where we've been given the opportunity to drive the new 2014 six
generation toyota 4runner
not a lot of significant changes but enough details for us to take a closer
look
as far as the exterior design toyota made a conscious effort to make the
forerunner similar to in a certain way it's smaller brother the FJ cruiser a
lot of the design cues in a fifth-generation 4runner headlights and
taillights were carried over now they're trying to soften that in fact they've
created a completely unique headlight for the 2014 4 runner as well as a new
grill for each of the three trim packages but we're sitting in right now
is a trail edition four Runner which means manual shift four wheel drive also
has a new set up for the a/c controls much easier much simpler to see and also
it has a second-generation Entune system which works more like an iphone than any
other radio you've probably experienced the big money here for the change for
2014 is in the gauge cluster right in front of the driver
no longer do you have the big giant speedometer right in the center and
small gauges around it but now you have something a little more readable and a
little more conventional with tech ometer and speedometer on the outside
and an information screen right in the middle that you can scroll through and
get different information from your vehicle and especially the engine at the
back of the 4runner still very familiar very similar to the 2013 model but they
have included a few details that will make this vehicle unique and maybe a
little more stable at higher speeds not the least of which is the vortex
generator might just look like a bubble doubt piece of plastic but it is
supposed to help with stability at higher speeds on highways
also new LED lights are incorporated into the rear tail lights as well as
noted earlier not a lot of mechanical changes here still has the four liter v6
engine
and still has the same chassis setup that it had before five link rear
suspension coil springs up front as far as how the 2014 model handles compared
to the 2013 almost identical
you still have the same responsive feel you still have something that's very
capable of getting you especially with the trail edition through any type of
dangerous four wheel drive expedition as far as the limited it still offers a lot
of value for the money
toyota gave us a great chance to take these trail edition for runners on some
pretty nasty four-wheel-drive trails
we've had a lot of rain around here so there's a lot of Pennsylvania mud
what we found with the crawl control and the a track system
very impressive and getting yourself out of situations that you wouldn't even
dream of taking another bigger stronger vehicle through backseat feeding
strategies still the same 60-40 split rear seats but the materials
toyota has improved stitching is noticeably better and some of the
materials that they're using on the different trim packages are of a higher
quality the rear seats themselves still flip and fold the same way
pulling up the seat dropping the head rest and rear seats fall right down
another feature that we really like that's a carryover from the 2013 model a
sliding rear deck pulls out cargo
stores cargo makes family living certainly a lot easier now there's going
to be three different trim packages sr5 trail and limited but Toyota strategy
now is to try to pack both the sr5 and the trail with more standard features so
they're essentially going to try to stay the same price but we'll have a lot more
technology and improvements for the 2014 model also the limited as noted is going
to be a great value for the 40 and 45 thousand dollar average price that a lot
of those models are going to go out the door for more details driving
impressions and pricing of the 2014 toyota 4runner go to cars.com
yeah