Let's see how well it works.
Remember the rear is not locked,
and I feel a little slipping,
definitely feel some slipping.
All right, it's slipping.
So I'm, now, gonna lock the rear.
And now the rear is locked, and what's happening there?
I started moving because 50% of the power goes to the rear,
and it's split between the right and the left wheel.
And then 50% of the power goes up front.
So, at any one time, I've got
at least three wheels with traction.
So, now, with the locker on, going up the hill
without a lot of difficulty.
This is a fairly steep hill.
(tense music)
And we're coming up to the crest.
Coming up to the crest.
No difficulty at all.
So this is pretty successful.
So that shows you how important
the turn on the rear locker really is.
(light music)
The TRD Pro package is pretty much
the most expensive 4Runner that you can configure.
It is a $10,000 premium over the TRD Off-Road.
So let's take a look at what comes with this package
and why you might want to pay the difference,
or maybe not, between the off-road version.
This comes with 17-inch wheels and tires,
and the tires are specifically rated for off-roading.
This also has this really cool beefy skid plate
with "TRD" on it,
but the secret sauce to this vehicle,
which makes it so comfortable in the city
and so capable off road, are these fox shocks.
These are specific to the TRD Pro package,
and upfront, they have tuned springs.
Into the rear, these shocks have an off-board reservoir,
so they're able to move fluid
in and out of the shock dynamically
to both keep the rubber on the trail
and also soften up the ride
and make it really, really comfortable.
There is a ton of space in here.
You can easily get four people in here with no issue.
The front seats are big and comfortable,
power adjusting seats on the driver and the passenger.
The back seat is very comfortable.
You can fit five...
You can fit five adults on here,
and it'll be a little bit of a squeeze.
There's a ton of cargo space as well.
This has the optional cargo tray that pulls out.
It actually holds 200 pounds.
It's pretty convenient for pulling out heavier stuff,
although you lose a little bit of cargo space to it.
It's a pretty nice option.
It's fairly inexpensive.
The infotainment system is pretty standard Toyota.
Nowadays, it's upgraded to the newer style.
This has an eight inch screen,
and what I like is it has physical buttons
for the volume control,
and you can find the menu and the audio and the map.
All those are in physical buttons,
so it's fairly easy to use, fairly easy to navigate.
It's not the most sophisticated
or the most advanced infotainment system on the market,
but, you know, Toyota always is a little bit conservative
with the electronics in their vehicles.
The instrument cluster is very easy to read; it's analog.
It has a large tack on the left hand side,
it has a large speedometer on the right hand side,
and in the middle is another screen
that tells you a whole variety of different things.
The interior is a perfectly fine place to be,
but let's find out what happens when you attempt
to scale some rocks,
and, maybe, you get just a little bit stuck.
We're at the base of the hill.
I've got the rear differential locked.
I'm gonna put it in four wheel drive low,
not going to turn on any mode, gonna do it all manually.
And we're going to see how easy or how difficult it is
to climb this hill.
(dramatic music)
You can hear the tire is kind of scrambling
a little bit for traction.
I'm gonna take this center line,
'cause this looks like the best line to take.
(sand crunching)
Hear the tire scrambling a little bit.
(sand crunching)
All right, so I'm at a good 30 degree angle,
something like that.
Now here's the big rut.
Here's the challenging part.
(sand crunching)
We got a little bit of a...
(car lurches)
(engine revs)
Back up a little bit.
That didn't sound good.
(engine revs)
At this point, you can see I'm in a bit of a pickle,
but Toyota has a magic button.
It's called "crawl control,"
and it regulates engine speed and braking
to slowly move the 4Runner when it's stuck.
All right, I've got it in the climb.
So let's see how it does in climb.
(engine revs)
All right, I've got it in the slowest speed climb mode,
and...
(sand crunching)
It seems to be doing a good job here.
(engine revs)
Ooh, that is steep.
(engine revs)
Wow, that is a steep angle.
Climb seems to be doing its job.
(engine humming)
Oh, very nice.
Very nice.
(engine humming)
And we have made it to the top.
So I could feel, in climb mode,
it was applying power.
It was moving the power round to the wheels.
It was giving it gas as I was a little bit stuck,
giving the car gas on its own.
Didn't touch the brake or the throttle at all.
Super cool.
(engine humming)
All right.
(beeping)
I would call that a successful hill climb.
So driving the 4Runner on a road,
there's a word that describes that, and that is "solid."
And there's a reason for that.
And that is because this is a body-on-frame vehicle.
This is an SUV that is from a different era
about 10 years ago.
And this is derived from a truck chassis.
All the new SUVs, they're all uni-body.
And the advantage for this kind of chassis
is, for off-roading, you want a body-on-frame situation.
That's what the Jeep, the Wrangler, is.
So right now, like I say, it's unique in the marketplace.
We do have one vehicle that is coming up,
and, of course, that is the Ford Bronco,
and that is also gonna be body-on-frame.
And I think right now, there really is no competition
other than this vehicle
for a body-on-frame SUV that is highly off-road capable.
Now, Toyota's been working on this for so long
that it doesn't really drive like a truck.
This has got a lot of refinement going on for it.
They've put so much development into this vehicle
in the last 10 years.
It feels...
Doesn't exactly drive like a car,
but it feels a little bit more modern
than I would expect it to.
And I think part of the reason
is due to the fox shocks in here.
They really...
I've talked about them.
They really do a good job at providing
really, really good damping,
so the ride quality is really good,
the steering feel is pretty good.
Toyota has put this Toyota Safety Sense package into,
I think, all of their vehicles at this point,
and this has it too.
It's got something called "lane keeping assist."
This has radar cruise control.
It has a pre-collision system
to stop the vehicle if you're about to hit something,
and they all work pretty well.
I did another review of the Toyota Corolla.
You can go check that out.
And I do a little comprehensive review
of those safety systems.
So this has those too.
So let's talk about the engine for just a moment.
This is the four liter V6, that makes 270 horsepower,
278 pounds/feet of torque.
It's not a lot.
This is not a fast truck by any means, or a fast SUV.
The newer vehicles with turbos on them feel a lot quicker,
but Toyota sells so many of these
that they are not going to change it,
and it is very reliable from all reports.
The only downsides for me, from a driving perspective,
are the engine and transmission.
It's just not that powerful.
You've really got to put your foot down pretty far
to get the transmission to kick down,
and, because it's only five speeds,
you've either got not enough acceleration
or a little bit too much.
Like I said before, Toyota sells a lot of these,
so that doesn't seem to be a huge consideration
for most people.
And they've put so much development time
into this engine and transmission to make it reliable,
so that is the compromise.
So this really is an excellent compromise
between city and off-roading.
I can't think of any other vehicle in this class like it.
My name is Eric.
If you like these kinds of videos, please subscribe,
and I will see you in the next one.