Get Your Motor Running, Head Out On The Highway with the 2004 Toyota 4Runner

Author's Rating:

Pros: Powerful, beautiful SUV with lots of features.

Cons: The gas mileage.

Reliability:
Seat Comfort:
Build Quality
Roominess:
Owns this vehicle:

The Bottom Line: 
This is a fantastic, powerful SUV. Great for towing, off roading or just traveling.

Author's Review
We bought the Toyota 4Runner and I am really excited to review it. This is a complex SUV but I will attempt to keep this concise. There are a couple of points I want to make first that may help you in your purchase.
~The 4 Runner comes in 3 models: The SR5, The Limited and The Sport Edition.
~ You can choose either a V6 or V8 engine.
~You can choose 2 wheel drive or 4 wheel drive.
~The 2 wheel drive may tow more in weight but you can only get either a 2 wheel or 4 wheel. There is no conversion option.
~Some options are not available in various parts of the country. For example, we bought the SR5 which has an optional 3rd row with 2 seats making a 5 seater into a 7 seater. That option is not currently available in the Northeast.
~If you choose one option such as the third row, you may not be able to get another option you want such as the double decker cargo system. I found this all really complicated but I hope these few tidbits will make your choice a little easier.

If you want a lot of bells and whistles, which we did not want, you’ll opt for the Limited but pay up to $8,000 or more for it. One final piece of information which I didn’t know. (Please realize I am not an expert but a consumer like the people to whom this review is geared.) We picked up Consumer Reports and found it to be one of their favorite SUVs. We found that though through Consumer Reports you can get the wholesale price of the car for $12.00. You can get it online, via fax or mail. The dealer invoice for the V8 is 27,408. The wholesale price is about $640 below that.

About the car:

Before we bought the car I test drove it and had a complete tour of this SUV. The following day, I had another tour of it when my husband saw it. I test drove it, sat as a passenger and sat in the back seat. We then bought it.

This SR5 is a 4 door SUV with 4 wheel drive, 8 cylinders with a 4.7-liter engine and 5-speed automatic transmission. Standard in this car are (not inclusive of all equipment) descent control (This is a nice feature – make sure you have the salesperson explain how it works. It acts as additional breaking when going down hill. You do have to engage it.) front and rear stabilizer bar, tachometer, trip computer clock, external temperature display, trailer hitch trailer wiring, cargo tie downs, alloy tires- 16 x 7.0 inch rims, (We got the 17 inch which are standard on the Limited.) a full-size spare tire, privacy glass, rear defogger, rear window wiper, power liftgate window, (I love this. The back window can be raised and lowered with a push of a button in the front.) rear liftgate door, step running boards, 4-wheel ABS emergency braking, assist traction control, stability control, rear door child safety, 2 front headrests, and 3 rear headrests.

You will also find bucket front seats, cloth upholstery, height adjustable driver seat, driver seat with power adjustable lumbar support, (I wish this were on the passenger side as well.) 40-60 split bench with a storage center armrest (which has cupholders), rear heating ducts, 1 one-touch power windows, 12v power outlets, (I think this is a bit strange. There is only one outlet in the front. The second one is in the cargo area.) front console with storage, (That's where the 6-CD player is.) and an overhead console with storage.

There are a couple of mysteries to this car. Perhaps it is due to the inexperience of our salesman, but even while doing research, they remain a mystery. We have rear side-view mirrors. Although they appear to be an option coming with a compass we have the mirrors but no compass and did not pay extra for them. At first I thought they were primarily for towing but after driving the car I realize that they are an excellent way to eliminate blind spots. The only negative to these are getting used to them. You see so many angles that you will have to adjust to what you are seeing.

The other mystery is an accessory package about which no one seemed to know. We went to two dealers and they both had never heard of it yet it was on the sticker price as an option. All we know is we paid $261 for a $9.99 emergency kit and maybe mats and more cargo nets. Also an option that we got was a JBL Synthesis with 6-disc in-dash CD player and cassette and 10 speakers. Standard is an AM/FM cassette in-dash single CD player stereo with 6 total speakers. The sound is incredible in this vehicle.

The fuel tank hold 23 gallons. The car gets 15 miles to a gallon in the city and 19 on the highway.

My personal impression of the interior and exterior:

This is a large SUV though not as large as the Toyota Sequoia. I find the front seats very comfortable, especially the driver’s seat. The front is spacious and has a luxurious feel to it. There is a lot of room. The seats are manual except for the lumbar support. That is automatic.

You may not know this during a test drive but after owning it we find out that though the seats go down almost flat, they will go down totally flat like a bed if the head rests are taken off. This is in the car's manual so I didn’t invent this.

The outside of the car is very pretty. It is high off the road especially with the 17-inch wheels but the sideboard makes it easy to get into unlike the 2003 Ford F150 SuperCrew.

The cloth is nice and soft; the storage space is great.
There is even a trash bag holder in the back of the front console.

The car comes in black, grey, white, two shades of blue, silver and the color we got, which is called Dorado Gold Pearl. If you see the color online the color in reality is much lighter than that. It has less gold than pearl in it.

How the car handles:

The acceleration is excellent. I had the opportunity of not only as I said driving and being a passenger but actually driving behind the car when we drove it home. I drive a BMW and my husband had the SR5 at 80 without any hesitation. This is one powerful vehicle. You'll have no problem merging onto a highway at all.

Although considered a truck based SUV rather than a car based one, it drives and handles very well. In the backseat I feel the bumps more so than in the BMW but it is acceptable. As large as it is, it maneuvers easily around other cars. As a driver and front seat passenger it is very comfortable with little to no noise from within or outside.

It doesn’t drive like my BMW (which is for sale as is our pick up truck if you are looking to buy a used car) of course but I’m very happy with the feel of it. We plan on using it quite a bit off road. We have gone over non-paved roads and the car handles as well as another other. I have had to get used to turning in this large vehicle. It is wider than anything I’ve driven but it turns nicely. On a test drive my husband stopped the car going about 65 and we had no problem with the SR5's braking ability.

It is incredibly powerful and comfortable.

The interior feels really well made. The car feels plush rather than like a piece of tin.

It is a 5 speed automatic. I have finally learned how all this works. In a nutshell it allows the car to handle in anything. Whether you are stuck in the mud, driving on sand, climbing a hill or descending a mountain, there is a gear for you. You’ll find drive, 4, 3 and 2 and low speeds. The car is always in high 4 wheel drive but you’d switch it to low 4 wheel drive if you were stuck. For extra braking I’d put it in 4, 3, 2 or low. It is sort of like using the gears on a bike. It might take a bit of learning, but you’ll get it. It does have quite an unusual looking stick shift panel to accommodate all these gears.

The SR5 competes with the Ford Explorer and the Dodge Durango. I would pick a Toyota over either of those cars any day.

Safety

NHTSA Rating: Passenger: Good, Driver: Good, Side Impact Front: Excellent, Side Impact Rear: Excellent, Rollover Rating: Average. I've written a few automobile reviews and these are really good safety ratings. Rollovers in SUV's are a well known problem so please do not make a tight turn going fast.

The standard basic warranty is 3 years or 36,000 miles. The drivetrain is 5 years or 60,000 miles. The warranty for rust is 5 years and unlimited miles.

In summary:

There is so much about this car I haven’t told you. I haven’t told you that there is a flame-retardant sheet under the hood of the engine. I haven’t told you how easy it is to turn the second row seats down flat – it is a cinch. I haven’t told you that a light comes on if the tire pressure is too low or too high.

The Toyota 4Runner SR5 V8 4 WD SUV is fantastic. It would be nice if it got better gas mileage and I’ll have to rate it 4 stars rather than 5 but I do understand that is the nature of the beast. We couldn’t have asked for a better car to suit our needs if we had designed one ourselves.

Please feel free to leave me a comment or question. You may e-mail me privately if you wish.

URLs you might want to look at for cars are

http://www.edmunds.com
http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/cars/testing/NCAP/
http://www.hwysafety.org/vehicle_ratings/ratings.htm

If you have any questions about this car, feel free to e-mail me.

Other car reviews I have written include:

2003 Toyota MR2 Spyder
2003 Ford F150 SuperCrew
2003 BMW325I
2000 Nissan Altima
2001 Chevy Malibu
2002 Chevy Prizm
1998 Dodge Ram Van
1996 Nissan Sentra
2001 Pontiac Sunfire
1999 Toyota Camry
2001 Hyundai Accent
1998 Chevy S-10 Pick Up
1999 BMW 323is
2002 Subaru Impreza
2000 Suzuki Swift
2001 Chevy Metro

Title borrowed from Born to Be Wild written by Mars Bonfire.