The Toyota 4Runner TRD Pro is one of the few-remaining body-on-frame SUVs, but that didn’t stop it from selling really well. In fact, 2017 was the 4Runner’s best year ever in the US, with 128,000 units sold across the country.
It’s an impressive achievement, especially when you consider the number of SUVs out there competing for a share of the market. It also shows how important is the so-called ‘cool factor’ of a vehicle in the market; in a sea of boring SUVs, it’s not that hard for the aggressive 4Runner TRD Pro to stand out from the crowd.
The TRD Pro package certainly helps the 4Runner’s case, giving the popular truck a proper off-road stance with its beefed-up suspension, big tires and of course that almost comically big grille at the front with the retro ‘TOYOTA’ in the middle.
It’s a recipe that obviously just works with customers, who are also driven by Toyota’s reliability scores and that fame of building indestructible trucks. In a way, as Doug DeMuro points out in his review, the 4Runner TRD Pro is very much a modern-day 60-Series Landcruiser.
That doesn’t mean that everything’s peachy. Toyota’s truck is still expensive to buy, with prices reaching close to $50k if you start ticking a few options. That’s a lot of money for an SUV that doesn’t offer features like keyless entry or common active safety systems; but then again, people who buy a 4Runner TRD Pro don’t care about this sort of things, do they?