The Toyota 4Runner is an SUV manufactured by the Japanese automaker Toyota and marketed globally since 1984, across five generations. In Japan, it was marketed as the and was withdrawn from the market in 2009. The original 4Runner was a compact SUV and little more than a Toyota Hilux pickup truck with a fiberglass shell over the bed, but the model has since undergone significant independent development into a cross between a compact and a mid-size SUV. All 4Runners have been built in Japan at Toyota's plant in Tahara, Aichi, or at the Hino Motors (a Toyota subsidiary) plant in Hamura.
The name "4Runner" was created by copywriter Robert Nathan with the Saatchi & Saatchi advertising company as a play on the term "forerunner". The agency held contests to invent new names for Toyota's forthcoming vehicles. According to Toyota, the "4" described the vehicle's 4-wheel drive system while "Runner" was a reference to its all-terrain capabilities and how it could "run" off road.
For some markets, the Hilux Surf was replaced in 2005 by the similar Fortuner, which is based on the Hilux platform.
, the 4Runner is marketed in the Bahamas, Bolivia, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Panama, Peru, the United States and Venezuela.
The 4Runner came in at number five in a 2019 study by iSeeCars.com ranking the longest-lasting vehicles in the US. The 4Runner had 3.9 percent of vehicles over , according to the study.
Predecessor: Toyota Trekker (N30; 1981–1983)
Toyota had partnered with third-party recreational vehicle manufacturers at least as early as 1973, when a Chinook Mobilodge-built popup truck camper was paired with the longbed Toyota truck chassis and sold as a less expensive, more economical alternative to larger motorhomes. In the Chinook conversion, the bed and rear wall of the cab were removed and a fiberglass popup shell was added, allowing occupants to walk through from the motorhome section to the cab.
The Trekker was a similar "walk-through" third-party conversion of the short-bed Toyota Hilux truck, built by Winnebago Industries from 1981 to 1983. Winnebago removed the rear wall and added a bench seat in the bed, protecting these occupants by a permanently-fixed fiberglass shell; in concept, it was similar to the Chevrolet K5 Blazer. The Trekker competed with similar third-party limited production Toyota conversions including the Breaker-Breaker and Trailblazer. The Trekker was discontinued in 1984 once Toyota started producing and selling the 4Runner SUV; these third-party conversions had in essence acted as marketing test vehicles for the 4Runner.
Production
After the Land Cruiser FJ40 was discontinued, Jack Safro, who operated a Toyota dealer in Brookfield, Wisconsin, approached Winnebago with the idea to convert the Hilux into a four-passenger vehicle as a potential replacement. The resulting Trekker was produced from early 1981 through 1983. In total, approximately 1200–1500 Trekkers were built and sold in the United States, with many shipped to Colorado. An additional unknown number of Trekker kits, likely less than 200, were shipped to Canada to be installed on Canadian trucks at the dealerships. 20 to 30 of the Trekker kits were sold and shipped to Saudi Arabia for installation.
Toyota shipped all trucks from Japan as cab and chassis in order to avoid the 25% assembled truck customs tax. All Trekkers were built on the short wheelbase Hilux chassis. The trucks destined for production as Trekkers were shipped to the dealership handling the national distribution of the Trekker. From there they went to Winnebago to have the Trekker conversion installed, returned after completion to the dealership for national distribution. Most of the Trekker conversions sold went to the west coast of the United States.
Specifications
The Trekker conversion involved removing the bed and rear cab wall from the donor truck, then replacing them with a fiberglass tub, bed sides, a non-removable canopy and rear hatch. The kit included a folding rear seat that could be folded forward to lay flat and add cargo space to the back. There was no tailgate on the Trekkers. The factory Toyota vinyl cab headliner was replaced and matched to the custom rear canopy headliner. Suggested retail price in 1981 was .