I’ve had this thing for exactly one year, and I’m 70 miles short of hitting 13k. That’s a lot of miles, considering I don’t have a work commute.
My thoughts from my initial 600 mile review haven’t changed. It’s a comfortable family hauler with some off road chops. I only managed to venture onto trails a couple of times last summer, but hopefully I can get out more next year, I just have to make the effort.
My annual average fuel consumption over the course of 12930 miles comes out to 17.48 MPG, about 5k of that with E load BFGs and the lift. My mileage hit from the lift is a paltry 0.07MPG, which surprised me that it wasn’t more.
First year of ownership included the following aftermarket purchases:
- Husky Weatherbeaters
- Bilstein 6112/5160 shocks
- Wheelers Off-road T13 Eibach Springs
- BFG K02 275/70/17
- TRD Pro wheels
- OEM LED foglights
- GE Megalight Ultra+ H11 headlight bulbs
- Solex center console organizer.
I DIYed the lift install. I also wrapped the roof rails black. Overall, modifications in year one cost a total of $2,697.99. For me, it was money well spent as I enjoyed installing the lift, and I like how all of the small changes have added up. I would like to add a flat utility type roof rack next year. If I get more adventurous, sliders could be in the future, too, but I’m leery of adding too much extra weight.
So, after a year, would I do it again? I would buy another 4Runner again if there was still an occasional need to the third row. We’ve used it 4 or 5 times this year, and it’s been nice to have. Not needing a third row, I may very well have gone with a 4Runner Pro (or at least the Off Road). However, the Wrangler Unlimited would’ve come back into play, as I really liked it, and enjoyed the manual transmission. I purposely opted out of the JLUR to have budget left for a project car, which has yet to materialize. I added up some wish list mods for the 4Runner in case it were to become the project, and the total came to just over $11k, but a huge portion of that cost is a supercharger. That would put my total cost of the 4Runner near the MSRP of the JLUR I was considering.
Here it is on day 1 of my ownership...
My only complaint is the lack of interior storage cubbies for things such as jumper cables, trailer ball, tie downs, etc. The list of likes is much longer, which is why I’ll be in this for years to come. It’s comfy, has loads of cargo room (you can fit 4’ wide loads through the hatch...it’d just a tick too short for a 4x8 sheet of plywood though), is a great off road platform, a usable third row, and I expect it to be extremely reliable.