Finally... a normal looking hybrid. How’s trunk space? Do the rear seats fold flat? One (of the many, many) thing(s) that killed my enthusiasm for another ‘normal’ looking hybrid out there (Fusion Energi/Hybrid) was the intrusiveness of the battery into the trunk. With the Energi, you could barely stuff some gym socks…

Northwest Arkansan here... so nice to see us in the national news for something that isn’t meth or Wal Mart related.

Best: my semi-daily-driver, 350k mile 1998 4Runner
Worst: the loaner 5k mile Grand Cherokee I had to manhandle back to the Jeep dealer for my sister-in-law when it’s power steering failed.

Bonus: worst dealership experience. Tossup between the Jeep dealership mentioned above (wouldn’t give out another loaner, expected…

Yes yes, but can they be opened in such a manner that vectors air towards the crotchal region?

I very much hate myself for the gif I’m about to paste here:

It lets you engage the rear e-locker? in hi-range 4wd? without having to cut & splice? I like that.

That feeling is good too, for about 2 minutes. Like jumping from the hot tub into a snow bank. It’s a rush, you get those endorphins going... its great.

I’ve seen too many of these leaving a trail of oil smoke to want to rely on one daily.

I spend a lot of time outdoors. In the winter, I often run my heat at the lowest possible setting, so the “shock” of getting out of the car and into the potentially freezing outside air isn’t as great and it doesn’t “feel” as cold as it really is.

Spoiler alert, the flares are double side taped onto the front and rear fenders, but the bumpers are “notched” for the black trim bits to slot into them & to make it flow better you’d need to replace f/r bumpers.

Yep. In addition to my 3rd gen hoard, we have a 5th gen. 1" level in the front, stock wheels but A/T tires, ditch the running boards = no longer a minivan. 

The 4th gen 4Runner is one of the few vehicles out there that actually looks good wearing the wheels of the newer-models in it’s line. There’s a 4th gen with 5th gen “Trail” / “TRD Off Road” wheels rolling around near me. Looks stellar.

I think they are. Look at the driver’s side rear wheel. Stationary. I’d love to say “both right side wheels are spinning thanks to open diffs and the raw power of the 22R engine” but I’ve owned a few of these and know that to be an impossibility.

When I lived in Maine, on a single commute home, I saw Rub1Out and LBS VAG.

To the 7 people who both read Jalopnik AND are actually interested in this thing I say this: don’t worry about the MSRP. Just wait 4 years and our good friend ‘depreciation’ will drop these things into the realm of affordability for those of us who aren’t landed gentry.

Rear view mirrors often don’t exist in most shots where the camera is positioned on the hood looking through the windshield. I know why they did this (it obscures things that they don’t want to have obscured), but sometimes they don’t even take that little metal “button” off of the windshield where the rear view used…

At least one of those tracks looks like it came from a duratrac.

Missed opportunity to bring this classic back:

Think how much better those rock sliders would be if they were, you know, bolted to the frame.

The camera in the lead image is what, 10'? 15'? from the front bumper of this truck. Probably 4' off the ground if I had to guess. Look at how little of the headrest you can see from this angle.