How To Buy One Of The New Mid-Size Toyota Trucks In Five Easy Steps

Here’s how to find the highest value and most performance from the mechanically-identical Tacoma, Land Cruiser*, and 4Runner

Reviews of the new Toyota 4Runner are out today, completing the launch of Toyota’s new family of mechanically identical mid-size trucks. But despite sharing frames, motors, transmissions, axles, and suspension components, there are actually some important differentiators between that thing, the Tacoma, and the Land Cruiser* beyond just the looks. Let me make it easy to decide which one might be least-bad for your needs.

As a recap, the new Tacoma, 4Runner, and Land Cruiser* are all based on Toyota’s new TNGA-F frame. Just to make things really confusing, a version of that frame is also used by the full-size Tundra, Sequoia, and the Lexus GX and LX. But where those larger vehicles use a 3.4-liter twin-turbo V6 (also available in hybrid flavor), and are obviously bigger size-wise, the smaller trucks all share a 2.4-liter single-turbo four-cylinder, which is also available as a hybrid.