True confessions: After almost eight years, the number of cars that we’ve never covered here at CC is seriously dwindling. And the number of cars we’ve covered more than once is seriously increasing. But there’s a few that have yet to make their appearance, and I’ve been keeping my eyes out for them. And this early gen1 4Runner with the solid front axle that was only sold here for one and half years, was one of them. I’d long given up, until there it was, sitting at the paint store, another little moment of history waiting to be found and documented.
Toyota has a very deep history with serious four whee drive vehicles, especially in its export markets. Fun fact: the very first Toyota model to be exported was the legendary FJ Land Cruiser; this rock-solid vehicle was the first they sent out to conquer the world (full story here).
And the FJ in its short and long wheelbase variants became a mainstay for Toyota, although its volume was of course never really that large, given its intended mission, uncompromising construction and significant price. And the intrinsic limitations in that segment of the market. But the time they were a’ changing.
That change took a huge turn in 1969, when Chevrolet rewrote the 4×4 formula. Instead of a unique and specifically designed machine, they took a 4×4 Chevy pickup, shortened the bed and gave it a removable fiberglass topper. The resulting K5 Blazer was a big hit, and led to a drastically expanding market for 4x4s in the 1970s. The off-roader boom was on.
1979 saw the introduction of Toyota’s new N30/N40 Hilux Pickup, which was now available in a 4×4 version. It borrowed components and experience from the FJ, and with its rugged solid front axle and other components, was instantly acclaimed in the US as the 4×4 compact pickup of choice. Good luck finding one nowadays; they’ve mostly given their lives to the call of the wild.
Someone at Winnebago industries saw the opportunity to build a small-scale Blazer using the new Toyota 4×4 pickup. Or was some dealers? Or Toyota USA itself? The true origins of the resulting Toyota Trekker are lost to the sands of time, but we know that Winnebago and Toyota cooperated in this project.
A short bed pickup was sent to Winnebago, where a fiberglass tub lined the inside of the bed, a seat added, and of course the fiberglass top. Only some 1500 trekkers were made and sold, between 1981 and 1983. A safe way to test the waters. And apparently, the water was warm, despite the modest number made.
The next generation Toyota pickup (N50-60-70) arrived for 1984. And mid-year 1984, Toyota’s new 4Runner appeared, very similar in concept to the Trekker, but straight for mother Toyota this time.
And the 4Runner’s topper was removable; there’s no evidence about the Trekker’s being removable. It made for a very appealing package in 1984, right at the time the off-road boom was going mainstream. That could be us with our little kids, except we were driving in a new 1985 Cherokee. I’m sure the kids would have loved riding in the open once one got to the open country; on the way there, not so much so.
Here’s that old-school solid front axle, suspended on leaf springs. It only lasted for a year and a half; for the 1985 MY, a new IFS replaced it. Undoubtedly with many benefits for most folks, but not the hard core rock hoppers.
Sold front axles are preferred by the this bunch, for the relative ease of lifting the body and increasing axle articulation. This is how so many of these ended up.
Which makes this one a rare survivor. No rocks and dirt have sullied the sills and original graphics on this baby.
It’s almost a traitor to its name, at least at the time.
The interior is equally unsullied. The 5 speed manual was teamed up to the legendary 2.4 L R22 SOHC four, still carburated in 1984, but in 1985 it got fuel injection to go along with the IFS. The 4Runner was being civilized.
The 4Runner has became a stable in Toyota’s portfolio, and has carved out a very nice little niche for itself, as pretty much the only thing left of its kind; a genuine BOF 4×4 in a reasonable size package and with both excellent on-road comfort along with serious off-road creds, especially in the TRD Pro package. Toyota sells close to 100k 4Runners per year, and they have a very loyal following and very high resale values. Toyota has cultivated its niche judiciously; meanwhile Nissan’s Xterra has exited, and there’s very little else to compete effectively with it.
It’s a classic Toyota playbook move: identify a market segment where its intrinsic strengths can be leveraged, execute almost flawlessly over the years, and slowly but steadily squeeze out the competition. That’s how it got to be the most profitable automaker in the world, and so far, nothing has stopped it yet. Let’s check back in in 30 years.
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CC 1965 Toyota FJ Land Cruiser PN
I was always a fan of these and when I had the financial ability to buy a 4Runner I did, in 2004 I bought an used 1997 with 100k miles. I still have it, now with 250k and going strong. These Gen 1’s were around when I was in high school and I really wanted one. Looking at them now the lack of back doors and the solid front axle give it a tougher look but make it less reasonable to live with as an everyday vehicle.
2nd Gen made a major leap forward with a fully enclosed 4 door body and IRS. The only issue with those was the 3.0 V6 had serious durability issues with head gaskets. By the 3rd Gen in 1996, they had fine tuned the packaging and heavily revised the V6 into the nearly indestructible 3.4 5VZFE that came in my truck. These restored the near legendary durability of the 4Runner back to 22R levels or better. Where I am, there are still lots of 3rd Gen 4Runners around.
When I drive a unibody CUV or even my 2006 Tacoma Prerunner and then get in my 4Runner I am reminded of the limitations of using a small BOF pickup as the basis for what is ostensibly a passenger vehicle–very high step in, sitting right on the floor, limited interior width, bouncy ride and relatively poor gas mileage for its size. On the up side it is maneuverable, fun to drive and hugely versatile (seats 4, tows 5000+ lbs, great off road).
As you said, Toyota did their usual number on the competition and fine tuned the 4Runner and worked it into a position where it was by far the most highly desirable among BOF SUVs. So much so that it is still viable money maker for them when the entire market for them has shrunk down to just the 4Runner…
jakengle, as a fellow 3rd gen 4Runner owner I couldn’t agree more. My ’96 Limited (with optional rear locking diff) is a mere baby by 4Runner standards at just 135k miles. I bought it three years ago with 99k from a very gentle owner. Once I base-lined all the maintenance and wear items, it’s been an absolutely indispensable Swiss army knife of a vehicle for me. My fiance and I are big outdoors people so it’s gotten us out to trail heads and remote camp sites, and always got us back, including after some crazy flash flooding (@1:09 in video):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JTneGPG2ZrM
consistently gets me 20mpg in mixed/highway driving which is perfectly palatable to me. Hauls yard stuff and lumber (roll down rear window is a boon here) great. I have rear air shocks in the back that I can pump up when hauling a heavy load.
Yes, the downsides are also evident: long highway trips are pretty fatiguing in terms of the bouncy ride and sensitivity to crosswinds. The interior is very compact and legs-out. I prefer a more upright chair seating position, something that the 5th gen 4Runner gained.
Pic below is a fun weekend exploration trip into the old fire roads in the Charles C Deam Wilderness in Indiana (same location is flash flooding video above).
I actually owned one of the Winnebago conversion Faux Runners ten years ago. 22r, solid axle, rear seat, carpeting, shell, the lot. Great rig except the seats were total garbage. Not as in damaged but absolutely no lateral support. The truck was stiff as hell and it was all I could do to NOT slide off the seats at times. Me and my friend tossed them and replaced them with seats out of a wrecked same-period Tercel that were WAY better. The back seat was broken so I tossed that as well and used a small mattress for camping trips. It was stolen during a gig but I found it the next day. I’ll have to do an article about that soon. Here it is:
Yup. My favorite vehicle ever. Not so well liked by my wife who finds the passenger seat cramped. Working on that right now. Every intention of making this my last car.
Toyota Surfs which is the JDM name are everywhere here extremely popular the 3.0 turbo diesel manual being the pick of the bunch and the 3.0 V6 petrol models are quite popular too though they do suck a lot of gas and all appear to be automatics, early models werent very well thought of and didnt sell well Landcruisers and Landrovers ruled the off road scene back then and mostly Landrovers due to their hillside ability something neither Toyota or Jeep ever seemed to be able to master.
I recall that 1985 was still solid axle…they got IFS for 1986.
Correct. I had a regular cab short box pickup (aka Hilux) equipped from the factory with the 22RE and solid front axle.
Edit: Forgot to include the year of my truck, it was a 1985.
I’m curious about why removable tops were considered de rigueur on SUVs for over a decade, then completely disappeared. Did this reduce or increase the cost and complexity of making them? I don’t recall it ever being popular to remove the top on 4Runners, Blazers, Broncos, and other such off-roaders. The few I saw who did remove the tops left them off permanently and used them more like pickup trucks.
One reason may be that it was indeed a hassle to remove and store the top, as well as no way to button things up with the top stored back at home.
In November 1980, Popular Science reported that Chrysler eliminated the removable roof feature on the 1981 Dodge Ramcharger and Plymouth Trail Duster, because a survey revealed that less than five percent of owners ever removed the roof. And 12 precent of owners were completely unaware that their top was removable!
“And 12% of owners were completely unaware that their top was removable!”
Hilarious! You’d think they’d infer that from appearance alone. But then, there are some things about my car I learned yrs. after purchase. Read the Owner’s Manual (all 600+ pages of it if you buy a Prius)! Maybe the touchscreen should do random pop quizzes every time one starts the car.
I had a friend who replaced his Tercel with a 4Runner; he liked it.
When the 4Runner first came out I was about 12, and I thought it was one of the neatest things in the world. A friend of our family’s bought one at that time, and I even remember having my picture taken in front of it because it was such a novelty.
I wasn’t alone in that sentiment, either. The 4Runner was one of the first vehicles I remember that was admired both by kids of my age and their parents. In hindsight, this was a harbinger of things to come – the budding mass appeal of SUVs, but of course no one realized it at the time.
Oddly, I don’t recall the same affection for Blazers and Broncos of the era (at least in suburbia where I lived), even though they were essentially a similar concept. 4Runners became instantly mainstream, but with enough uniqueness to make them stand out.
I never knew about the Winnebago connection with the 4Runner, or for that matter about the Trekker in general. That makes the story of its birth even more interesting.
Call me old-school, but I much prefer the early 4-Runner than the current generation 4-Runner model. I find it more attractive. It’s less complex. My only complaint, at the time, as it is now, was its lack of a turbo diesel. I know it’s not for everyone, but I believe it would’ve gotten better fuel economy than with the V6 engine, or even a V8 engine. I believe it would’ve also provided the same amount of low end torque, maybe even more, than the gasoline powered V8 engine, while also getting close to 20-25 mpgs.
I’ve noticed too that we’re running out of first-time subjects. I say, bring on fresh Curbside Classics on cars we’ve covered before. Because there’s always another angle, another story.
And this 4Runner is a stellar find.
Ditto on running out of “fresh” cars. I’ve also harvested all I can find from my locale. Three to four years ago it was much easier to find fresh meat. The different angle of the same car appeals to me greatly. It’s pretty obvious we’ve all had some highly divergent thoughts and experiences on any particular car.
That said, I sometimes think the automotive histories are still offering lots of fertile ground but they are a bit more time consumptive.
One that’s long overdue for its judgment is the 1988-94 Lincoln Continental. Finding one curbside at this point is probably close to impossible though.
I’ll second this!
I see some in Portland, OR, but always on the go.
There is one at a lot in East Boston as of last week. (They want $2500.)
Squeaks and rattles, I would guess, need extra structural support on uniobody SUVs. And it gets harder and harder to keep Jeep windshields and doors and tops road legal with every generation.
I would welcome new articles from new authors or the same author. Any picture of a CC is a fresh picture! Keep em coming y’all.
I dig those crazy-ass bodyside graphics on the 4-Runners and Toyota trucks from this era. We laughed at them back then but they look really cool now.
I remember smiling at them too – ‘those crazy Japanese!’. Then I guess western tastes changed as we learnt more about Japan. And happy days were here again after the fuel crisis era. Or maybe we embraced the crazy graphics as a protest against the overbroughamification of our parents’ cars?
A friend had the Scout II with a full set of tops and panels to convert from enclosed SUV to pickup. He worked in a body shop but it still took him hours to swap out parts, and get everything weather-tight and lined up. So like may “convertible” or modular concepts, better in theory than practice. I was shopping for my first 4×4 in late ’83 and stopped by the Toyota dealership, though I didn’t really have a new truck budget. I remember the then-new 4Runner and even a new FJ40 in the showroom. The minis, let alone the Land Cruiser, seemed archaic to me, and I bought a used Datsun with IFS. Within a few years I had become educated on what really worked off road (not the Datsun 720), but by then the FJ40 was gone and the smaller truck/4Runner had gone to IFS, and I replaced the Datsun with a Twin Traction Beam Ford Ranger. A pretty decent suspension in my opinion, for it’s intended purpose. I’m surprised it took you a while to find one of these in Eugene; there are quite a few still running around in Santa Cruz (yes, even solid axle), but perhaps the high prices they command here are sucking them away from the other usual habitats for older Toyotas.
My parents replaced a ’75 Scout II with an ’85 4Runner in 1991 – It was a step down in just about every way. Slow, noisy, uncomfortable, and as rusty as the Scout was without the reliable running gear. As a newly licensed 16 year old, it was great offroad on wood trails…but absolutely hateful as a family vehicle…hard to get in and out of. I know that most won’t agree with me, but the 1990 S-Blazer that replaced it was better.
I don’t know that we got solid front axle 4Runners here in Australia, I think they started selling them in 1987. And after the 2nd gen any later 4Runner will be a used Japanese import. On the other hand they still sold the Hilux ute with a solid axle until 1997 in base models, which would be highly sought after now.
A current-day equivalent of this 4Runner is the 4-door Jeep Wrangler.
On a “late-night typo brigade” note, I assume the text was supposed to say “legendary 2.4 L 22R” rather than “R22” and that “stable in Toyota’s portfolio” was supposed to be “staple of.”
the formula has been watered down over the years. my buddy has a gen three example that he bought new which he street parks in manhattan. it has 250k miles and is still going strong but… it’s starting to need some pretty expensive repairs. the brake system has some very complex components instead of a master cylinder in order to compensate for the top heavy design. also, i’m not a fan of fake air intakes, etc. the second generation was the best.
I would argue that the current model is an improvement over the previous gen, if only because now that the Highlander has really taken over as the midsize family hauler, the 4Runner is free to be a niche-market off-roader again.