Forbidden fruit: Toyota 4Runner TRD Sport arrives Stateside

Officially one of Toyota’s oldest models having debuted in its current fifth generation form twelve years ago, the still popular 4Runner has been revised with the inclusion of a new TRD Sport model in the United States.

Taking the 4Runner line-up count to ten, the TRD Sport, despite wearing the iconic Toyota Racing Developments designation, is more about affordable luxury and balanced off-road prowess than focusing on one or the other outright.

Rear view

Effectively the new most attainable TRD model below the off-road focused TRD Off-Road, TRD Off-Road Premium and top-spec TRD Pro, the Sport is in fact based on the entry-level SR5 and thus likely to be positioned between it and aforementioned TRD Off-Road in spite of Toyota having remained mum on pricing details.

Based on the same body-on-frame platform as the Tacoma bakkie, the Sport’s exterior changes from the SR5 includes a TRD bonnet with an air intake, LED headlights, a colour coded grille, black roof rails, dark grey 20-inch alloy wheels and colour coded door sills as well as panels.

Boasting automatically adjusting dampers taken from the pricier Limited that is claimed to better on-road driving, the Sport’s interior boasts SofTex imitation leather seats with the fronts being heated, TRD floor mats, a TRD gear lever and TRD embroidered headrests.

Interior

As with the 129 052 4Runners sold in the States last year, the TRD Sport is powered by the stalwart 4.0-litre V6 petrol engine whose 200kW/378Nm is channelled to the rear or all-four wheels via a five-speed automatic gearbox with a low range transfer case being included with the latter configuration.

Likely to be priced around $38 000 (R523 517) given the $36 765 (R506 503) starting price of the SR5 and the TRD Off-Road’s $40 730 (R561 128), the TRD Sport will go on sale in the United States soon and like the standard 4Runner, remains a no-no for South Africa as it won’t be with right-hand-drive.