Product attributes
The Toyota 4Runner is a compact, later a mid-size sport utility vehicle produced by the Japanese manufacturer Toyota and sold throughout the world from 1984 to the present. In Japan, it is known as the Toyota Hilux Surf (Japanese: トヨタ・ハイラックスサーフ, Hepburn: Toyota Hairakkususāfu) which was withdrawn from the market in 2009. The original 4Runner was a compact SUV and little more than a Toyota pickup truck with a fiberglass shell over the bed, but the model has since undergone significant independent development into a cross between a compact and a mid-size SUV. All 4Runners have been built in Japan at Toyota's plant in Tahara, Aichi, or at the Hino Motors (a Toyota subsidiary) plant in Hamura.
The name "4Runner" was created by a copywriter named Robert Nathan who was working for the advertising agency Saatchi & Saatchi. The agency held contests to invent new vehicle names before the introduction of new Toyota models. The name 4Runner was created as a play on the term "forerunner," since the sport utility vehicle was the first of its kind for Toyota with an emphasis on its 4x4 capability and seating for four.
For some markets, the Hilux Surf was replaced in 2005 by the similar Fortuner, which is based on the Hilux platform.
As of 2021, the 4Runner is sold in the Bahamas, Bolivia, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Panama, Peru, the United States and Venezuela.
The 4Runner came in at number five in a 2019 study by iSeeCars.com ranking the longest-lasting vehicles in the US. The 4Runner had 3.9 percent of vehicles over 200,000 miles (320,000 km), according to the study.
