Is it just me or is this thing pretty gutless

If oil market volatility is a concern, I would not drive a 4Runner.

 

Its kind of an exaggeration. Its not like its Chicago or Detroit, but there is plenty of angry drivers here.

 

Agree. Let's not make it political or pretend that any politician controls oil prices. And let's not make our personal decision to buy and love gas-guzzling vehicles anyone else's problem.

Also, yes, (relatively) good highway mileage at 70 that improves in summer; in and around town it's 17-18 with an easy foot.

 

Its too late. I only worry about gas prices when I travel. Luckily I can sleep inside the 4R comfortably for days. I've looked at hybrids, but I just can't drive those vehicle. They look awful. What I need is a hybrid 4R.

 

Politicians may not control it, but some definitely don't help it.

 

Another one of these threads...

Exactly this in my case. Well, I squeezed out 19 combined, but mostly highway, at 55-60. 295/70/17 MT's, armor, and loaded with camping and recovery gear.

Plenty of angry drivers everywhere. I just hang out in the right lane and let them pass.

 

Oops I forgot to mention I'm one of the angry drivers.

 

Eco light.

I started using it after the pipeline hacking fiasco. I'm getting around 19.5MPG in town. I've seen notable fuel economy on the highway with adaptive cruise on my 2020 set at no more than 70MPH, too. I have done it at 75MPH, and the MPG took a hit.

 

I'm only beginning my second year with my 4Runner, but warmer weather seems to have a very noticeable effect on MPG for me. Maybe the 4Runner is unusual like that, maybe it isn't. I don't know. I never had onboard MPG information before. Heck, I never had a screen between the speedometer and the tachometer and a big screen in the radio before.

 

OP, not just you, I feel the same. The engine/transmission tuning is the worst thing about this vehicle by far.

You gotta be heavy on the throttle with these. The drive by wire throttle acts almost like there's a "stop" in it, you have to press through that to access the power, but yes, that is always accompanied by a downshift(s) as well. These are just high revving engine; they make power at higher RPMS. Foot to the floor 0-60, they're actually fairly quick, but trying to pass or climb a hill without a downshift, it feels like 5 of the 6 hamsters are asleep. There's just not much torque in that 2k rpm range.

As someone who's previously owned mostly domestic pushrod V6/I6/V8 engines, the character of this engine is very different for me.

Also, I just dove 220 miles to NH this weekend, got 21.1mpg that tank. Cruise at or under 70, it's not that hard.

 

I didn't buy our 4Runner to be a performance beast. It's role is to provide daily driven, reliable transportation. I have a Shelby GT500 to provide the performance end of things. It scratches that itch.

 

Warmer weather affects everyone's fuel economy. It's not unique to the 4Runner, although it seems to have a bigger impact on it than previous vehicles I've owned. This may just be because I'm paying more attention, though.

Here's some information about cold weather and decreased fuel economy:

https://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/coldweather.shtml

 

Agree with this also. I just got a 2021 model and ordered the Sprint Booster before I even took delivery of the 4runner. As others mentioned it doesn't give more power, but it gives a pedal response that you're probably more familiar with when driving your Camry or other vehicles. I don't know if any of your cars have an "ECO" mode, but basically what an ECO mode does is reduces the throttle response in an effort to boost fuel economy. In my opinion the 4runner, when compared to other vehicles I drive, feels like it is always in an ECO mode. The Sprint Booster resolves that issue by providing a customizable throttle response to your liking.

 

I've been hauling (literally) tons of stuff (we're moving - 4BR house we've lived in for 20+ years) behind my 2019 4Runner in a 6'w x 12'l x 6'6" interior height trailer across US Interstate highways and up and down (7+% grade) inclines on state highways for about 4 weeks now with the end now in sight. The trailer is 16xx# empty and the trailer has a rated GVWR of 4000#, and I've been filling it to reduce the number of loads to haul without overtaxing anything. I set the trans into "sport" mode and do not use cruise control, expecting to accelerate on downhills and decelerate on uphills unless I push it to hold the speeds (which I have done and it does). Wind it the biggest issue with a main sail (4Runner) pulling a gennaker (trailer) unless the wind is in our favor.

I haul my stuff across the Interstates doing 55-65 depending on the grade up or down in the 70 MPH zones and that suits me and the 4Runner just fine. I could do it all at 75 MPH (I did test that on some stretches and the 4Runner pulls just fine) but I go slower and relax and save a bit on the MPGs.

The pedal feel is different than other vehicles, but the 4Runner is no slouch when it comes to hauling loads and no it doesn't compare to the hauling that my 1993 F250, ext cab, long box, 460ci could do but that's a different class altogether again.

My long-term dash calculated MPGs has gone from high 17s down to low 14s during this past month with all the hauling but I'm very happy with the price/performance of the 4Runner + trailer.

Correctly set your expectations for the vehicle you have (weight, gearing, tire size, HP, TQ, load, etc) and you may just find that your 4Runner is wonderful like I did.

YMMV, but I've been very pleased with this setup for hauling a crap-ton of household stuff.
My only beef is that in lieu of re-locating the OEM 4- and 7-pin trailer wiring location, I had to add a 12" 4-pin extender to the trailer wiring line due to the trailer wiring not being long enough for where Toyota put the OEM trailer sockets.

 

In terms of acceleration, I couldn't tell a lick of difference when I removed all the oem skid plates and had about 1/4 of a tank of gas vs. installing 200 lbs of steel skids with a full tank. That's a difference of 300 lbs. I was specifically looking for it, to see if it felt sluggish. It felt the same to me.

Personally I really like the oem throttle response. It makes it super easy to get it up on rhino ramps. If you need extra power, just step on the skinny pedal. It's there.

 

Yeah, you echoed my thoughts. MPG really drops in the winter with the 4Runner. I don't remember it affecting my old Jeep Liberty quite as much, but I only had the amount of money it took to fill it up, an eerily consistent amount of driving each week, and periods of relatively unchanged gas prices to gauge it by.