Help deciding trim...

[duke]

Hey guys. Currently in the market for a new 6th gen. Test drove an SR5 recently and was shocked by how well it drove. Felt very punchy and athletic with nice steering. Great size, ample cargo room (non-hybrid), surprisingly comfortable seats, sliding rear window, off-road capability, decent mpg and good resale. Switching over from driving mainly full size trucks so the size difference will be a nice change.

Now for my conundrum. I'm back and forth on what trim to get. I've basically narrowed it down to either an SR5 or an ORP/Sport Premium. As far as my use case, I doubt I will do serious off roading. I’m too deep in the city and might make it out to a trail once a year or so. Mainly I drive around town and occasional road trips.

I went ahead and reserved an inbound SR5 4X4 for now. With the SR5, I am getting about 8% off. If I were to get a similar discount on an Off Road Premium, it’s still at least an extra $10k that I have to cough up. Same with a Sport Premium. I can still switch and get a different one- that's what I am trying to figure out if I should do or not.

Would love to hear from owners what made them decide on their trim and if they have any regrets/advice. Has anyone gotten the SR5 and then felt they should've spent the extra $? My main gripes would be lack of power seats, no heated seats, no homelink, and having cloth. It's been a long time since I haven't had those features but I can't get excited about the idea of spending an extra $10k+ for them whether it be limited, ORP, Sport prem, etc. Seems like an SR5 Premium would’ve have been the sweet spot for a lot of folks…

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[Nodak]

it will really come down to the creature comforts since you are 80/20 city/off road.

look at the differences you can live without and those you want in the luxury / Quality of Life / Creature comforts.

here is a link to compare the SR5 vs the TRD Sport vs the TRD Sport Prem

i didnt include the Off Road series as your mostly city

https://www.toyota.com/4runner/features/mpg_other_price/8642/8671/8673

 

[rallytime]

My main gripes would be lack of power seats, no heated seats, no homelink, and having cloth.

I love my SR5!! So far the only thing I will be missing is heated seats. I live in Vermont and it’s COLD those early mornings taking kids to school.

I’ve always had cloth seats so that’s not something I’ve been missing.

I thought I would miss the power seats but turns out I really like the manual throwback. Way faster to adjust when switching between drivers.

I had home link in my last car but never bothered to set it up… :-/

I’m not sure what the other trims come with but I love the manual heating controls in the SR5. That is the one thing I’ve hated about all of our recent cars with big screens. Takes forever to get to the heating/AC settings.

So I might not be the best person to say “I can totally live without those now” for every feature you mentioned, but the price tag for a higher trim for heated seats definitely wasn’t worth it to me. I’m having fun changing some of the things that I found lacking in the stock SR5 (mainly tires…). I can say that I’m super happy with my choice.

Maybe that helps!

 

[JackedAcctnt]

Had the same dilemma as you. I ended up choosing the SR5 and don't have any regrets. The SR5 is great value

 

[charliemanse]

I too went with the SR5 cause of the value and the price increases of the other trims from last year. Here’s a quick comparison:

 

[duke]

That's actually a great chart. Even the LC comparison as well. Another thing that always pops into my head, with some trims spending close to $60k, you could just get an LC. Or hey, at that point get a base GX for only a few thousand more!

I really didn't realize the SR5 had such a small price increase compared to the outgoing model. It is definitely annoying that they made the price gap so big between trims on the 6th gen.

 

[duke]

I love my SR5!! So far the only thing I will be missing is heated seats. I live in Vermont and it’s COLD those early mornings taking kids to school.

That's great to hear. I am in the south so I really shouldn't be complaining about heated seats, I'll use them a few days out of the year.

As for the cloth, it felt really high quality on the SR5. And I went with black fabric to mitigate mishaps with spills and staining. I will also say that I think the SR5 cloth feels higher quality than the TRD cloth. More comfortable/plush too.

 

[HVLA]

I got the Hybrid Offroad Premium because the interior was much nicer, engine much more powerful, and even though my wife says it will never go offroad it will be.

 

[Dr_Al]

Back when I was younger I did serious off-roading. It taught me things, like how to set up a ring an pinion on a Toyota axle, that I probably will never use. I even put a super charger on a 22R engine. There's no way I would do any serious off-roading in a modern vehicle. So that's off the table as far as my decision on which trim goes.

So it really comes down to the options I will use. For example, a rear locker, is a must. A snow fall of over a foot isn't out of the question so getting up my driveway can get tricky after a long day at work. That makes the added clearance of the Pro get moved to the top of my list. I could upgrade a lower trim to match it but I'm not sure if I would save money.

There's other options that I don't need but would like. The PVM or Multiview cameras comes to mind. It's not often that I would need it but I have had enough times in the past where having it would have been nice. Even the air compressor would be nice. It's not that unusual to lose a bit of air in the tires when the temps drop in the fall. Usually it's years down the road when the rim of the wheels start to get age on them. Firing up my 10hp compressor to top off a tire seems like overkill.

OTOH hand most Pros I've seen have the roof rack that I will not pay for. If a dealer wants to remove it and sell it on another 4Runner I'm ok with that. But I'm not going to leave it on and I don't want to have another large useless item sitting in the back of my garage.

It really comes down to budget vs desires. List everything you want, everything you would like, and then your budget. Now start crossing off what you don't need to see if you can come in under your budget. You may need to cross off a few wants because they will blow your budget.

 

[danimaldaisy]

Hey guys. Currently in the market for a new 6th gen. Test drove an SR5 recently and was shocked by how well it drove. Felt very punchy and athletic with nice steering. Great size, ample cargo room (non-hybrid), surprisingly comfortable seats, sliding rear window, off-road capability, decent mpg and good resale. Switching over from driving mainly full size trucks so the size difference will be a nice change.

Now for my conundrum. I'm back and forth on what trim to get. I've basically narrowed it down to either an SR5 or an ORP/Sport Premium. As far as my use case, I doubt I will do serious off roading. I’m too deep in the city and might make it out to a trail once a year or so. Mainly I drive around town and occasional road trips.

I went ahead and reserved an inbound SR5 4X4 for now. With the SR5, I am getting about 8% off. If I were to get a similar discount on an Off Road Premium, it’s still at least an extra $10k that I have to cough up. Same with a Sport Premium. I can still switch and get a different one- that's what I am trying to figure out if I should do or not.

Would love to hear from owners what made them decide on their trim and if they have any regrets/advice. Has anyone gotten the SR5 and then felt they should've spent the extra $? My main gripes would be lack of power seats, no heated seats, no homelink, and having cloth. It's been a long time since I haven't had those features but I can't get excited about the idea of spending an extra $10k+ for them whether it be limited, ORP, Sport prem, etc. Seems like an SR5 Premium would’ve have been the sweet spot for a lot of folks…

My first 4Runner was a 2017 sr5 4x4
My second 4Runner was a 2021 trd off road. I never had to use the rear locker or the terrain modes.

I now own a 2025 trd sport which supposedly is a premium sr5. Both my previous 4Runners were premium models. I plan on swapping out the wheels, tires, and suspension. I don’t want spacers so I’ll wait.

I would get the sr5 4x4. You get the third row by default. No other trim has it except I think the platinum.

If you do decide to do anything to it I’d just swap out the tires when you are ready for the inexpensive and readily available 285/70/17 tires on the stock wheels. Most people don’t want to mess with the ride quality and go with spacers. You can accomplish the same thing with bilstein 5100 using the spring perch lift in the front and a lift spacer in the rear. People will tell you till the cows come home that lifting with bilstein makes the ride stiffer. It’s a lie. I had my 2017 at 2.5/1.5 and my 2021 at 3/2. I’m living proof the ride won’t be stiffer.


Just be careful going off road with the stock tires. They are street tires and not off road tires. Lastly if you decide to go off road remove the lower air dam or it will get ripped off lol.

Enjoy it stock and decide what you want later. There is nothing like rushing into mods realizing you made a bad choice and have to do it again.

Example. Swapping out the suspension 6 times in my 350z only to find out stock performed best. Exactly why I’m not touching the suspension on my gr86.

 

[Mad Ghost]

I went with the the Off Road Premium, for me I wanted the softtex cooled seats, larger screens, power lift gate. Now I think the SR5 isn't going to age well with the small screen. Some height-challenged owners, smaller women or kids will struggle to close the manual hatch.

 

[get.outside.75]

I plan to retire in 9 years and this is the car I plan to drive well into retirement (I work from home so won't be putting a lot of miles on it). I live the city now but will 100% not be in retirement. I have 4 dogs currently so the space is a "need" not a want (honestly need Tahoe space lol). So I invested in the comforts of the Limited Hybrid for now, with the plan that this will be my retirement vehicle that I can take anywhere out west in 10yrs from now. It will transition away from a pavement princess as it and I age. We love going off-road (usually in proper 4x4 rentals when out west) and can't wait to do it more. Last week we were off-roading in Iceland in our 4x4 campervan and it was awesome (like 20 river crossing on one road).

We considered the LC and GX but we were paying cash and couldn't justify the extra $9-16k at the time and hated the idea of premium gas in the LC for the same damn specs.

 

[duke]

I have 4 dogs currently so the space is a "need" not a want (honestly need Tahoe space lol). So I invested in the comforts of the Limited Hybrid

We have dogs as well. This is part of the reason we are shying away from the hybrid because of the higher load floor (harder to get dogs in and out). Curious if this has been an issue at all?

With the additional $2k bonus cash on Off Road Hybrids for southeast (non-premium) it's a bit tempting.

 

[get.outside.75]

We have dogs as well. This is part of the reason we are shying away from the hybrid because of the higher load floor (harder to get dogs in and out). Curious if this has been an issue at all?

With the additional $2k bonus cash on Off Road Hybrids for southeast (non-premium) it's a bit tempting.

We got a hitch step and that works perfect for our 10+ old. My weimaraners hop up with zero issues. https://a.co/d/3UgtJEF

we easily fit three 75lb dogs in the back

 

[duke]

Ok guys, if I wasn't already indecisive enough. Now things are worse...

So today I figured I would at least drive the hybrid model just to do my due diligence. I'm glad I did. I've seen some people say it's a huge difference over the gas only model. For me it definitely felt like it had more punch, but only if I really laid into it. Normal driving the power increase was not very noticeable. A big difference too with gas SR5 and hybrid off road- the SR5 feels lighter on its feet and softer on bumps. You do feel the weight difference with the hybrid and it is a more solid feel. Some will appreciate this, others might prefer the lighter, more car like experience.

Now here's where it gets tricky for me. I'm getting around 8% off my SR5 4x4. But, this dealer has a few off road hybrids that they want to move. Including the $2k bonus cash they are at over 13% off TSRP. And these are not units with a bunch of dealer added accessories. They're basically base $55k off road hybrids.

So with that being said, for an extra $5k I can get an Off Road Hybrid instead of my SR5 4X4 ($9k difference in TSRP between the two).

Is that a no brainer? Is $5k more worth the hybrid powertrain, off road suspension, 18" wheels, heated steering and seats, parking sensors, and locking diff? For context I rarely off road and live in the city.

Now I do like the hybrid but the cargo area issue is annoying. How annoying? I don't know. I can see it maybe being an issue on road trips or if we need to throw a dog crate in the back. The only benefit is a more even load floor with seats folded down and the little cargo cubbies might be handy for small items.

So, what do you guys think? Am I an idiot if I don't take the deal and cough up the extra $5k for the hybrid off road and all that it offers? Or should I just stick to my original plan, go with the SR5 and save the money..

Thank you guys!

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