Coscienzios

Model years to avoid

Toyota 4Runner

What it says about you

Opinion

An old design, bought deliberately, by someone who wanted body-on-frame and accepted the fuel bill as the price. It will outlive you. That is not a joke.

Not measured, not from the data, and offered in fun. Everything below this is not.

22 model years on record, 2,117 complaints filed.

The years to look at closely: 2011 (takata recall), 2007 (melted), 2006 (frame), 2005 (frame). Everything else drew a normal number of complaints for this model.

What owners report, and when

Faults that dominated the complaints of more than one model year. Not the same question as which year to avoid — a car can have an ordinary number of complaints every year and have most of them be about the same thing.

  • takata 2010, 2011, 2012 peak 54.2% of that year's complaints
  • frame 2005, 2006 peak 50.7% of that year's complaints
  • rust 2005, 2006 peak 29.5% of that year's complaints
  • seat 2010, 2011, 2012 peak 18.8% of that year's complaints

Every year

  1. 2026 1 recall 7 complaints
  2. 2025 1 recall 54 complaints
  3. 2024 1 recall 8 complaints
  4. 2023 1 recall 30 complaints
  5. 2022 3 recalls 39 complaints
  6. 2021 1 recall 34 complaints
  7. 2020 1 recall 31 complaints
  8. 2019 4 recalls 64 complaints
  9. 2018 5 recalls 58 complaints
  10. 2017 5 recalls 36 complaints
  11. 2016 8 recalls 78 complaints
  12. 2015 9 recalls 85 complaints
  13. 2014 7 recalls 77 complaints
  14. 2013 6 recalls 36 complaints
  15. 2012 8 recalls 96 complaints
  16. 2011 takata recall 163 complaints
  17. 2010 12 recalls 145 complaints
  18. 2009 6 recalls 22 complaints
  19. 2008 5 recalls 96 complaints
  20. 2007 melted 154 complaints
  21. 2006 frame 380 complaints
  22. 2005 frame 424 complaints

What does a Toyota 4Runner say about you?

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Source: NHTSA complaints, recalls and investigations, retrieved . A year is flagged when it drew at least 2.5× this model's median and at least 50 complaints — compared against itself rather than against other cars, so popularity and age do not decide the answer.