Toyotas BEST Off-Road SUV Is… Toyota 4Runner TRD Pro vs. FJ Cruiser vs. Lexus GX Shootout

Want to see our ON-ROAD review? Check out this video:

So if you guys ever wondered what toyota is best off-road well today we’re going to go and answer that question because behind me are three toyotas and i’m driving the one in the middle okay it’s a lexus and it’s 72 000 but it’s the gx which has become the off-road darling of the lexus world but nathan what are you driving i am driving the best of all toyotas

That’s an suv and that’s because this is a 2021 toyota 4runner and it’s a trd pro and it costs 52 000 but it is amazing and it looks really cool too tommy what are you driving yes check it out the hipster 4runner our 2014 fj cruiser we paid 33 000 for this one it’s six years old but i think it’s better than the other two and in this video we’re gonna find

Out by taking them up the iron clad our off-road trail i’m interrupting this to the video for another two of the video if you’re wondering how good these three are on road join me over tfl car today where we’re doing an on-road review so we’re gonna take them up the iron clads that means razor rocks and of course truth or dare but nathan what order should we

Take them up i think we should go by price i love that that means tommy you got the cheapest so you get to go first great it is so cold modes and i’m in rock mode i am in 4-0 and i’ve got my suspension jacked up on its tippy-toes yeah but there’s a problem you still have 8.1 inches of ground clearance uh in the back so you need to be really careful there’s

A bigger problem than that and that is this is not my vehicle and it costs almost 72 000 how many people are going to take their 72 000 vehicle off-road the fj cruiser is decidedly old school not that the other two are modern marvels of engineering but anyway the fj cruiser has a solid rear axle it’s got a rear differential lock in this version i also have

An a tracker advanced off-road traction control and i have a low range which you activate via a good old chunky lever when it comes to tires i’ve got the cooper discoverer 80 tires and they should be pretty good out here now on paper the foreigner and the fj cruiser are pretty much the same vehicle however the fj cruiser is better because it’s just so much

More fun the exterior design is reminiscent of the fj40 the interior is super cool with this color matched interior panel and it’s got a shorter wheelbase so in theory it should be better up the steps let’s see all right i’m coming up to the steps now i have the uh fj cruiser in low range with a track with the off-road traction control engaged i don’t have

Multi-terrain select like you guys but let’s see what happens on the first of the steps come on come on little fj climb man it’s so capable you know i am admittedly a pretty big jeep fan but this fj cruiser has really brought me into the toyota world in a big way it’s just it’s so much fun it’s got so much character and it’s so capable come on all right there

Goes the traction control but that’s okay that’s what it’s there for all right so on the outside this is a trd so the forerunner is already built for being a proper truck and it can kind of off-road then you go to trd well so armor up front underneath locking rear diff i’m going to show you all the buttons in a second but it also has 17 inch wheels which by

The way look absolutely spectacular and they’re wrapped in nitto terra grabber rubber i think i said that right yeah so the point is is that it’s already got really aggressive rubber and it is it’s really aggressive rubber it has definitely a little bit more of um a proper lift as opposed to say on an overpriced lexus and then on top of that it has all the

Other components up boom here there is the a-track mode so you activate this and basically think of it as cruise control for off-roading and it works really really well and it kind of takes some of the fun out of it which is why i don’t use it but what you basically can do is turn the dial and make the vehicle go a certain speed off-road and even tells you low

Medium high and you know you’re able to select it so the vehicle on its own will accelerate up and over obstacles which is great and it’s something that the lexus can do however this is a proper 4×4 vehicle so it has a proper transfer case and it has a locking rear diff those are the two things i need the most he’s also able to select the different terrain

You’re able to go through here and select that and everything is fine it’s a great system the only unknown element here is snow snow is an issue the throttle can take care of snow now i’m in what has become the darling of the overlanding world of course the lexus gx think about it as a land cruiser for less and the land cruiser of course is going away so that

Means i’ve got all the off-road goodies that the other two vehicles have but there’s a problem but let me talk about the goodies first first of all i’ve got crawl control i have a high and low range and unlike the other two vehicles i also have air suspension which means i can jack this car up to give me more ground clearance but like i said there is a problem

And that is really really terrible approach departure angles for an off-roader and from the manufacturer all-season tires and both of those are really going to limit this vehicle’s ability off-road now i don’t know i can actually get over the steps with the low uh engine that how close am i getting i don’t know yet keep going nice and slow nice and slow stop

Stop oh no am i done already tommy yeah you’re stuck i’ve got it in the highest mode there’s nothing i can do i mean am i gonna really tear the spoiler off all right just go nice and slow i’ll tell ya you got a little bit of room keep going yeah it’s pretty pretty plasticky and crunchy okay well guys uh now there were two and i don’t want to calm down and say

Uh because well i was being reckless so um i think this is actually the real world demonstration of what ends up happening uh when you take you know what is basically a luxury suv up a very difficult trail oh what a bummer okay well you can hop in with me in the fj dead so one cool kind of tidbit about all three of these vehicles they are related in one way or

Another to the legendary toyota land cruiser prado but underneath the hood they have pretty much the same engine so the toyota fj cruiser has a 4 liter v6 with 260 horsepower the 4runner has a 4 liter v6 with 270 horsepower the lexus well it’s got a v8 but it only makes around 300 horsepower so a little bit more powerful but uh you know not exactly massive

Power numbers out of a 4.6 so these are the razor rocks we’ve got this big ravine with the tree on the left and these jagged rocks that we have to climb up it’s going to be a good test of approach angle departure angle breakover angle traction aids like diff locks and uh this driver’s skill let’s see what happens the fj hopefully i don’t damage this vehicle

Because it’s still 33 grand and fj cruisers just don’t depreciate here in colorado they’re perpetually worth like at least 20 grand always it seems like so let me go into low range we’re going to lock the rear diff this time not that i don’t think a track could do this obstacle but honestly i just want that added control that the rear diff lock will provide so

See how the articulation is on the fj cruiser probably going to lift the front tire just a little bit or a lot of it tommy’s slipping a little bit tommy’s slipping a lot more okay the traction process we just kicked in there i’m gonna have to take this super easy left foot breaking it i don’t wanna secure this thing on the tree good god almighty what in the

Hell you almost got that rear wheel on tommy there you go you got it now you got it now that locking dip can work this is a serious obstacle especially when there’s a little bit of snow on the ground see how the outer body protection is just gonna go nice and easy super easy gee whiz okay so the combination of the a track system and the rear deflocment i

Was able to get up that but that was um much harder than i was expecting that snow makes that obstacle just so gnarly very nice driving nathan that was awesome it makes my day all right dare i say it nathan uh the uh forerunner did better than the fj no i wouldn’t dare to say that normally short wheelbase pays off but i think going over something like that

I straddled it a little bit better you know i’m glad i didn’t bring alexis up here uh i just hate breaking stuff well i know why you didn’t give it to me because you know i would have broken it you know that forward kind of suits your personality dude this thing is kind of a beast you know it really really is this is until the bronco comes out one of the best

Vehicles in its class that has four doors ladies and gentlemen in my best tv announcer voice me truth or dare yep they’re two different paths and in the summer truth is a little bit easier than dare but in the winter truth gets icier thus it makes it harder so for the hill climb i’m going to engage a track rear diff unlocked because sometimes it makes you

Slide into stuff compared to the foreigner the fj cruiser is a little bit handicapped by its clamshell rear doors it’s also handicapped by its lack of visibility it’s kind of like driving as if a gnome were stuck in a mailbox you just got really squinty narrow windows it looks cool from the outside but on the inside uh forward visibility and rearward visibility

And sideways visibility is somewhat compromised but that doesn’t really matter because it just looks so cool well actually it doesn’t matter a lot especially when you’re trying to maneuver in parking situations all right i’m going up the harder side see how the fj cruiser handles it these cooper discoverer tires are doing really really well actually tons of

Grip yeah there’s no issue this vehicle is such a beast i just love this thing and it’s so well made i mean there’s a reason they hold their values so well i mean yes frame rest is a big issue but apart from the frame rest there’s not much to go wrong with this thing okay so i’m gonna head right head on right dude apparently not that hard so it’s right there

Yeah i don’t recommend going off-roading snow for beginners you really need to know your vehicle and understand how it slides and you never know what’s underneath the snow there’s so many i mean these little things on the left they’re adorable these tires are pretty good but they are losing traction as well tommy’s been losing a lot of traction all right the fj

And the 400 made it look too easy but they’re pretty serious off-roaders so boys for your money which would you get 4 runner 4 runner no doubt or runner no you got to go fj cruiser it looks cooler it’s shorter it’s more trendy that’s the one for me tommy has issues look i love the lexus but for 72k you can forget both of these potentially especially if that’s

Not a 2014 so i’ll take anything right now that actually keeps me warm guys thanks for watching and check out tfl offroad for more news views and what boys offroad reviews real world and honest independent and honest reviews we say it on every video people i know so you

Transcribed from video
Toyota's BEST Off-Road SUV Is… Toyota 4Runner TRD Pro vs. FJ Cruiser vs. Lexus GX Shootout! By TFLoffroad