

Non-vented canopy windows were not installed on the Trekker until the 1982 model year. All 1981 Trekkers had vented canopy windows. Originally there were to be a SR5 and Deluxe version of the Trekker, one with vented windows and one without. All of the Trekkers were classified as SR5 by both Winnebago and Toyota, regardless of the actual VIN denotation. The Trekkers were all built on the short wheelbase Hilux chassis. The Trekker was produced from early 1981 through 1983. The Trekker was no longer viable when Toyota started producing the 4Runner in 1984, having in essence acted as a marketing test vehicle for that vehicle.

They were similar to the successive 4Runner conversions done by Toyota, which started production in 1984, but were designed and built by Winnebago Industries with the approval of Toyota. The Trekker was one of the first prototype walk through conversions done to Toyota trucks in the early 1980s. The 4Runner had 3.9 percent of vehicles over 200,000 miles (320,000 km), according to the study. The 4Runner came in at number five in a 2019 study by ranking the longest-lasting vehicles in the US. įor some markets, the Hilux Surf was replaced in 2005 by the similar Fortuner, which is based on the Hilux platform.Īs 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 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. The agency held contests to invent new vehicle names before the introduction of new Toyota models.

The name "4Runner" was created by a copywriter named Robert Nathan who was working for the advertising agency Saatchi & Saatchi. 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 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. In Japan, it is known as the Toyota Hilux Surf ( Japanese: トヨタ・ハイラックスサーフ, Hepburn: Toyota Hairakkususāfu) which was withdrawn from the market in 2009.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 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.
