As a person who’s had long and happy relationships with more than one Toyota 4Runner, I have been quite interested in the latest iteration which is pretty much new from the ground up. As fresh as it is, though, it reminds me more of my old ’97 than the previous generation as it seems to be going back to its serious off-road roots (and the form factor is quite familiar). My thought here as to why Toyota went this rugged route (although all 4Runners have always had a stout body-on-frame truck chassis) is the global nature of the new platform. This ute will likely be part of the Land Cruiser family in many markets around the world, and have some serious, manual transmission/diesel variants for work in very primitive applications. In the U.S. we get all the luxurious electronics and bells and whistles, including on the 4Runner Trail I tested some truly mind-boggling off-road electronic gadgets (that can ultimate let the beast handle power and braking during rock-crawling while you just steer). I challenged some really nasty snow and mud-covered farm trails, where the high ground clearance and excellent suspension articulation made easy work of the teflon soup I was sliding around in. Steering is super quick; superb off road but a bit too light for my tastes on the road. That said, where pavement rules the brakes are excellent, and I managed 19.4 MPG which ain’t bad for this badass boulder basher. The dogs loved it, but then again from the ample space with the rear seat folded and the power window in the hatchback they probably thought they were in my rusty ol’ thing. Oh, waterproof seats rock, BTW.